MPlus-high-fives ManagerPlus employees high-fiving each other at the 2014 Annual Award Luncheon

In this week’s blog, ManagerPlus Marketing Assistant Nimo Abdulle examines some of our company’s guiding precepts and encourages other companies to seek ways to adopt them.

How focus + intent led ManagerPlus to unity + success

ManagerPlus had a phenomenal year of growth and development in 2014. We celebrated the year’s achievements during the company’s Annual Award Luncheon and with almost 50+ employees in attendance it was easy to forget ManagerPlus’ small beginnings in 1992.  Over the past 22 years, M+ has grown into one of the top leading CMMS software providers, servicing over 10,000 businesses located all over the globe. So the natural questions then are: how has this come to be and how can you replicate this in your own organization?

Identify Your Focus

The first-century Roman Philosopher, Seneca, once related this poignant piece of advice to a friend who had trouble getting centered in his studies, “To be everywhere is to be nowhere,” he said. What Seneca was relaying was that it’s simply better to extend focus and efforts in one area instead of being all over the map and losing perspective altogether. A more common expression is the reference to someone being a “Jack of all trades, but master of none.”

In today’s day and age we see plenty of businesses that are unwilling or incapable in identifying their core message or goals. They diversify their services so much in an attempt to cater to a wide range of palates yet wind up inadequately servicing them all. This is where the issue lies: quality suffers when organizations try to diversify prematurely. There’s nothing wrong with diversification, in fact it’s a pretty good indicator of a company’s growth (look at Google); however, it carries great risk for businesses that have not adequately developed their core product or service.

Since 1992 M+ had the singular focus of creating the very best asset maintenance management software on the market. We have been relentless in this pursuit for 22 years now and this consistency has clearly paid off as we enjoy a satisfied customer base due to a reliable product.

Now, what ensures the continued improvement and relevance of our product? It’s due to our intent.

What Is Your Intent?

At ManagerPlus we realized it was one thing to build CMMS software, but what would have our software stand apart? That’s where the power of intent comes into play. Our intent, every day, is to provide a maintenance management solution that is both simple and powerful to our customer base.  This intent is what drives us to continue to improve our product. We listen carefully to our customers, take notes, and then go back to the drawing board to continue developing our software so it always remains impactful on how our clients do business without sacrificing its simplicity in use. Clearly defined intent gives a business obvious benchmarks to measure their success and effectiveness. Finally, intent may also serve as the grounding factor when business demands get so hectic and perspective seems to have been lost.

The End Goal: Unity and Success

Like all other businesses and organizations, ManagerPlus’ growth has been driven by its employees. There is a genuine desire among our employees to keep the company healthy and thriving.

This is what sets high performing companies apart from the average performers; employees are engaged and invested in delivering the best services and products, and gain great personal satisfaction from doing so.

Why do some companies achieve this and others do not? This brings us back to our first point, the need for focus and consistency in what a business wants to deliver. It’s impossible to gain the support of one’s employees without having these clear messages and goals in place.

Once you have successfully identified what your focus and intent are, it will become significantly easier to share your vision for growth and progress and have these become idealized goals for all.

Finally, the unity and focus we enjoy here at ManagerPlus would be impossible without the practice of transparency. From very early on we’ve subscribed to a culture of transparency in our operations. One of the descriptions listed for transparency in the Webster-Merriam dictionary is: a condition characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices. Seriously ask yourself how “open-door” the open-door policy at your company is—is it conditional, does it encourage even the least outspoken of your employees to ask questions and express concern about how business is doing? These are important questions to ask in the process of building trust and a sense of community within your workplace.

Identify what you value and want to focus on, clarify your intent, and watch how these principles permeate your organization and lead to unity and success.

About the author

ManagerPlus

ManagerPlus is the preferred solution across the most asset-intensive industries, including Fortune 500 companies, to improve reliability and minimize downtime.
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