What are the Ten Core Business Processes?

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In any organization there exists a common set of core business processes that must exist for the organization to function properly. Small organizations start with a small set of five Core Processes, that are common to every business, and then grow from there.

Five Core Business Processes

Every organization needs a sales and marketing function.  Even non profits, governments and hospitals must identify their customers, manage the relationship, and deliver a good or service in exchange for funds.  Once you have cash coming in you must account for that cash and complete your tax return, which means you need accounting.  Accounting operates on technology so in a small company technology often time is part of accounting (unless you are a technology company and then it is part of product development).

Next comes your product or service delivery that you collected money for.  You have to deliver it and deliver it well, with quality, or else you won’t get more money from your customers in the future.  A small business must hire employees, manage the operation, and finance the ups and downs.  And lastly, you have to have product development to design products for your customers.

So what are the Five Core Processes for Small Business?

1. Sales & Marketing
2. Accounting & Technology
3. Quality & Product/Service Delivery
4. Management, HR & Finance
5. Product Development

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Ten Core Business Processes

A small business is pretty simple, until you start to grow.  Growth introduces new complexities that require more employees and more focus.  The five core processes for a small business quickly grow to the ten core processes for business.  That is, each of the core small business processes splits into two and now sales and marketing are separate processes, same with accounting, technology, quality and product delivery.

Figure 1. Top Ten Core Business Processes

We now have identified (Figure 1.) the Ten Core Business Processes

1. Customer Strategy & Relationships (Marketing)
2. Employee Development & Satisfaction
3. Quality, Process Improvement & Change Management
4. Financial Analysis, Reporting, & Capital Management
5. Management Responsibility
6. Customer Acquisition (Sales)
7. Product Development
8. Product/Service Delivery
9. Accounting Management
10. Technology Management

Examples of Business Processes

As an organization grows even bigger it will add more sub-processes or perhaps additional core process like supplier management, strategy, or legal & compliance.  There are hundreds of sub-processes that are created and when you get to that point then you are ready for a set of policy and procedure manuals.  Download Free Sample Procedure Templates to see hundreds of example business processes and how easy it is to edit MS Word Templates to build your own policy and procedure management system.