Introduction to the Wardell Program
Welcome to the Wardell business system. You have just made a decision that will change the course of your life and your business forever. Together, we are going to grow your business into a highly profitable, continuously improving, self-sustaining operation. It is going to be an exciting journey, and we sincerely appreciate the opportunity to help you get where you want to go.
The Wardell Value Pyramid System
A business comes to life from the ideas and imagination of an individual, or a group of individuals. So naturally, at its inception, a business is like a young child that is dependent on its parents for absolutely everything. This can be described as an Owner-Driven Business, and it represents the lowest level of the four business maturity stages because all of the goodwill of the business, that is all of the intangible value over and above the value of the assets, is tied directly to its owner. If you were to remove the owner from the business, it would have no value in and of itself, because the business is unsustainable. It's ironic the owner, who is the only reason the company exists in the first place, becomes the biggest limiting factor for growth in the business.
As a business grows and matures, it takes on key people who fill major roles and become part of the driving force of the business. This type of business is known as a People-Driven Business. In the Value Pyramid pictured above, it is assessed a higher value than an Owner-Driven Business because it's not dependent on one person, yet the goodwill of the business is still tied up in a few key people. It only takes one of these key people to leave, and the business can regress to being completely owner dependent. People-Driven Businesses are also exposed to a certain amount of risk. For example, if a key salesperson leaves, he may take his customer relationships with him, or at least give customers a reason to start looking around for other suppliers.
A higher value business model is the System-Driven model, wherein operating systems and metrics allow key people, even the business owner, to step away from this type of business while it continues to function successfully. A System-Driven Business is positioned to grow or sell, and is more attractive to investors because it can run on its own.
At the top of the value pyramid is the Culture-Driven Business. A Culture-Driven Business has a strong team of people dedicated to continuous improvement. Not only are there systems in place, but employees have the independent right to continuously improve those systems. At the end of each day, the business is in some way better than it was at the beginning of the day.
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The Three Basic Components of the Wardell System
The Wardell Program
The first of these six books, which you are reading now, covers the topic of Leadership. The following five books cover Management, Marketing, Finance, Operations, and Sales. The books are purposely structured to develop the core and foundation of your business first and then build the rest on top. Your Wardell Advisor will guide you through these books and the exercises within. As you move through each manual, you will fortify that area of your business and prepare it for the next. The books combine the depth of a first-class business education with a format that is easy to read and understand.
Harold (Coming Soon)
Harold is a collaborative online platform that gives you access to our extensive proprietary collection of analysis tools, sample systems, policies and procedures. It allows you to work with your Wardell Advisor, giving you access to structured Wardell resources so together you and your Advisor can walk through analysis and strategy development. Moreover, Harold allows you to quickly and easily build department and employee manuals from your individual systems and documents. It's a foundational business platform that allows you to assign and track tasks, projects, and performance for your employees and your business as a whole.
Your Wardell Advisor
Your Advisor is the glue that brings the entire system together. You can think of your Advisor as an experienced silent partner that comes at a fraction of the price. All Wardell Advisors have vast, proven business experience. They are accomplished professionals that have either owned a business or held top management positions.
Behind your Wardell Advisor are two elements: Wardell’s R&D and support staff and the Wardell Knowledge Base.
Wardell’s in-house R&D and support staff back up the Wardell Advisors by creating customer-centric business solutions, providing technical support, and sharing best practice business experience. R&D and support staff are always available to create custom client solutions, and are continuously improving the Wardell Knowledge Base.
The Wardell Knowledge Base is our proprietary resource base that gives Wardell Advisors access to an extensive selection of business best practices in strategically important areas, such as IT capabilities, performance indicators and corporate culture development. This allows our Advisors to seamlessly find and use tactics and elements those that are best suited to your specific needs.
These three key components of the Wardell system act in concert with the unifying goal to help your business climb the Value Pyramid. Along the way, there are many systems and documents to complete. Stay focused on the climb up the Value Pyramid with the understanding that each of these systems and documents is another step in your journey to the top. The goal of the Wardell Program is to get you to the top of the pyramid, it is not just to have you writing documents and systems.
Getting Organized
Throughout this program, we'll be helping you to create systemized, repeatable ways of doing continuing tasks you and your employees do every day. Much of the work you’ll be doing along with your Wardell Business Advisor will be captured in a document or spreadsheet. Each time we create foundational documents for your business, we'll stop and add them to appropriate Business Systems folders. These support documents will be organized and accessible, and keep your systems dynamic and powerful.
Your Business Systems
When you bought your car, it came with an owner's manual that showed you how it works and how to take care of it. Unfortunately, your business didn't come with a manual. You had to figure it out on your own. But what if you did have such a manual? What would a tried and true manual that explained exactly how and why your business works be worth to a prospective buyer? A lot. How about your managers? Wouldn’t it be helpful if they had a reference that contained answers to their business questions? Of course. And what about you? If you would ever like to take a vacation with the assurance that your business will carry on without you, you need a business manual.
Would it be helpful if you had such a guide? Absolutely.
One of this program's is the development of organized systems that function the same way as your car's owner's manual does. Throughout the Wardell Program, we will be building your Business Systems. This may be something that you have already started, or it may be a new concept to you. The purpose is to give your business a set of documents that will allow it to run successfully with or without you. It is the instruction manual to your business.
Sharing Your Files
After you create and file a document, form, tool, or system, you'll want to make sure that everyone who can make use of it has easy and direct access.
The most common way to share your business files with others is through their manuals.
Your Department Manuals
Department Manuals go a long way toward making it possible for you to step aside and let your people do their jobs. Your Department Manuals are specific to each of the functional departments within your company. Not only will they become an important resource for your employees, they will become the foundation of your orientation and training programs as well.
Your Employee Manuals
Do you really need an Employee Manual? Yes! Every member of your organization needs to know what's expected of them.
Just like your Department Manuals, Employee Manuals also make it possible for you to step aside and let your people do their jobs. Your Employee Manuals are specific to each employee's position within your company. Not only will they become an important resource for your employees, they will also become the foundation of your orientation and training programs .
The goal of the Wardell Program is to transform your business from wherever it is on the Value Pyramid, into a strong, healthy, self-sufficient, Culture-Driven Business.