THE 10 BASIC FUNCTIONS

Steven Cesare, Ph.D.

An aspiring business owner from Tennessee called me the other day to gain some structure about the strategic planning meeting, he was preparing to schedule in January. Based upon our introductory discussion, it was uncovered that his company is doing “almost” $5,000,000 in revenue, with a cohesive team nucleus, stable workforce and client base, and a sense that the company is ready to make the transition to a more mature, formal, and accountable organization.

From that context, our conversation progressed to the anticipated meeting, its participants, format, and desired outcomes. True to form, I naturally invoked my preference to rely on the Balanced Scorecard as the conceptual framework of his company’s first real business model, identifying respective goals and key initiatives for the four quadrants: financial, employee, process, and customer. His eyes flickered quickly, on the Zoom call, as he was processing, sorting, and understanding the newly-presented information.

While proud to share his YTD performance metrics with me, his eyes continued to flicker when I told him to extend each metric across a rolling three-year timeframe to garner sufficient confidence in the stability of his data; the data upon which the 2026 strategic plan would ultimately be evaluated. As a capitalist, I told him to present the data in multiple forms: year-over-year, year-to-forecast, and current year to the three-year average. His eyes, with noticeably dilated pupils, kept blinking; for a moment, I thought I was in the middle of a Visine commercial. While caught off guard, he was completely engaged to say the least.

I then requested that he share his current organizational chart with me. Rudimentary in style, I was relieved that he even had one on hand; and that it was current. From that vantage point, I explained that my preference for a strategic planning session is bottom-up, not top-down. I believe the closer a plan is to the customer, the job, and day-to-day life, the more relevance and detail it has for precise accountability. I have found it is more insightful to roll up the departmental numbers, key initiatives, and ongoing follow-up; rather than simply trickling macro-organizational numbers downward to the individual business units.

I then introduced the 10 basic functions that all companies must perform. The business owner responded by saying that his company, of limited size, does not have 10 functional departments. Of course. That was my elucidating point. He should not be thinking of 10 unique departments yet; but he must be thinking of the 10 basic functions that must be performed regardless of what is shown on his organizational chart. By definition, the 10 basic functions are integral to achieving the empirical and procedural goals that most companies view as the primary outcomes of their annual strategic planning meeting.

Here is the list of the top 10 basic functions that all companies, regardless of size, must always consider:

Accounting (e.g., Finance, Budget, and Timekeeping/Payroll)
Human Resources (e.g., Staffing, Safety, Training, Compensation/Benefits)
Sales (e.g., New Revenue, Business Development, Growth/Expansion)
Marketing (e.g., Social Media, Marketing Calendar, Brand Image)
Customer Service (e.g., CRM, Contract Renewals, Account Management)
Information Technology (e.g., Security, Web Page, Hardware/Software)
Operations (e.g., Field Service Delivery, Job Quality, Efficiency)
Administrative Services (e.g., Record Keeping, Insurance, Office Management)
Purchasing (e.g., Inventory, Purchase Orders, Vendor Management)
Facilities (e.g., Property, Structures, Fleet Management)

I explained to the Volunteer state business owner, those business functions must be designed, integrated, and completed by someone in the organization, lest a breakdown occur. I directed the business owner to identify those functions in his company, their unique role in contributing to the company’s overall goals, and the person responsible for their completion, prior to establishing the agenda for the planning meeting.

With that functional perspective now resolutely clarified, the business owner will have a more mature, formal, and accountable vision of how his company and the strategic planning meeting should be led.

If your company is not addressing those 10 functions daily, I suggest you reach for the Visine, now.

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