Highlights
- Apple, Netflix, Google, and Dell are 40% more productive than the average company
- The key to successfully running your team is to remove all obstacles to productivity
- Productivity results in significantly higher profits, faster growth and higher operating margins.
What do Apple, Netflix, Google, and Dell have in common? These powerhouses are 40% more productive than the average company, according to Bain & Company.
Efficiency is about doing the same with less, while productivity is about doing more with the same. Adopting a productivity mindset can be challenging, but the payoff is enormous, says Michael Mankins, a partner at Bain & Company and co-author of Time, Talent, Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag and Unleash Your Team’s Productive Power.
The big idea: Be smart about what you work on
Constant analysis of daily activity is how Pandora’s founder, Tim Westergren, stays productive everyday. “These are hard choices, but I do believe that when it comes to productivity, no email efficiency technique, calendaring trick, or special filing system will have near the impact of being smart about what you work on,” he says.
In essence, being efficient requires finding wastage and eliminating it, while productivity is increasing output per unit of input with the same. The key to successfully running your team is to remove all obstacles to productivity. In other words, help them to get more done with the same resources and in the same amount of time.
What’s in it for you: Bottom-line gains
“Our research suggests that the best companies are 40% more productive than the rest. This difference in productivity results in significantly higher profits and faster growth and operating margins that are 30% to 50% higher than industry peers,” says Mankins.
“When employees realise the value that can be gained through effective time management, they feel less burdened by their workloads and are able to maximise their daily productivity.”
Make it happen
3 Effective ways you can boost your team’s output
- Create a fixed time budget and try to reduce it. Increasing daily productivity isn’t just monitoring the time-wasting activities in your business but ensuring that your team is efficient and effective in using their time
- Aim to provide immediate feedback. This will help you discover the factors that impact the greatest on productivity and set targets for improvement
- Run meetings proficiently. Encourage and develop collaboration to reach clear decisions faster.