It's time to break a few things: paralysis by analysis can choke a company. Let your staff shake things up.

IF IT AIN'T broke, don't fix it!" How many times have we heard that? Problem is, it sure appears that in the world of electronics manufacturing a lot of things are "broke." Volumes are off, competition is keen and technology continues to advance--the industry is in a deep depression--and many are warning that they are going broke and fast! This is the environment in which we are operating. So if results are not at least minimally acceptable, then maybe, just maybe, it's time to break a few things.

Where do you begin when change is called for? In business most success or failure boils down to the effectiveness of one or more of the following: Strategy, Implementation or Resources (which primarily means people). So probably the place to start is with a quick gut-check of your strategy--why are you in business and how/where today do you fit? In particular, what is your core strength and core weakness? Everyone wants to provide customers with the "highest quality product and best service." But if in doing so profitability is elusive, it's time to come to grips with which of these core functional areas you do, or you do not, excel in: selling, manufacturing or technology/development.

Only after you come to grips with what you do well and what you don't can you focus on what aspect of your business is broken and in need of rapid, dramatic improvement. If you shine in manufacturing--quality product delivered precisely on time--but can't seem to find customers, that's one thing. If sales is your strength and you get orders but bobble them in the plant--losing customers/or causing major internal scrap--that's another. Ditto for technological innovation. A company's strength or weakness ends up being both a report card on how effective your strategy is as well as an indicator of where you need to focus to improve.

If after all that you decide serious improvement is due in how to implement your strategy, then get to it; pull the management team together and outline the company's deficiencies, and your concerns and objectives. Not that easy, is it? I'd bet that if you name your weakest area and call for a significant fix, half will tell you they are doing everything they can, that your process or processes are just fine and that it's just the "lousy" market, while the rest go mute or pull you aside and do the finger-pointing routine while telling you what the "others" are doing wrong! What's worse, you might accept either, or both. Great! Implementation gone awry because of denial or complacency!

Which brings change--fixing what is broke--to where the rubber meets the road: your "available" resources! The first is capital; without capital--cash--it is difficult to grow. With capital, you have a safety net in the form of time to make change. Next is equipment, which can be as flexible (or inflexible) as you want it. Both capital and equipment are nothing without the third resource, people. People bring to the table two basic traits--skills and attitude. Positive skills plus positive attitude almost always result in positive results. Without positive skills, or more importantly, positive attitude, achieving positive results becomes near impossible.

Kind of basic, you think? Maybe, but fixing strategy, implementation or anything broken depends on having people to make it happen. It's people who have to believe in the goal. It's people who need to have a positive, proactive attitude to want the goal to happen. And it's people who need to have the appropriate skill sets to make it happen. Sans the right people, then you most likely cannot change what is "broke" in implementation or strategy--which may put you in a position where you need to dramatically alter your core strategy.

Back to fixing what is broke. If yon have a stellar manufacturing operation delivering flawless quality on time, every time, but orders are elusive, take a good, hard look at the skills and attitude of the sales staff. If Sales is making calls 24/7 but do not understand your capability, or even worse, if they are technically competent but can't seem to get off their duff to make calls, fix what's broke. If you have orders but lose customers because of quality and delivery and your operations staff responds only by complaining about the "mix" or "technology" or the "sales department swamping production" or worse, have no action plan or "to do" list to improve, fix what's broke!

I know, I know, it seems pretty simple, and it might be--but easy it's not! One side effect of a down market is "analysis paralysis"--the inability to take action, especially with simple concepts that are not "easy" to do. We all want more data, and to think our loyal employees can, with time, adapt to shifting industry dynamics. We all want to think that what succeeded in the halcyon days will once again work. Quality, service and value will always be the foundation for success. Accomplishing, improving and adapting them to an ever-changing market requires talented, enthusiastic people--from the top down and bottom up. If such people are missing anywhere in the organization, then fixing what is broke will border on impossible.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it? Well, maybe. But maybe what's needed is a staff with the skills and attitude that instead says, "If it's broke, fix it!"

PETER BIGELOW is president and CEO of IMI (imipcb.com), a fabricator of microwave and military PCBs. He can be reached at [e-mail].