Streamlining operations can be a complicated task, and lots of things can go wrong. It might be tempting to try and get from point A to point B in a hurry, but it’s critical to ensure that you don’t cut corners.
Why though?
Simply put, cutting corners might yield faster results in the short run, but can cause significant problems in the long run. For example, let’s say that your journal sees an increase in submissions on month. As such, you decide that you need to assume that this growth will continue and hire a dozen employees. After a few months, you start to notice that the publication increase was not sustained and now you have too many employees. While this example is not specifically about streamlining, it shows what happens with rash decisions. What about in the context of streamlining operations? Well, many similar things can happen. Cutting corners is often indication that not enough planning has gone into something.
How to avoid cutting corners
There’s an old adage that says that “those who fail to plan plan to fail”. There is truth in this. Businesses are complicated, and if you don’t plan in advance for different scenarios, you can wind up unprepared for different situations.
How can you determine where you need improvement before you run into that particular wall? Well, one of the first things that a lot of companies consider is the way in which tools can help them to improve workflows. For example, while small companies often handle tracking, emailing, and other tasks on a case-by-case and manual level, automation might be necessary as your company grows. As a journal publisher, you might want to know what the associated hidden costs of running a journal actually look like. Knowing this information can help you to avoid issues down the line, and importantly, it can help you to avoid cutting corners.
Why cutting corners can impact your business
Reputations matter. And developing a reputation as a company that doesn’t prioritize careful processes (especially as an academic publisher) can have a major impact on your reputation.
Beyond the impacts on your reputation, there are other significant problems that cutting corners can have. For example, cutting corners can create problems for your team. After all, if there are issues, your team will need to be front and center to address any issues that come up. This can create a stressful environment and also make it so that your team will not be happy to work for you. As such, minimizing the corners when you streamline your operations can also have a positive impact on your team. Remember to keep your team members involved throughout the growth of your company.
Your team is one of the most valuable sources of insight into your current processes. If they are working well, you can learn about potential improvements for later on, streamlining processes. If there are issues, your team may already have ideas for how to make improvements to the processes.
So, both internally and externally, cutting corners when trying to streamline processes can negatively impact your business.
Why your business needs up-to-date tools
It’s easy enough to say that you need to make sure you streamline your operations without cutting corners, but what’s the best way to actually avoid that?
Scalability. Being able to scale your business is of critical importance to your long-term success.
Systems can either be scaled or they can’t. In short, if your system isn’t scalable, when growth occurs, that system becomes unstable and can fail. If a system is scalable, it can be adjusted to account for growth (or even contraction if necessary) to make sure that the entire process doesn’t fall apart.
Having the right tools can make sure that you are able to scale when you need to. This is why many companies take these tools into consideration when they are starting up their companies, and not in a “wait until we need them” situation. By using tools like journal management systems or automation macros, they make sure that they are ready to expand immediately when needed. They are also able to then reduce the workflows accordingly if increases in needs are temporary.
Curious about how JAMS can help your run your journal?
By ensuring that you have tools at your disposal that can scale when needed, you can avoid the need to cut corners. Planning ahead is a great way to make sure you’re not caught unprepared.
How to streamline effectively
At the end of the day, choosing to make changes to the way you operate your business can cause stress (on you and your team). Making sure that you implement changes effectively is really important to ensure that your team can adopt to changes easily. For example, proper training and a fair bit of warning when it comes to changes can help your team ease into new ways of doing things.
If you just make changes unilaterally and don’t allow for feedback from your team, you might find that there are hiccups in the adoption process.
Ideas to streamline
Keep in mind the following three points and you’ll find that you can streamline your operations without the need to cut corners.
- Make sure that you have planned out your growth. Many businesses fail when it comes time to grow. In fact, poor decision-making can be the end of a company. As such, making sure that you know when (and how) to grow your business is really important. Having a scalable tool like a journal management system can help you to make sure that many of the technical questions related to growth don’t greatly impact your workflow.
- Communicate with your team. Making sure that your team is aware of upcoming changes and the current state of your journal will help them to understand changes. Some people can be resistant to change, so it’s important for them to understand that changes you implement are being done so for a good reason. Your team knows that the success of your business is good for them, so if you can get them onboard with upcoming changes you’ll position yourself for success.
- Use the right tools. A scalable business strategy using management tools that can also scale are critical. Whether you’re publishing two journal articles a month or two-hundred, making sure that your team is equipped with the best tools to grow will help your team to adjust to growth over time.
With these things in mind, you’ll be able to effectively streamline your operations without cutting corners.