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The difference between efficiency and effectiveness

We constantly hear about the need to become more efficient - we need to be more efficient at our jobs, we need more efficient systems, more efficient ways of dealing with people. Tellingly it is government departments that are always on some kind of efficiency drive; the health service is a classic example of an institution on a permanent mission to become more efficient whilst year by year it becomes less effective at delivering the goods. The thing all these different efficiency drives share in common is that they are almost universally doomed to failure. As we know despite untold billions being thrown at it, the health service refuses to improve; ‘efficient’ new systems being introduced by large companies, such as outsourced call centres in India, end up being abandoned after it becomes clear they either don’t work, are not what people want, or are unnecessary in the first place.

Of course what’s being missed by the managers, politicians and civil servants who come up with these initiatives is that it is no good being efficient at something that does not need to be done or has no measurable outcome. The point they miss is it is effectiveness rather than efficiency that leads to improvements and higher standards. Efficiency implies that mistakes are bad and should be eliminated; effectiveness admits that making a fair number of mistakes is a sign of a successful person or organisation because at least they are trying new things. The best way of explaining the difference between efficiency and effectiveness is by saying that a man walking round in circles may be doing so as efficiently as a man walking straight down the street; the problem is he isn’t going anywhere, or put another way efficiency is doing things right while effectiveness is doing the right thing right.

A $60000 Idea

There was an American industrialist in the 1930’s who built an empire producing and selling a wide range of goods, in the process employing many thousands of people. One day he was approached by a salesman who through persistence and skill managed to win himself a few minutes of the great mans time. Now as you can imagine, in his career this mogul had met all kinds of salesman making varied kinds of claims, so he could be forgiven from meeting this starry eyed salesman with a certain degree of scepticism verging on cynicism. In all honesty he could have been forgiven if he had become a little ‘closed minded’ over the years but to his credit he was still on the lookout for anything that could genuinely improve the effectiveness of his operation. What attracted him to this particular salesman was the claim he made, which was as follows:-

He claimed that if the industrialist implemented his idea throughout his organisation there would be an increase in sales of at least 20% within six months. Now this hard bitten entrepreneur had heard a lot of claims in his time from all kinds of supposed experts but what made this one different was the fact that the salesman didn’t want any money up front for the idea. He was so confident it would work he was prepared to be paid what the industrialist thought the idea was worth six months after it had been introduced. The industrialist was intrigued to know what the idea was and why the salesman was so confident. Suffice to say that the idea turned out to be even more effective than the salesman promised and six months later the industrialist handed over a cheque for $60000, which at the time was the largest sum ever paid for a sales idea!

Well the idea is as valid today as it was then and we are pleased to present it to you for free. We hope you get a chance to put it into practise in your daily lives, we are sure that if you do you will experience the same astounding results that it produced way back in the 1930’s.

The idea was this - everyday before you go to bed take a pen and paper and make a list of all the things you would like to achieve over the coming day. Don’t hold back, make the list as long and as challenging as you like. When you have finished the list review it carefully and make sure you haven’t left anything out. Now for the clever part - rate the list in order of priority, one, two, three etc right through to the last item. The next day when you get up and start work take the list and begin working on priority one and don’t stop until you have finished, then move on to number two etc down the list. The chances are you will never finish the list but you will be sure to have been working on the most important thing, which is why results cannot help but improve.

In relation to property, you have to ask yourself how far up your priority list does building a property portfolio come? In trying to answer this question honestly it can be helpful to understand the difference between something that is important, something that is urgent, and something that is both urgent and important. The trouble is that if you are like most people it is the urgent things and the urgent important things that take your attention away from the non urgent but nevertheless important priorities in your life. Inevitably finding, researching, analysing and evaluating property investment opportunities, though an important priority, is unlikely to eclipse other things competing for your time such as work, family and leisure pursuits. By the time building a property portfolio becomes both urgent and important it may be too late to get started and you may have missed the boat.

The solution is delegation, something every successful manager has to learn. If you can’t do everything that needs to be done then don’t try, focus on the most important thing you have to do and either delegate or ignore the rest. Delegate or ignore? A simple choice, if you ignore the problem it won’t go away, you will be burying your head in the sand that’s all. If you choose to delegate you need to ensure that you choose a competent dedicated partner and that's where we come in. Our service has grown up around the need to let people get on with their lives while at the same time providing them with the opportunity of sharing in the financial security that owning property can bring. We have the benefit of experience and expertise as well as the power of collective bargaining on our side. The beauty is we do the ground work and you retain the final decision about what to buy; you own the property, we simply help out by providing you with the extra resources and the economies of scale you need to be successful.

Think of this analogy - imagine trying to negotiate a discount with a hotel for a 14 day stay during a busy period on a one-off basis. Chances are you won’t get anywhere but now imagine you are Thomsons Travel, you are calling on behalf of your thousands of customers and can offer the hotel the security of guaranteed occupancy in both busy and quiet times. See what we mean by collective bargaining?

Of course there are other players in this market but please take into account that the vast majority of them have grown up in the very recent past. Choices was established in 1989, we are estate agents in our own right with a network of offices in the South East, we know the job because we do the job, we let and manage over 1200 properties, we arrange £millions of pounds worth of sales on a weekly basis and we have achieved ISO9002 in recognition of the quality of our systems. Our Acquisitions department has grown out of expertise and experience; we are in the business for the long haul not just to get rich quick, so take the next step by giving us a call on 01342 840000, or attending one of our seminars or requesting a copy of our free property investment tutorial.

Yours sincerely

Choices Acquisitions and Investments
01342 840000