The first thing many of us do after buying the latest and trendy electronic product is to turn it on and throw its user guide away… or possibly keep it, just in case, in one of our drawers. 
A very common habit indeed, irrespective of our age and experience. In fact, is not surprising that the same thing happens with enterprises. Unless you are a “born auditor” or a “quality freak”, very few managers start their job by learning all systems and procedures of a company when they take up a new role. That’s mainly because the pressure and speed of the work give little room to stop the activities and focus on manuals and processes. But those at the end are of critical help, kept available anytime at the desks or computers to attend from time to time, based on the issues encountered. Clearly, the manuals have a great value in supporting the consistency of company’s activities and facilitating opportunities for improvement and should not be underestimated.
The main benefits of a manual is that, to reach to a level where you are able to write a detailed explanation of how to perform a task, you need first to understand its objective, the expected outcome and its process including the interface with other activities. That vision is key to confirm how the value is delivered to the customers, evaluate the resources needed and the time expected. The exercise oblige you first to have a good understanding of the bigger picture.
From the 60-70’s processes and procedures started to gain a stronger importance in the corporate world with the evolution of the quality management principles and the emergence of international quality standards as ISO. Today, most of the corporate companies have a strong focus to maintain clear processes and detailed procedures, to the point that sometimes could be an administrative burden or may be perceived as an annoying activity for employees. The objective is to maintain a good balance, having clear processes and procedures, but light enough to be adjusted quickly gaining from improvements and feedback.
A good portion of small and medium companies lack clarity of their processes; or at least they know the process but it’s not documented, which hinders a consistent approach of the teams in their execution. Without this, it becomes even harder to have some key manuals to guide the execution of the tasks. Small and medium businesses could benefit strongly from this approach as the corporate companies do, obliging them to structure themselves and become more efficient in the execution of their activities. The key benefits of developing clear business processes and manuals/procedures for the key activities are :
n Structure: To think your business in terms of processes, reinforce the structure of the company and clarify the understanding of how the value is being delivered to the customers.
n Efficiency: Having a clarity on how things are done, ensure a clear communication between teams and reinforce the consistency and efficiency on the execution of tasks.
n Improvement: Until there is no a clear documented understanding on how things are performed consistently, we cannot think of improvement the way we do it. 
n Teamwork: Clarity on process and manuals facilitate the rotation of employees, giving the opportunity to all to participate in different activities and to bring their contribution to it’s improvement. That helps the knowledge transfer, the stability during periods of high employee turnover and is also a great team exercise when the processes are built.
Small and medium companies could benefit of this by just setting some time aside, think how their activity is performed and document it with few simple tools.
1) Value proposition: Document clearly (or urgently clarify if it’s not yet done at this stage) what needs of the customer are to be satisfied.
2) Value implementation: Identify the key activities required to deliver the value proposed to the customers, list them and prepare for each a simple map of the activity (process map) detailing each step required to achieve and identifying the interfaces with the other internal activities and external resources (for example: production-detailed steps to produce the product, linking with sales forecast and delivery, or with finance in terms of costing and budget, etc.
3) Value chain overview: Regroup all the process maps on a consolidated view and identify the critical points where a special attention is needed in terms of risk, control, or business impact.
4) Key procedures & manuals: Take those critical activities identified and develop a simple document describing:
i. Objective: The objective of the task or activity
ii. Outcome: What is the outcome expected
iii. Performance indicator: What are the indicators that will confirm the outcome delivered in the tasks is as expected
iv. Activity steps: List in detail all the steps required to perform, the selected activity. Here you have your manual for the critical activity selected.
5) Review and update: Once a year or more often depending on the business, take sometime to review the processes and embed all feedback received in order to improve them or adjust them based on the company activity’s evolution.
If you want to benefit of a nice and complete user guide, first you need to structure yourself. Have a clear understanding of your customer needs and what processes do you implement to deliver it. Do not create manuals in 10 languages if you do not need them, keep your own manuals focused, reduce the pages and save the trees. Processes and procedures are key even for small companies. Keep them simple but alive and use them to engage the good thinking of your team and have fun.


* Yanick Latil is managing partner, Y&S Consulting LLP.