Definition:  The Main Thing

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

That statement rings true in so many parts of life, and yet the goal is often difficult to accomplish.  So too, in small businesses the main thing that all leaders should be pursuing is frequently overlooked:

Using people in accountable ways to generate throughput dollars.

An accountable employee is a person willing to accept the consequences of his or her actions.  Accountability is a system that business leaders utilize to offer both positive and negative consequences to shape employee behavior.

How should employee behavior be shaped?  Towards generating more and more throughput dollars faster and faster!

Throughput is the dollars left over after a business pays the out-of-pocket expenses that arise from delivering a product or service.  For a concrete contractor, those expenses are the cost of the concrete.  For a manufacturer, it is the cost of raw materials.  Throughput is the dollars left over after paying for those variable out-of-pocket expenses.  Throughput is the most important financial factor, for many reasons:

-Employees can easily visualize the throughput they create

-When a factor in your business slows or stops throughput, everyone knows

-Measuring throughput is usually easy

Holding leaders accountable for delivering more and more throughput, faster and faster,

should be the aim of top management in all types of business.  That's The Main Thing.