p5 focuses on two areas of your business: procurement and travel. Our question to you this month is, What is your strategy around the process? Do you have checkpoints & approvals for every step of your process, or do you have more of a free-flowing environment?

Neither is wrong, neither is right. It's simply important that your process fits your culture and your strategic imperatives as a business.

Procurement -> Purchasing: When it comes to managing your purchase to pay process, where is your main focus? If it's optimizing your budget, do you have the proper assurances built? Whether it's a formal approval or a zero tolerance culture, was the proper commercial role (buyer, purchasing/supply chain manager, etc.) engaged? If it's speed & agility, do you have the back-end systems in place to ensure that you can track the spend and pay your suppliers on time?

Travel:  Does your business travel the way you feel is best for its future? How do you and your travelers book travel? Individually or with an Executive Administrative Assistant? Is it booked online or over the phone / via email? Do you have a "program?" Is that program built around an online travel agency (OTA) or do you have a formal agreement with a service-oriented travel agency? 

Your business must decide how it wants to travel.

This returns to the question on procurement strategy -> do you want a formal process with many checkpoints or do you want speed and agility? Can you put a value on either end of the spectrum? What is that value in terms of expenses and human capital? Are you willing to put some of that human capital at risk for the sake of speed and agility, or will you handcuff your travelers, keeping them from being most efficient and productive for the sake of the process? These are all questions that every company will eventually have to ask themselves. It's never too early to formalize a strategy and ideally, no matter how your company grows or changes, this strategy should fit as long as the culture stays constant. 

Ultimately, streamline believes there is no wrong answer to any of these questions - other than having no answer at all! 

With its diverse experience, p5 is here to help guide you through this strategy development and prepare your business for the next level. For more on p5 Optimization, please contact us at info@p5op.com.