A trip from Chaos to Efficiency Issam Sultan, managing director of UK flight support company FltCtrl.
First things first

Setting up a small business from scratch, every day in the office was a struggle. I had to keep pace with the ever-growing backlog of memos, invoices, emails, contracts and files cluttering my desk - all while dealing with hard-to-please clients, suppliers that weren’t delivering, competition that wouldn't play fair, and - the trickiest of the lot - my business partner (who, despite being all-knowing, is chaos in disguise!).

My goal for FltCtrl has always been to build something profitable, and sustainably so. Everything I read stressed that efficiency was the key to unlocking success, but I had not ever seen it done. Since my graduation, I had never been fortunate enough to work for a company that had reached maturity.

With no first-hand experience of it, I was not even sure what ‘efficiency’ was. I decided to go back to basics, looking up the term in the dictionary. According to Merriam-Webster, efficiency “is the ability to do something or produce something without wasting materials, time, or energy."

Go figure. I still had tonnes of tasks to carry out with little time to do them in and no idea what to tackle first, but the one thing I knew for sure was that we were in a mess and something had to be done about it sooner rather than later!

So, I drew up a plan - something I am reasonably good at, having worked in flight-planning for the past 18 years. After that, the only route left was trial and error. By continuous repeated effort, I came up with a simple formula that helps FltCtrl achieve more with less.

Over the next series of articles, I will be sharing my experiences in the hope of educating you in how to become more efficient, with just a little bit of hard work and perseverance.

Here is my four-step process of creating a more favorable business:

1. Declutter
2. Prioritize
3. Delegate
4. Automate

However, it is important to note there is no such thing as a 'Perfect Plan'. Achieving an organized and efficient workflow meant I had to make mistakes and then learn from them. Rather than keeping my system set in stone, I continue to tweak it based on my growing experience. The good news is that it becomes easier to create highly successful processes once you put them in place and start using them.

In fact, a while back, a member of my team shared a post by Jake Parker that put things into perspective. Jake’s motto is “Finished, Not Perfect.” His message emphasizes the importance of finishing any project or plan you set out to do regardless of its imperfections - you will improve on what you have already achieved in the next iteration.

Join me on this trip to discover more about the tools I continue to use to improve the efficiency of FltCtrl’s daily workflow. I hope that by the end, you will be motivated to attempt something similar in your workplace and that you achieve your goals by the most efficient means, saving time, money, and all those other unnecessary headaches.

Next week: 'Declutter'

www.fltctrl.com

About the Author

Issam Sultan is the Managing Director of FltCtrl Ltd headquartered in London, UK. Combined, the company’s team of professionals, FltCtrl has over 40 years of aviation industry experience and currently specialises in developing aviation IT solutions to the aviation industry.

While working in the UAE with flight support services firm RamJet Aviation Support for more than 17 years, Issam became increasingly frustrated by the complexity of the flight operations process – it was crying out to be simplified. Aviation requires quick decision making and to do this, one needs to have all the relevant information at their fingertips. Team synchronicity is invaluable. From that seed, the idea for FltCtrl was sown. Using the latest technology, FltCtrl has also started Flock.aero, a Community Driven Aviation Directory that aims to give aircraft operators and suppliers the power to connect and succeed in their business. At its very core Flock is a directory of all the airports and suppliers operating at these airports, but more importantly it is a platform where operators and suppliers can connect and find new opportunities to improve their business operations.