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Thinking About Taking Your Company Virtual? Aim for the Clouds

By Kim Shepherd

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Published: 16Feb2012
Word count: 459
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Though 2012 has just begun, smart business leaders are already looking ahead, planning where their organizations will need to be in 2015. More and more companies are realizing the benefits of transitioning to a virtual model, and in a few years, virtual work environments, or "cloud culture," will be the norm.

Here are the top business reasons for transitioning to the cloud:

Cost Savings: Rather than paying for sticks and bricks, cloud culture companies can invest in the best people, tools and technology for business success.

Quality: In a cloud culture company, there is nowhere for under-performers to hide, and there are no appearances to create distraction. It's all about the numbers.

Scalability: Cloud culture organizations can grow quickly and turn on a dime. As more talent is added, there is no need for more office space, furniture, etc.

So you're sold, and you want to aim for the clouds. But how is this done? Before you start sending your people home to work, you need to map out specifically which metrics and performance measurements you need to follow to ensure business stays on track.

A great way to identify your organization's critical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is to run your company remotely for a week or two. In short order, you'll figure out exactly what metrics you need to know, such as if your sales force is making the number of calls they need to be making, and so on. In a traditional business model, KPIs and other metrics can get squishy. In a virtual environment, they cannot be an afterthought because they're all you have to go on. When you're purely focused on the three P's that make a company tick — performance, productivity and profit — your business will become a higher performing company, and productivity will be off the charts.

Another critical factor for the success of your company in the clouds is your people. You must hire right. "A" players micromanage themselves better than you ever could. They see metrics tracking as an opportunity to strut their stuff and display their results rather than as a way to be watched over by "big brother."

Finally, the key to sustaining the three P's in the clouds is to continually focus on and build out your culture. Keeping people truly connected so that they don't feel like islands can be tricky, especially as you grow. This is where real creativity comes in.

To be successful in the cloud, companies must act as though they have bricks and mortar and maintain the same cornerstones that are essential for success in a traditional workplace: culture, performance, appreciation, continuous improvement, and more.

Kim Shepherd is the CEO of Decision Toolbox (http://www.dtoolbox.com), a national recruitment process outsourcing firm. She is the author of the newly released book, The Bite Me School of Management: Taking a Bite of Conventional Business Thinking. The book takes a large bite of out typical corporate culture. The lessons, funny and concise bite-sized servings, can be applied to all industries.

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