EXAMPLES OF BUSINESS EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment entails creating an environment that fosters growth. For small businesses, empowerment can take many forms, each with the potential to enhance your organization’s efficiency and profitability, as well as your ability to work with others toward common goals. 

Sharing power might be hard at first, but focus on the long-term benefits of improving the function of all the various aspects of your business.

Employees

Many discussions of business empowerment revolve around identifying ways to encourage employees to become more autonomous. A company might, for example, empower employees to make more decisions themselves, as opposed to obtaining permission first from supervisors, with a goal of developing independent thinkers and self-starters who can rise through the ranks to become qualified managers.

Managers

Business owners can empower managers by handing them the reins. Much as empowering low-level employees stimulates personal growth, allowing managers to handle top-level concerns hones leadership skills and develops autonomy, freeing the owner of some responsibilities while simultaneously improving the way the business functions. For example, you might allow a supervisor to take point on a major strategic initiative, such as the design of a marketing campaign or the construction and staffing of a new factory.

Customers

The business-customer relationship might seem inherently adversarial, as both parties jockey to obtain the most value for the least investment. But empowering your customers by ceding some control over the buying experience can strengthen your relationships. For example, make the buying process more interactive by openly answering questions about your pricing strategies. While showing your hand might feel uncomfortable, empowered customers appreciate the respect and consideration they receive. Your transparency allows them to make informed purchases, which can breed fierce loyalty to your brand.

Industry

Sometimes it behooves a business to set aside its competitive instincts and work with competing organizations to empower the industry as a whole. For example, a group of competitors might unite as an industry association to increase awareness of a new type of product, hoping the public attention increases demand and profitability on a large scale. This tactic can work for a group of producers of a single product type, such as the dairy industry, or for the producers of complementary products, such as razors and shaving cream, according to “Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance,” by Harvard business professor Michael E. Porter.