Beyond Processes: Mitigating Key Person Risk in Your Business

Key person risk goes beyond process knowledge

In business operations, we often focus on documenting and streamlining processes to mitigate our key person risk. Yet, most businesses have countless other risks beyond ‘How to pay an invoice’. Mitigating your business’ key person risk extends to knowledge, relationships, and expertise and ensuring it can withstand the loss of any individual.

At Empire we want businesses to be aware of the lesser considered areas of key person risk:

1. Password Protection: Go beyond spreadsheets and relying on an outgoing team member’s memory. A centralised password manager safeguards your business’s access to vital accounts and applications.
2. Relationship Reliance: Don’t let customer relationships hinge on a single point of contact. Leverage a robust CRM and ensure multiple team members engage with clients, fostering lasting bonds and deeper understanding.
3. Product Expertise: Empower your team with comprehensive knowledge of your products and services. Create accessible one-pagers and implement consistent training programs to equip everyone in understanding your offerings, their value, and how to best communicate them to customers.
4. Supplier Savvy: Diversify your supplier relationships. Build connections with multiple contacts within both each supplier organisation and your own to ensure continuity of service and favorable terms, even when your primary point of contact transitions.
5. Pricing Power: Don’t let pricing decisions rest solely on the shoulders of one individual. Develop a clear pricing strategy, documented in a matrix or SOP, to guide new team members and ensure consistency in your offerings and ensure quoting prospect work does not slow down.
6. Brand Guardianship: A concise one-pager outlining your brand guidelines is a must. This ensures your brand’s voice, tone, and visual elements are consistently represented, regardless of who’s communicating on your behalf.
7. Crisis Management: Plan for the unexpected. Establish documented crisis response protocols, and train multiple team members to handle potential scenarios, from power outages to city-wide emergencies.
8. Data Acumen: Go beyond templates and reports. Equip your team with the knowledge to interpret data effectively, identify trends, and make informed decisions based on your business’s critical metrics.
 
By addressing these areas, you’ll not only safeguard your business’s continuity but also empower your team to contribute meaningfully, fostering a culture of resilience and growth.

Key Takeaways:

Have you just had a sudden realisation of your business’s Key Person risk? Let’s discuss how we can help you build a resilient business, one that thrives regardless of individual transitions. Contact us today!

Skip to content