Small changes can make a big difference over time. It was Darren Hardy in his New York Times best seller, The Compound Effect who said: “The accomplishment of any goal is the progressive accumulation, or Compound Effect, of small steps taken consistently over time.” It’s all about reaching big goals, one small step at a time.
Hardy’s formula is: Choices + Behaviour + Habits + Time = Compound Effect.
The key is constant assessment and evaluation of the business situation to make the right choices and then setting and making progress towards actionable objectives. It may not always be about achieving a particular goal but making clear directional progress towards it, including identifying all of the small yet important steps to reach a desired outcome.
The idea is based on the Butterfly Effect. This is the notion associated with mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz who, in his research, looked at how something as substantial as a tornado can be influenced by a very small change in initial conditions to create a significantly different outcome: such as a butterfly flapping its wings several weeks earlier.
When it comes to managing a franchise, becoming proficient in every area of the operational execution can dramatically affect profitability over time. At Papa John’s, we use a score card to help franchisees make minor improvements and reward consistent effort in these areas. This is to create focus as conversely, unintended or negative small changes can also have an impact or less desirable ripple effect over time too.
We want to instigate positive change, so the score card includes a range of measurements on core competencies such as: customer service including delivery times, transactional growth, store audits for product quality, adherence to our brand standards, plus people measures which include training for example. Benchmarking helps franchisees evaluate where they are in relation to each element and clarify what action needs to be taken.
We know our top performing franchisees are those who excel on all areas of the scorecard. Therefore, we encourage effort and competition in this area, we recently awarded our franchisee demonstrating the best overall scorecard results with a cash prize at our annual (virtual) conference.
So often in business or in any areas of our lives, we think we need to make dramatic changes quickly, which results in us not being able to sustain the results. Alternatively, we should focus on making small tweaks which executed over time result in long-term sustainable results. In other words: ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater’ – as significant changes which are not properly thought through can dispense with the best elements of business at the same time as the bad. Instead, consider how consistent small improvements which build over time, can help make a radical difference due to the Compound Effect.
In the words of Darren Hardy: “In reality, there is no magic bullet, no magic pill and no secret. Long-term consistency is what matters.”
And many years before him, it was Confucius who said: “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
For more information about Papa John’s multi-unit franchise opportunities please see: www.papajohns.co.uk/franchise
