A Fresh View on Your Business Operations

The secret of high-performing organisations

Organisations attain high performance when their key constituents—strategy, business operations, people, infrastructure, and financials—interact seamlessly to maximise customer value, shareholder value and employee satisfaction. 

Business operations encompass hundreds of business processes executed by people and IT, internally and externally – to customers, suppliers and shareholders.  Business processes run in each organisation—always and everywhere—even though they may be not defined, documented, or communicated.

So what makes the difference?

The difference is whether you let your business processes simply run or you manage them and apply them to achieve your organisation’s objectives. Sounds simple?

Business Process Management is simple!

I see business process management as pragmatic—and natural—means for running a well-performing organisation now and in future. It’s neither a science nor a mystery: professional BPM ensures the sustained link between all aspects of your organisation and makes your business more efficient, agile, scalable, secure, and transparent.

In high-performing organisations, business processes

• support organisation strategy and values
• ensure the sustained delivery of customer value
• enable the achievement of financial objectives
• foster productivity of employees
• are supported by the appropriate infrastructure and technology
• comply with legal and other obligations
• are transparent and non-ambiguous
• are scalable and flexible
• are effective and efficient
• make the organisation more agile and scalable

Tipp: If you plan to engage external consulting support for business process management ask them to explain their view on the methodology. If their answer is complex or cumbersome then look for another consultancy that makes your life as organisation easier instead of adding another complex layer.

How to get more Value from External Consulting

Do you pay for a car based on the number of hours needed to construct it? Or do you pay for the value that you see in it? Of course, the latter–all people do. So why do most companies act differently when engaging external consultants? They pay for time, and not for value.

Ask yourself at each engagement of external consultants, “Do the delivered results (“deliverables”) create real value for my organization?” Be honest: how many purchased consulting hours did not deliver full value? 20%? 30%? More?

The time is ripe to shift the paradigm.

When being paid per hour, many consultants have a natural self-interest in extending the amount of billable time. It is in your hands to stop this practice. We are convinced that the consulting market will change drastically over the next few years. This will happen because you, the customer, will demand value instead of hours for your money.

See here how you benefit from the new way of consulting.

With traditional consulting…

• you pay for hours or days
• you get often deliverables instead of value
• you have high investment uncertainty
• consultants have a natural self-interest in prolonging their engagement so they can charge for more hours
• the engagement often lasts much longer than expected and the cost is often more than was planned

 With packages consulting…

• you fix value-related objectives and scope precisely before the consultation period starts
• the engagement lasts for the planned period of time until the agreed value is delivered
• you pay exclusively for value-generating results
• you have no extra costs for additional consulting hours
• you have 100% investment security

There is an important precondition that you should look at before engaging any consultancy:

Clarify your objectives internally and make them measurable. A consulting provider who is used to this exercise can help you with that step before you even sign any contract.

Consulting packages boost profitability

Companies working with external consultants need more than just a number of consulting days. What they really need are clear results and the security that their money is spent in a way that shows genuine evidence of value generation. That is why more and more companies opt for consulting packages at a fixed price–particularly in these times. Learn more.

Need performance? Look inside your processes!

Only 3-5% of organisations continuously manage and improve their business processes. Studies show that those who do manage effectively win the “triple crown” of saving money, saving time and adding value. In contrast to many people’s perception, positive results can appear immediately. Learn how. 

“Improve business processes? No time, we are in a crisis!”

Some recent discussions with top managers remind me of the old story about the woodchopper: he was very slow in cutting trees because his saw was blunt. Asked why he doesn’t sharpen his saw to cut faster and more effectively, his answer was, “I need so much time for cutting the trees with my blunt saw that I don’t have a minute left to sharpen it.”

Isn’t it the same with operational efficiency and crises? We are so busy with cutting costs that we have neither the time nor the manpower to look for more efficiency in the process. The most interesting point is that almost all managers are aware of the potential for cost savings through business process management, even in hard economic times.

So how can you do it right and use BPM–particularly in these times–as a vehicle for sustainable improvement of business performance?  

1. Make it easy. Don’t explain in complex language how a BPM project can contribute to the organisation’s objectives here or there. CEOs get bored (so do we!) and so don’t see any added value. There’s nothing sophisticated about business processes: everybody can understand them.
2. Make it concrete.  A specific business case with expected monetary benefits is more helpful than a comprehensive project with positive ROI in 3 years. Find here a real business case with a significant financial impact in only 30 days.
3. Make it a positive experience.  Start small and get quick positive results (not only for the company but also for all people involved).
4. Slice and dice as much as possible. Deliver small packages with clear solutions for specific problems. High market attention to our New Pace delivery model—based exclusively on packages—reflects this need.
5. Board members and CEOs: Give it a chance! BPM topics sometimes need some weeks to take off. You will get not only a quick ROI but also sustainable results by leaving the crisis as a winner.

Those topics seem to be easy and logical, but reality shows they are not easily realized. So, what is holding us back from acting rationally? Here are some reasons:

1. Motivational hierarchies: if the board or the CEO sets “immediate cost savings” as priority No.1, the whole hierarchy will follow that instruction in order not to risk their jobs in difficult times. Everybody is then busy identifying cost-saving measures while keeping the business up and running. Where is the motivation to go beyond these two topics and look for more sustainable improvements “in the process”?
2. Bad experiences: Numerous organizations ran BPM initiatives in the past did not achieve their sky-high expectations. As a result, each new initiative is seen as too risky in the current situation.
3. Wrong interpretation: BPM is often seen as a technical or IT-driven topic. In fact, it is a management discipline that helps make people more motivated and processes more efficient.
4. Missing focus: Many BPM projects are much too large and sophisticated. Instead of focusing on the most burning issues, they rather target ending world hunger.

By the way, even Gartner and other renowned institutes recognize BPM delivers significant value to organisations, particularly in difficult times. Today’s challenge is to find the right way to unlock the potential of BPM for your organisation.

Learn more and find out how we at New Pace Consulting look at Business Process Management. For quick successes with small packages click here.