How much money do you make for your company each year?
How much do you cost your company each year?
Unless you’re in sales or marketing, there’s a good chance you don’t know the answers to those questions. You may not even realize that you make your company any money, or think that you cost anything more than the cost of your salary and benefits.
You’ve never needed to know, and you may not see the point of knowing. But, there is a point.
The business you work for has to make money in order to keep employing you. You can either be part of that process, or you can be apathetic.
For some people, they even choose to work against their company – badmouthing it, expressing discontent and not working when they should be working.
Whether that behaviour is justified is a topic for another day – some companies treat their employees badly, but others do not.
If you are inspired to be part of your company’s success, you’ve probably found the right place, the right field, and the right career path. If you aren’t, then you may need to re-evaluate your current trajectory.
If you find yourself in the middle of the road and like what you do, but otherwise feel bored by the prospect of learning about the rest of what your business does, you should keep reading.
Being an integral part of your company’s sales process and profit-producing activities gives you the opportunity to be more in control of your career.
By helping your company be profitable, you buy yourself job security. Job security means you get to keep doing the work you enjoy. Additionally, companies value people who bring something extra to the table – a positive attitude and a desire to see the company succeed – meaning you can obtain advancement opportunities and keep your career fresh and exciting.
If you aren’t interested in sales and marketing, that’s understandable – after all, you decided on a career in IT for a reason. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t participate in a real and meaningful way that produces profit for your business.
It may be difficult to measure your direct part in the profit-producing activity, but if you provide a solution that results in greater productivity, increased traffic to your business, or more efficiency for other workers, that type of progress is noticeable and will not only help your business, but increase your visibility to your superiors.
As you already know, working with SAP systems is a good choice for IT professionals, as it is the gold standard in ERP solutions, and is used by thousands of companies around the world. It therefore has several employment opportunities. Suppose you decide to start a career in SAP and decide to focus on the manufacturing industry.
Not only should you be familiar with SAP and its specific manufacturing industry solution, you should also learn about manufacturing in general.
Taking this extra step is the first part of the plan. You will develop your SAP skills, as well as your business vocabulary in the manufacturing industry. So, when you start working for that first manufacturing company, you will already be acquainted with their systems and processes.
You will understand how to map those processes to SAP functions. And, with time, you will also find ways to customize and adapt SAP to your specific company to make those particular processes and functions more efficient and effective.
Upon landing your first job at a new company, you should pay close attention to the people around you – who might have some insights into the finances of the company that can tell you how it’s doing and what areas need to be improved? Once you understand those areas, how can you help with those improvements?
This may seem like an intimidating prospect – after all, as the newcomer, you may feel unwelcome in getting too deeply involved in problem areas of the business. But taking this kind of initiative and providing valuable solutions is the best way to demonstrate ownership, build loyalty, and develop your own skills and strengths.