Back when we were starting up a local company called "Mastech" (today, this is IGate Corporation), we knew that we were on to something pretty powerful. We knew that our idea was solid and reasonable, and that so long as we kept on selling and marketing effectively, the entity would grow.

I remember thinking, "This thing is gonna be BIG. And, it is going to have A LOT of 'moving parts' … we had darn well better get the infrastructure right."

We did a decent job of this … nothing like what we did in two subsequent companies, but certainly we didn't choke on our own sales.

But there were times …

Three companies later, we had perfected the "art of infrastructure" (at least I thought this to be the case) when I started up JDWarren, Inc. (JDW), a company that was sold to a NYSE company for straight cash in August of 1999. THAT company's foundation was so solid that it could support an entire army of customers. In fact, we resisted the urge to sell "customer number two" for the better part of two years. We just didn't think that we were ready for a full-scale sales campaign.

And, ultimately, this concept of "deferred gratification" all paid off handsomely!

For while "the internals" of Mastech were built while the engine was already running, JDW had the "rich kid" advantage of being built in advance of the coming sales fury. And what an advantage that was.

But no matter how or when you build your infrastructure, it still must be built. And the stronger and more robust that infrastructure is, the better.

So What IS Infrastructure, Anyway?

When we refer to a company's foundational Infrastructure, we are referring to all of the components necessary to support the sales activities of that company. This starts with the order entry systems, and continues on throughout product development and shipping.

As such, it includes accounting, manufacturing/ process management, information systems (commonly known as "IT"), and staffing. Essentially, the foundation of any good business includes everything that business needs to make, ship, and support its products and services.

So Why is it so Important?

That's simple. Without a solid and wide foundation, your ability to support your selling efforts will be many, MANY times more difficult than necessary. In many cases, it will be downright impossible.

This is when you begin to experience what I call the "all hands on deck" syndrome. You know it, and we've all seen it … the big boss calls a "crisis" meeting of ALL of his or her key managers and says something like this, "Men, we have reached a crossroads. Either we get the Peterson order fulfilled or we may as well throw in the towel. And I for one am not ready to quit on this company!"

This is then followed by some rah-rah's, and followed again by primordial grunting (by the men only), and a "Mel-Gibson-in-Braveheart" sort of team camaraderie that signifies total commitment to the task at hand.

What's wrong with this, you say? Well, for starters, "Who's watching the store?" Who is taking care of the Wilson order? And the Smith and Jones orders? And on and on.

And, what message are you sending to everyone else in your business? That's right, "chaos rules" --- like the federal government, we'll just "throw money at" the problem. Except in our case, that money is actually people.

Remember, the "machinery" that is your day-to-day business needs to be strong, but silent. And in a well-run organization, it should not matter what level of business you add-on to the beginning of the "dip-it-and-ship-it" process … you know that you have the machinery in place, simply awaiting the next piece of "food" to be digested.

And While We're Talking About Process

Everything in life is a process. There is a process associated with how you get out of your house each morning, en route to your place of employment. Driving your car is a process. So is swimming. And playing golf.

And your business is made of many processes. There is a process for order entry. And bookkeeping. And research. And so on.

It is these processes that enable you to manage your business. Typically, company CEOs will designate key individuals to run certain processes. We call these processes "departments" … but really, they are just processes.

Processes themselves are made up of activities. And activities are the cellular-level components of a process. For purposes of this discussion, you could easily make the case that activities are "steps" in the overall process.

Once we design a process (this almost always means "flowchart" a process), we must then begin the (well, I knew this would happen!) process of making that process efficient. In other words, we must identify the value-added activities, and separate them from their less-desirous cousins, the non-value-added activities.

What is a value-added activity? Well, it is anything that contributes to the efficient and necessary completion of that overall process. "Painting" would be a typical value-added step in the process of making a car, while "expediting" (also known as "chasing screw-ups") is most definitely NOT a value-added activity.

Anything that "burns time" while not "advancing the ball" is considered a non-value added step in you process and thus must be weeded out.

So How do I Make my Company Efficient?

Studies have shown that most companies end up either raising their sales prices (in failed efforts to cover up inefficient processes) or reducing key product components (which in turn render their products / services that much less attractive to a buyer) whenever their costs begin to exceed their revenues.

Nothing wrong with this … Hell, this is the way of capitalism.

But when you have an efficient and well-run company --- when you have a company that is "stress-tested" to handle an annual order-load in the hundreds of millions instead of just the ten of thousands, the advantages of having smooth and hungry workflow embedded into every sector of your business stand out like virtual neon signs.

How do you get to this point? How do you create an efficient company with an efficient infrastructure capable of high-volume processing without errors?

Same way a musician gets to Carnegie Hall. Through hard work. But even so, here is a summary formula that you might consider:

Define and quantify your output objectives.

Map the processes it will require to satisfy those objectives.

Then, map your current processes and sub-processes.

Next, trim your "real" organization's processes and sub-processes until they look like the desired result.

Then, begin to find ways to eliminate nonvalue-added activities from the desired processes, all the while reducing costs while maintaining or improving customer services. (BTW, all the while, never stop asking "why?" whenever you find even the tiniest activity that shouldn't belong.)

Lastly, put in place a senior-level oversight group, whose job it is to repeat these steps every six to twelve months.

Now, go do it!