What differentiates a good business from a great business? It all comes down to planning.
Good businesses are also taking up planning on a regular basis, but great businesses understand the granular level of planning and are still prepared to be more opportunistic when the time comes. The same level of tenacious planning goes into the decision to buy office furniture in CBD and great businesses know how to do it the right way.
Over the years, we have helped several businesses buy the office furniture that exactly fits their needs. Whether they want to buy office workstations or go for the traditional tables – we help them with everything. Hence, we have had the opportunity of shadowing great office furniture buyers and also of consulting otherwise lagging business operators with their office furniture purchases.
So, if you want to be on the other side of the curve in the office furniture buying process
Here are a few tricks you can pick up from the playbook of the successful businesses:
1. Understand the needs of everyone involved in the process.
More often than not, the business operator would delegate the office furniture buying task to a purchase committee, which will appoint an office manager to do it for them. Between all of this, the employees are hardly taken into consideration.
Take a note of this – understand the job functions of your employees, the work culture you have in your office and how these variables will have an impact on the office furniture needs. For instance, if you have a culture of long working hours, it would really help your team members if you buy standing desks. At the same time, if you want a more collaborative workplace, you can choose to buy boardroom tables where teams can come and brainstorm.
2. Leverage the power of delegation.
The business operator delegated everything to the purchase committee which delegated it to the office manager – is there any more scope of delegation left? Actually – yes. The reality is that neither the office manager nor the purchase committee are used to the intricacies of buying office furniture. At the most, they will treat it like buying any other commodity for the business.
A business should hire an expert who can help it streamline the entire process. Whether it is about interior designing, space planning, installation, timely delivery or just assistance in general – have someone on board who can help you do your job more effectively. This is the entire reason why we got into this business – to help businesses grow by helping them have a clear path to buying office furniture.
3. Have a long term perspective on the entire process.
This might seem like a page torn straight from Warren Buffett’s investor letters, but it actually makes a lot of sense when you are out to buy office furniture. Several office managers make the same mistake – they consider this a short-term process and handle it accordingly. In reality, the office furniture will stay at your office for years if not decades. The productivity levels of your employees are dependent on this very office furniture. Hence, take a long term view and invest in quality office furniture.
A similar juncture where short-termism affects the business is capacity planning. Just because you have ten people in your team today, does not mean you will have exactly ten people five years from now. Thus, take a long term view on the capacity your office will have and buy office furniture accordingly. Want to buy office furniture like the most successful companies out there? Give us a call and we will help you throughout the process.
Check out When Buying Office Furniture Here are 5 Ways You Can Avoid the Most Common Pitfalls