Business in 3 Ps — plus 1.

A reductionist approach to companies and brands.

A business is three things: People, Process, and Product.

The plus 1 is Profit.

If you get the first three Ps right, there’s a very good chance you’ll make your plus 1.

You can complicate a business with all manner of layers and jargon.

But I’m a reductionist by nature. I try to reduce for the sake of clarity.

So in my experience, a business is three things: People, Process and Product.

So how can this help you?

Well, I’ve been having several conversations with different people with different relationships to different business opportunities and challenges.

One set of conversations is about people lucky enough to be offered a new job at a new business and they are asking: “Should I take it?”

Another set of conversations is about retention. The question being: “Should I stay in my current job?”

A third set of conversations is: “Should I start a business?”

In each conversation, I always come back to my reductive framing: What’s the story with the people? What’s the deal with the process? How good is the product?

To tease this out a bit…if you have great people but a mediocre process you might get lucky and still produce a good product.

If the process is great and the people aren’t, well, you probably won’t make anything too exceptional.

If the people don’t believe and the process is broken, good luck.

As you approach or analyze your business or a client’s, look at these factors.

Who are the people?

What’s their process?

How good is the product?

You might see that you are the person who is part of solving the people problem.

Or maybe you are a great process person and you are going to solve that.

Whatever your role is, you will have some clarity when you see these three dynamics.

Try it where you are. Or try seeing the three Ps in a company you admire.

People, Process, Product.

Get all three right and you’ll make a profit.

With these 3P’s plus 1, who needs an MBA?

Image: John Baldessari