At Cornerstone, we have helped countless clients find and fix problems to return them to their highest potential and increase profitability. Our pragmatic, action-oriented get-it-done philosophy means that team members gain special insight when working shoulder to shoulder with client teams to accomplish their mission. A recurring theme they have noticed across jobs and industries is that small actions, accumulated over time, can make a big difference.

Consider this for example. If you’re traveling somewhere and change course by just one degree, you’ll miss your target by 0.2 inches after one foot. After 100 yards, you’ll be off by 5.2 feet. And after one mile, you’ll be off by 92.2 feet.

According to the “1 in 60” rule, for every one degree a plane veers off its course, it misses its target destination by one mile for every 60 miles it flies. This means that the further the plane travels, the further it is from its target destination. At first, one degree may seem trivial, but a mere one-degree error that is never corrected eventually makes a huge difference.

The same is true for business. It’s easy to drift a little off course, but if you move forward on auto pilot instead of making an immediate correction, then you will veer further off course and further away from your goals. The longer you wait to make changes, the harder it will be to get back on track.

Every day, you make decisions that will keep you going in the direction you want to go or take you further away from your target destination. While these decisions may seem trivial and insignificant right now, you must keep in mind that success is the result of the small choices or corrections you make.

If you feel like your business has veered off course but you’re ready to make changes to get back on track, we have a few ideas that can help return your business to optimized performance and profitability. The key is to make small adjustments now that will have the biggest impact later.

1. Streamline Procurement

You can’t manage what you can’t see, so it’s critical to have clear insights into spending in all areas of your business. When you can view the spend of your entire organization, you can pinpoint areas for improvement and identify untapped opportunities for savings in an array of areas. Gaining better spend visibility and control can take the complexities out of procurement, drive savings, and ultimately change the way you do business.

2. Improve Processes

You cannot stick with the status quo in this increasingly dynamic business environment. Rather than continue doing things the way they’ve always been done, you should introduce new processes that will establish standards, demand accountability, and simplify operations. Start with an audit of your existing business operations and then implement tools such as a pace board and regular reporting to track progress toward your target destination or goals.

3. Upgrade Equipment

Mobility advancements are revolutionizing every aspect of manufacturing, which means legacy equipment and systems can no longer meet the moment and must be replaced. While the investment may seem significant at first, the new equipment and systems can be installed over time to achieve cost reduction, increased productivity and efficiency, faster access to critical data, and much more.

You must consider how the small changes you make here and now will impact the future of your business. Ask yourself, are you thinking of the big picture and making decisions now to set your business up for success in the long-term? Or are you too focused on managing disruption right now and making decisions that are effective in the short-term but could mean trouble down the road?

If your business could benefit from some changes but you aren’t sure where to start, call Cornerstone today at 1-888-324-4808. Our team will go to great lengths to help correct your course through our unique and highly effective methods—and we won’t leave until your business is fully returned to balance and profitability.