What is BPM in plain English? Explained to Small and Medium Enterprises

What is BPM really? When we think of BPM or business process management, we often think of ‘expensive’, ‘for large companies’, ‘takes up too much management time’ or ‘we are not ready for that yet’. Is that really what lies behind BPM?

All those perceptions are wrong. In fact, a Small or Medium Enterprise should worry the most about its business processes in order to grow faster. No organization should postpone this issue until it’s too late because the solution might not be as simple.

SMEs that want to have a chance in the market should start by managing its business processes;maximize customer satisfaction and its inner efficiency, all of which is crucial to grow.

In a previous post we discussed the main difficulties and fears of a SME when using BPM and we suggested specific solutions to face those issues before they become irreversible.

Now we will present the BPM discipline in a simple and specific SME-oriented language, taking into account their problems and worries, showing why this is such an urgent issue. The sooner you start applying BPM solutions, the better will your company function.

What is a business process?

A business process is a sequence of activities that take place in your company to achieve any of its objectives. Usually a business process involves several people who contribute with a particular task.

Let’s think of the following example: Your company receives queries and products requests via email, telephone, website, call center, or through direct contact with salesmen. In any case, after receiving the request, it is assigned to a vendor, who communicates with customers to better understand their needs and build a business proposal for them. There are standard proposals, which go directly to the customer via mail. And there are complex proposals that require additional approval of commercial managers and then go to the customer. Let’s say that the client can only do three things: buy, reject the proposal or ask for modifications. If they buy, your process continues through the seller, who coordinates the delivery.

Modeling a business process

The previous example could be illustrated with a diagram (or workflow):

Hooray! We have the first version of a workflow for our selling process. Using a diagram helps us to:

• Understand how our process is working and raises questions: Do we want this logic to complete a sale? Or a different one?
• Identify bottlenecks: The Commercial Manager is able to review everything in time to send to the customer?

Process automation

Ok, the workflow is ready, now what? Automate a process using a BPMS (BPM System). That means ‘translating’ the process into a computer system that allows us to automate each process stage.

In our example, once the vendor completed a complex proposal, it is sent directly to the ‘Inbox’ of the Commercial Manager, without having to send physical documents or exchange mails. The BPMS “knows” that after the Seller, if the proposal was marked as complex, it should be delivered to the Manager, who can approve or return it.

The most important concept here is the ‘Inbox’. There the users will find the tasks that have been assigned to them in the previous stage of the process. And once the user completes the task, it will go to the ‘Inbox’ of the next user

In our example, the proposal will reach the ‘Inbox’ of the Commercial Manager, who will have two buttons: ‘Approve’ or ‘Return’. If returned, the proposal will be sent to the ‘Inbox’ of the person who wrote it in the first place. If approved, the proposal will be sent to the client (via email if he has no access to the system).

In addition to managing ‘inboxes’, the process automation allows us to:

• Create new instances of processes in different ways. In our example, create new business applications, regardless of their origin (call center, salesman, etc.).
• For each of these instances, facilitate collaboration and show at which stage is each instance.
• Set deadlines for each stage. In our example, we could make sure that the client gets our quote before a certain time limit.

Plus, all instances of the process (in the example, the commercial proposals) are stored in the system, the history is recorded (who wrote it, when it was approved, etc.) and all related documentation is stored (different versions of the proposal, comments, observations, etc.). Thus, in a single system we have all relevant information of all commercial proposals (instead of having it scattered in countless mails or Excel ® spreadsheets).

Process analysis

After having automated a process with a BPMS, you need to identify:

• How many proposals are at each stage (i.e., how many opportunities at each stage)
• Set alerts with deadlines in each stage (How much does the client have to wait for a quote?)
• Exactly how much work is each person responsible for (Are we really swamped in work or just a few stages are stuck and impact on the entire process?)

Measuring tools in a BPMS allows us to:

• Issue reports that show the number of quotes, the time required at each stage and the productivity of everyone involved in the process.  In our example:
• How many applications I quote the last month?
• For which product?
• How many ended in a closed sale?
• How many belonged to each seller?
• How long did the process take?
• How long did each stage take?
• Is the Commercial Manager a bottleneck?
• How long does the Commercial Manager take to review each proposal?
• How many proposals are pending review?

This is called measuring and analyzing the processes. This way you can know for sure how well each process is working and where there are problems. This is helpful beacause you know where to use your resources and where not to waste your time and money.

Summary

When an SME starts functioning, each process is quite simple. But once you start growing, can you handle everything manually? What will happen when you have 10 processes per week? Or 100? Or 1000?

The answer, although obvious, is not always considered in SMEs: You simply can’t grow if you manage your processes manually. So many SMEs start using tools like the email or Excel spreadsheets. Both are temporary solutions. Excel spreadsheets become unmanageable and useless. Something similar happens with the emails.

The example that was presented in this post shows clearly these effects. But it is important to understand that all other processes in an SME eventually face this reality, regardless if they are production, administrative, or customer-related processes.

When we put it like that, it seems quite clear that it is impossible for an SME to grow beyond a certain size unless its processes are optimized. This is done in four stages, which are the pillars of BPM:

1. Model your processes using a diagram to visualize how they work.
2. Automate processes using Flokzu.
3. Measure time and quantity of work done, to draw objective conclusions about where and what to improve.
4. Introduce improvements and repeat stage one.

SMEs shouldn’t first worry about surviving and competing, and then think of BPM. It should be the other way around: adopt BPM to achieve efficiency grow faster.

If you want to get started in the world of BPM but don’t know where to start, don’t worry. We designed a form that will help you identify the key processes that you must work on and how to start automating them. It also includes an estimation of the required time for each stage of the automation.

SOURCE: FLOKZU

Mark Cuban: Only Morons Start a Business on a Loan

Sir Richard Branson: how to start a business

Blog Why is CRM the ideal solution for every small business?

RM is a great tool for customer management!

However, unfortunately, many small businesses have still not started using it. Reason – A myth that CRM software is designed only for the large businesses.

And this is what is keeping most of the SMBs away from using CRM and improving their customer service.

Why is this a frightful situation?

Experts have predicted that by the year 2020, customer service will beat price and product quality and become the first brand differentiator.

That means only those businesses will survive who will be able to understand the Voice of the Customer through the CRM and provide exceptional customer service, along with good product quality and low price.

If now the SMBs do not take up the CRM then, nothing will be able to save them them from meeting the doom after a few years.

What do the small businesses need to understand?

CRM is not just a tool only for the BIG BOYS.

Although earlier CRM was designed to just meet the enterprise needs, today most CRM vendors have involved small business’s growing needs to shape up their solution. In fact this is exactly whatBrent Leary, popular CRM thought leader has also commented in Software Advice -

“There are a lot more CRM choices for small businesses today than there were a few years ago. These products are more affordable, easier to use and the subscription pricing terms are in line with what small businesses are looking for.”

In fact the few small businesses that have taken the CRM have admitted of a hundred percent satisfaction.

According to Software Advice online survey (conducted over 304 large, medium and small businesses who use CRM software) – small businesses (those with 100 employees or fewer) are “very satisfied” (37 percent) or “somewhat satisfied” (33 percent) with their current CRM system.

This clearly proves how well is the CRM performing for the small businesses.

What kind of benefits do the small businesses get from CRM?

• Customer Data Management
• Customer Relationship Management
• Customer Interaction Tracking
• Lead Management
• Sales Forecasting
• Sales & Marketing Automation
• Project Management
• Workflow Standardization
• Internal & External Team Collaboration
• Social Media Management.

It is interesting to see that CRMs are delivering on so many more areas (such as project management, team collaboration, sales and marketing activities) other than customer relationships.

The reason behind this is the objective to expand the scope of CRM from just a Customer Management Tool to a full-fledged Business Management Application.

That is why, sales, marketing and project management features have been integrated to the system. This has made CRM a more significant tool for every business as it has more features and benefits that result into revenue generation and growth.

The right choice of CRM

In order to get the benefit from CRM, it is important to select the right technology. However, due to so many different types of CRM solutions available – it can get confusing for small businesses to make the right selection.

Some of the factors to take note while choosing a CRM are:

1. Ease of Use

2. Mobile functionality

3. Customization

4. Training

5. Frequency of CRM upgradation

6. Open APIs

7. Cloud or On-premise

8. Security Measures

9. Support Service.

In addition to these elements, small businesses should also consider their own goals that they wish to fulfill through the CRM.

Example: if they are looking for CRM to automate most of their routine data entry work, then they should look for a CRM that has a robust automation module.

Michael Kristian, CEO of Asuret (business consulting firm) also has the same point of view -

“You need to get a package that’s tailored to your company’s size. At the most basic level you have simple contact management. Then you have contact management with a shared database. You can have sales tracking or opportunity tracking or customer service functionality. Match the capabilities of the software with what your business goals are.“

Final Thoughts

Once small businesses have CRM by their side, they will automatically develop a tight grip over their business process. Customer relations will improve which will result into a better and continuous flow of ROI.

It’s just that small businesses need to opt for the CRM that is correct for their business. Right? Or do you think that there is some other factor also that plays a key role in ensuring the success of a CRM?

SOURCE: CUSTOMERTHINK.COM

To Grow a Digital Business, Learn from the Startup Community

It’s becoming increasingly clear that in the second phase of digital transformation, you can’t go it alone.

By second phase, I mean the creation of entirely new offerings that are possible only because of digital technology. The second phase is distinct from the familiar first phase, in which traditional offerings such as print articles are digitized and, in many cases, offered online.

The second phase is proving much more unpredictable, even in segments such as books, newspapers, music, and movies that are most easily suited to digital transformation. Most of us couldn’t have foreseen many of those segments’ second-phase products: live blogs, interactive content, streaming music, playlists, and peer-to-peer banking services such as those offered by Transferwise and Zopa.

The conundrum for incumbent companies is that they can’t very well capitalize on change if they can’t envision what change will look like.

What seems certain is that if you’re managing an incumbent company, you cannot predict, much less invent, the future on your own. Your employees are held back by a predigital worldview, and for the most part they lack the skills to develop cutting-edge digital offerings. So companies are increasingly seeking ways to tap into the creative milieu of the start-up world.

One option is to buy your way in. WPP, the world’s largest marketing-services company, has bought more than 400 digital businesses over the past decade, and it gives them sufficient autonomy that they continue to grow; around 40% of the company’s revenues now come from digital offerings.

You can also try to buy digital talent, but for that approach to work you need to give the people you hire a compelling reason to work for you. The Guardian newspaper, for example, has done a good job of integrating newly hired “techies” with journalists and commercial teams to create interactive content on its website.

The most ambitious approach is to work proactively with the start-up community — investing in new companies, working with entrepreneurs, and learning from them along the way.

Consider the Irish Times. As with other newspapers, its traditional sources of revenue were being eroded and it was on the lookout for new ways of attracting readers and advertisers to its web site. Its executives recognized that there was enormous scope to reinvent advertising online — to move beyond the traditional banner ads and pop-ups — but they didn’t know how to do it.

So in 2011, the publication launched a new model, called FUSION, for working with start-ups, welcoming a select group of new ventures into the Irish Times offices to help the company develop new digital offerings. The idea was that if you create cool user experiences online — a game, a search tool, a community-building site — then opportunities for new advertising inventory will follow. In 2012, the company selected five out of 105 applicants; in the subsequent year 20 were chosen out of 130. The start-ups were offered space inside the Irish Times buildings. A limited amount of financial and professional support was available, but there was no offer of equity investment from the company.

Johnny Ryan, the executive who created FUSION, saw it as a “validator” rather than an incubator: It forced the start-ups to face the hazards of the market, but with support from peers and mentors. For the Irish Times, it was an opportunity to get closer to the cutting edge of innovation in the advertising industry, and to act as a culture-change program for the established business. Several of the start-ups have now become viable businesses, new advertising inventory has been created for theIrish Times, and FUSION has been sold to Allied Irish Bank rebranded as the “AIB start-up academy.”

The Irish Times is not alone in working with start-ups to accelerate its own digital growth. Barclays Bank has invested in more than 20 start-ups in the last couple of years. Wells Fargo, Disney, and Microsoft have their own accelerators. In all these cases, investing in start-ups is a useful first step in making sense of a fast-changing digital world. Corporate executives are getting smarter and bolder in their approach to digital transformation.

Some industries, meanwhile, are way back on the learning curve. Business education — a field near to my heart — is one of them. B-schools and business-book publishers are creating digital offerings, such as MOOCs, but these are clearly part of the first phase of transformation, where standard products (lectures, articles) are converted to digital. I don’t think anyone knows what the future of business education looks like, and it seems highly unlikely that I or any of my academic peers will invent it. Do we have the courage to open up to outsiders to help us with the second phase of digital transformation?

SOURCE: Harvard Business Review

The Dirty Little Secret About "Employee Engagement"

There is currently a lot of enthusiasm for the concept of employee engagement.  In large part this is because of substantial amounts of credible research showing a strong positive correlation between higher engagement levels and better business results.

The definition of engagement cited in each of these studies is (more or less) the following: “The extent to which an individual is moved to invest additional effort and energy in the tasks at hand.”  So when people are engaged, they have crossed a psychological threshold and are doing things they otherwise would not have done related to their work.

Since this seems like a pretty desirable outcome, the question becomes:  How can we get more people to cross that threshold?  Some valuable clues to the answer are revealed by dusting off an older term and making an assertion that will horrify my professional brethren: engagement is just a gussied-up way of saying “buy-in.”

So we have something that we want our people to buy (into)—the proposition that if they throw themselves more fully into their work, it will be of value to them.  Such value could take various forms: greater job security; increased opportunities for career advancement; additional financial remuneration; the psychic gratification that goes with being part of a more successful enterprise or from gaining a greater degree of mastery in one’s field.

Now let me make things even more horrifying for my brethren.  If we want people to buy (into) what we’re proposing, we’ve got some marketing to do.  If we were considering bringing out a new product to the marketplace, we’d start by asking some pretty fundamental questions:  Who are the customers we are trying to reach?  What matters to them?  What do they think is important?  Of most value?  We would pretty quickly come to realize that the marketplace is not a monolith, that it comprises a number of segments and that within each segment there are nuanced differences.  The same argument applies when we’re talking about employee buy-in (nee, engagement).

You may be thinking that the analogy breaks down at this point since customers have choices whereas employees do not.  But I’d remind you that of course employees have choices.  In the limit, the choice is whether to stay in your employ or look elsewhere for gainful work.  Even without taking such a draconian step as changing jobs, though, employees still have the choice as to whether or not to invest their discretionary energy and effort:  "Should I stay late to finish my work on The Penske Report?  Or should I go home in time to have dinner with the family?" While they may be making such choices subconsciously, they are making them, and it’s those choices that determine your business’ level of employee engagement.

Your effectiveness vis-à-vis engagement begins with the recognition that engagement has to do with tapping into your employees’ discretionary energy.  By definition, this is energy over which they have sovereignty.  And that means spending more time focusing on “What will move them?” before firing up too many action steps on your project plan. 

It’s just Marketing 101.

SOURCE: The CEO Magazine 

Adopting Smarter Business Strategies for Greater Success

Since time in memorial, there have been very few changes in the ways in which businesses have been functioning globally. Until today, organizations are known to develop products and/ or services that they try to sell at competitive prices; in a manner that gives them the highest returns. Proper marketing of businesses is a must in the competitive scenario prevailing worldwide. Along with looking towards greater visibility for attracting more customers (who in turn can avail the products of these companies), it is essential to use all possible means for increasing the sales turnover, incorporating more innovative and updated marketing strategies and imbibing the numerous benefits of the dot com boom.

It is said that the best way of adapting to new situations and finding a way out of the unknown is by getting help from those who are more experienced and well versed in tackling situations that may assume daunting dimensions for you. Be it small or mid-sized businesses to larger sized corporate organizations, the role of effective marketing tips and strategies cannot be denied in any way. Reputed marketing consultants like Matthew Pattoli are experts in this domain and open a world of opportunities for your business. Read on to know more about him and what he has to say.

Internet Based Marketing

In contemporary times, the field of marketing has become easier with the internet aiding businessmen at every step. With the world of internet lending a helping hand, the use of known techniques as well as inclusion of new, innovative and unique ideas has been the flavour of recent times. Even if you are a novice in the area of marketing strategies, there are good chances that you have come across terms like social media, SEO, E-mail Marketing, CRM and the likes. These methods help in generating leads and increasing sales. Having a sound knowledge of the same is necessary. If you find yourself with your hands tied or feeling lost in the world of these new marketing techniques, then its time to turn towards the years of experience and expertise of professional consultants like Matthew Pattoli.

Organic Enhancement of Social Presence

Marketing experts of the likes of Matthew help you increase your social presence organically. With years of experience in their bag, they use popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn to increase you presence and generate leads. Adopting methods like liking a page and participating in contests are a thing of the past for attracting more customers. Now, social media has made it possible for all marketers to interact with their consumers directly and in a more transparent and convenient manner. Matthew's well-versed and result oriented strategies streamline different methods for achieve the many benefits of internet based marketing via popular digital platforms.

Optimization of Digital Platforms

According to Matthew, a leading marketing consultant who has handheld many organizations and led them up the path of success, posting of relevant, industry related content on a daily basis on popular social media platforms like Face Book is extremely important. He feels that the implementation of different marketing strategies as well as integration of positive ways of increasing social, SEO, email, and CRM leads can help generate more business.

Importance of Good Content

Content that doesn't speak about your industry or specialization does not serve as a good way of crowding your page, instead it helps in driving away the targeted audience. With interactions getting easier, it is important to engage fans and interact with them. Higher sales becomes an easy possibility with the help of resources like good content and the highly targeted Facebook Advertising-a must for all modern day marketers.

Tweeting for Higher Success

Twitter limits the interaction length to 140 characters but it works; thanks to the short attention span of the consumers! Keeping comments and inputs short, sweet and relevant is the key to success on Twitter. A good Twitter marketing strategy is the one where organizations invest good time and relentless efforts in tweeting and re-tweeting relevant information on a daily basis. It is also very important to respond all the mentions, whether it is a query, a complaint or praise. As per Matthew, following other industry related brands helps businesses stay abreast of the market and all competition.

Other Social Media Marketing Platforms

Similarly, Google+ also requires daily posts and relevant engagements with fans on a regular basis. On LinkedIn, the circle of users is mainly restricted to those who are serious in going about their business. Opting for High Targeted LinkedIn Advertising also goes a long way in increasing the profitability of any organization.

Role of Proper Social Media Management Techniques

Matthew Pattoli's social advertising and SEO optimization tools and techniques are specifically designed to help his clients achieve higher targets. With social media advertising, business concerns can reach new followers, fans or potential customers with the help of highly targeted campaigns. It's important for all campaigners to understand the nuances of their marketed business and its goals-so as to design a campaign that fits it to perfection. Here, marketing consultants and experts help in increasing business focus via geo, demographic and behaviour targeting. Their SEO or Search Engine Optimization techniques go a long way in improving a company's online visibility with requisite blog posts, articles and other smart means of attracting potential customers and retaining the existing ones.

Building Blocks

It goes without saying that customers are the most important part for any business and managing customer relations should be a priority. A proper understanding of different techniques and the ways in which benchmarked marketing tools may be used for putting businesses on the next levels of success is also a must. To grow and sustain, every business must be flexible and open-minded to try out all kinds of techniques.

The Way Ahead

If your business hasn't explored the above mentioned techniques, then you still have a long way to go. To quote Matthew Pattoli, "If these methods are not part of your online marketing strategy, it's time you adopted them to achieve your business goals." Stop mulling on how to improve your business. Instead, take charge and execute useful techniques that will help you reach the pinnacle of success-you will not be disappointed!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8957807

Compliance: Driving Business Process Improvement - Marketing Visionary, Author & Speaker Jack Shaw

Quality Management Systems - What Every Business Owner Needs to Know About ISO 9001

When was the last time you had a bad experience as a customer and complained about it? Was your complaint resolved to your satisfaction? When your experience as a customer doesn't meet your expectations, it creates a gap between you and the business. You may even decide that you'll never come back.

Let's say you walk into a tailor and to drop off a pair of pants to be hemmed. "They'll be ready in three days," you're told. On the third day, you realize you can't find your receipt. In fact, you don't remember getting one when you dropped them off, but you don't think much about it. So later that day you go back to the store and find out they can't find your pants and they have no record of your order. You ask for the manager. "I'm the owner," says the man on the other side of the counter. "And that's my wife," he says, pointing to a woman at a sewing machine. Neither one of them look like the person you spoke with a few days ago.

For obvious reasons, it's good business practice to create a unique record of an order and to have an organized and efficient system to track customer property. These are standards that most people expect when doing business with a reputable company, and examples of two ISO 9001 standards regarding record-keeping and customer property.

The Greek word for equal is iso. ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, publishes over 16,000 standards. Companies worldwide voluntarily follow the standards to facilitate their efficiency in doing business with others. It is the largest standards organization in the world. ISO 9001:2008 is one, among many, of their sets of standards. This 27-page document describes the basics for running a business with a high quality management system. It outlines management responsibilities for managing resources, products and services. It also describes requirements related to measuring improvement of the business, such as cycle time, accuracy or customer satisfaction.

ISO standards are developed by specialists who understand their trade. Professionals come from every industry including: medical, engineering, communication, construction, technology, transportation and distribution. Experts typically distribute drafts of standards for public review and feedback. They debate them until they reach consensus on new standards or updates on existing standards. They tell stories and consider how their criteria might apply to different organizations throughout the world. They criticize every word in every standard. Every sentence must be clear, concise and thoughtful in order for it to work effectively worldwide.

Companies wanting to meet the standards of ISO 9001 are required to track their mistakes and find ways to prevent employees from making the same ones week after week. In ISO language, this translates to tracking nonconformities and following through with corrective actions to the business processes.

If you own a small company, you probably don't need official ISO 9001 certification yet, but if you learn the basics of the standard and apply them, you'll create a better company. If you own a company with more than fifty employees and aren't already ISO 9001 certified, bring it up for discussion in your next executive meeting. You'll be surprised at what this standard can do for the culture of your company and how much it will empower your employees to make it a better place to work and do business.

Fools believe they have all the answers and work hard each day, eventually putting themselves out of business. Owners who embrace improvement appreciate the standards described in ISO 9001. They learn from others, and listen to their employees and customers. They build profitable businesses that endure the test of time.

Lorraine Haataia, Ph.D., is a consultant, corporate trainer and professional speaker who helps businesses achieve continuous improvement and growth from the inside out. She specializes in ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems and ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems (http://www.iso.org). As an expert in education and business process improvement, she guides clients toward improving their customers' experiences while increasing profitability. Lorraine has more than 15 years in business leadership in various industries including transportation, construction and interior design. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Florida. To book Lorraine, call 904-315-8962 or visit http://www.drlorraine.net

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3064300

Best Behaviour – the value of understanding leadership behaviours

Director Consultant, Mick Lyons, explains the value of understanding leadership behaviours for organisational transformation.

Dealing with people can be problematic. Human behaviour is a complex, multi-layered thing and with complexity comes challenges. But as long as companies require people to get the work done, there’s no way around the fact that they are the conduits of organisational transformation. That means a key area of expertise, for any manager, should be human behaviour and its vital influence on the organisation – even more than their technical knowledge.

Research suggests that 95% of projects that fail, do so because of the social and emotional aspects of the problem (see, for instance, Making Your Work Work, Gillett 2014), which are closely tied to behaviour. If we accept this statistic then we must also accept that almost everything achieved in business is dependent on behaviour. So, for a company to successfully change things such as quality, increasing throughput, or reducing waste, its people must change their behaviour.

To achieve an in-depth, lasting, improvement in the way a business is operated, a systemic approach must be adopted incorporating a deep understanding of behavioural dynamics and organisational social politics. This requires leaders to understand what drives the behaviours of their people. More importantly, they must be aware how behavioural drivers influence themselves just as much as everyone else. From understanding, comes the ability to inspire and encourage positive behaviours.

A well-designed programme will address these issues specifically and in doing so considerably increase not only the likelihood of successful completion of the programme but, more importantly, the likelihood of successfully embedding the transformational outcomes within the organisation.

Consequences drive behaviours

Consequences drive behaviours, or, to put it another way, an individual does something because of what happens as a result. This may seem obvious on reading, but is, in fact, a statement that is poorly understood in practice. This is why workplace posters and notices telling people to watch out for quality, or wear safety equipment, for example, have a limited effect – or often no effect at all. They are weak antecedents that do not strongly influence behaviour.

Understanding that it is consequences that drive behaviours is hugely significant in organisational transformation. To introduce lasting change in the behaviours of individuals, and by extension the workforce, a leader must personally demonstrate, reinforce and congratulate the change in behaviour when it occurs otherwise their people will not feel the positive consequence of changing.

For example, a company wants to become more data-driven in its decision-making. They introduce a new process to select suppliers using performance data. The process is designed, tested, studied and adopted. In the first month of running the process, the procurement manager overrules the selection of a supplier because ‘he has a bad feeling about them’. By doing this, he demonstrates to his team that the data-driven process doesn’t really need to be followed and thus they revert back to their old behaviour and ways of working.

Sound familiar?

Providing the correct communications and approach to successfully align staff behind organisational transformation requires careful planning as the consequences or outcomes, from a transformational programme can appear negative to individuals in the short term (due to changes in roles and established work practices) and only positive in hindsight.

As the long term consequences are typically significantly weaker behavioural drivers than immediate consequences, this is a key factor that must be addressed in the transformation equation. As an aside this is a key reason people don’t give up smoking. The positive, immediate gratification from nicotine outweighs the much larger future, uncertain consequence of smoking related illness. Logic has nothing to do with it!

Leadership behaviours for long-term change

Many leaders and managers have achieved their position on the basis of being effective in solving the day-to-day problems that face a business. It’s important to understand that this skillset, although undeniably valuable, is not the same skill set required for leading or managing a long-term, systemic transformation in an organisation.

Looking at it from a behavioural perspective, the consequences attached to a manager solving a burning issue are typically positive, immediate and certain (using terminology from Aubrey Daniels’ excellent book Bringing Out the Best in People), i.e. praise from superiors, their own manager and peers, a ‘good buzz’ and possibly even financial reward. These consequences, when repeated, act to reinforce a set of behavioural traits associated with quick wins rather than strategic approaches to problem-solving.

Success in leading a transformational programme, although certainly requiring the ability to problem solve, requires a skill set that is somewhat broader – the ability to take a strategic viewpoint, patience, resilience, to influence across silos and a systemic approach.

For a leadership team to be successful as the sponsor of an organisational transformation programme, the team must be able to assess whether they are truly capable of adopting, and are aligned with, a long-term strategic view or are dominated by the need for short-term success. If the latter is the case, team behaviours must be modified, sometimes by changing the team composition – otherwise failure is certain.

Successful change leaders:

• Are as proficient at understanding the drivers of human behaviours as they are the technical aspects of their role. They also understand their own psychology and work to be a paragon of the behaviours they want others to adopt.
• Understand that consequences drive behaviours, so personally demonstrate, reinforce and congratulate the change in behaviour when it occurs (otherwise their people will not feel the positive consequence of changing)
• Applaud behaviours that work towards the long-term strategic change over the quick fix, daily problem solving.

SOURCE: www.pmi.co.uk

Optimise Growth Rates With Business Process Improvement

Business process improvement incorporates a systematic approach for enabling an organisation to optimise its systems and procedures and to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of its operations. The method was primarily documented by H James Harrington in his book Business Process Improvement. BPI, as it is otherwise known, helps reduce cost and cycle time while improving quality.

In the current business climate it is more important than ever to ensure your efforts are focussed on €doing the right things well€. With the help of a management consultant working with your teams to optimise their systems and processes, your company can excel in its field. By conducting a systematic examination of your business processes, you can enable your business to identify its inefficiencies and drawbacks and more importantly, to identify the actions necessary to adjust your processes so as to make your operations more productive. Your business processes will be better aligned with your goals and your business will be on the right track. This helps avoid unnecessary and/ or inefficient actions, improves quality and saves time, effort and money.

Another important aspect of business process improvement is related to the focus placed on customer requirements. It is critical to meet the evolving needs of customers in order to grow dynamically. By improving your processes you are better able to serve the needs of your customers and to assist them to meet their goals and objectives and to strengthen your customer/ supplier relationships - everyone wins.

The aim of business process improvement is to ensure that your people are only doing the things that add value to your business (they are being effective) and that the things that they are doing are being done well (that the business is efficient). For the uninitiated it can seem confusing but in the end, it is just about ensuring that you have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time, only doing that which supports your business's goals and in turn delivers your customers' requirements.

By identifying the process steps that do not meet your expectations, you can use available resources to look into the areas that require development. This helps your company achieve maximum efficiency improvements. Personal coaching and training, for managers and team members in BPI and other supporting management skills, can also help in ensuring that the gains made are locked in and are sustainable, and the resultant improvement cycle is the natural way of operating.

Spending a few hours a week on business process improvement, and getting a head start on it with the right management consultant will have noticeable effects on your business profits as well as your time. Start now and see the rewards.

What makes a good business leader?

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Davos 2015

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Humility, doubt and the ability to make mistakes.

These are some of the answers I'm given to the question of what makes a good chief executive.

Since the World Economic Forum is full of them (good, bad and ugly), I reckon it's a good place to ask.

"Don't believe your own brilliance" says Arne Sorenson, chief executive of Marriot Hotels and the first non-Marriott to be entrusted with leading the company in its 88-year history.

"You need to be curious and you need to be doing more listening than talking."

"It's possible to glorify the position of CEO… it's important that they should not be the only one making the decisions. Nobody is that brilliant."

Authenticity

You need a certain amount of rebellion within the team, he says in a crushed corner of the congress centre in Davos. And if you don't, you're doomed.

He also mentions the need to be authentic. Surprising, perhaps - but apparently he's not alone in thinking that's important.

Tim Morris, professor of management studies at Oxford University, was part of a team that carried out a study into the expectations of today's CEO.

They interviewed more than 150 chief executives about their job and although they had specifically avoided the word authentic, because they thought of it as too much of a buzz-word, it kept being brought up by the bosses themselves.

"It's clearly important to them," says Prof Morris.

You need a certain amount of rebellion within the team says Mr Sorenson

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“Start Quote

Showing vulnerability sometimes as a CEO is not a bad thing, but it's not always easy”

Leah BusqueTaskRabbit

"Chief executives feel that they can't get people behind them unless they're authentic."

"The traditional way of thinking about the good leader would be that they deliver for the shareholder and they survive because they deliver profits and keep people happy.

"But, for the people we interviewed, the job of chief executive was much more complicated than that."

But, I'm wondering, isn't it authentic to deliver profits? Isn't that what the job of CEO is?

Apparently not any more.

According to Oxford University's research, chief executives nowadays feel that they have to be more approachable, engaged, and caring. Or, as one described it, the Chief Emotional Officer.

Self awareness

And Prof Morris believes there won't be a return to the 'old-style' chief executive.

Leah Busque is relatively new to the business of being the boss. In 2008, she went from being a software engineer at IBM to setting up and running the company TaskRabbit.

New to the UK, the American website helps people find someone in their area to do a job for them, and now has about 50 employees.

She says she didn't have or need any training in leadership, but that she thinks the key is that she is self-aware enough to know when to bring in other people to fill in the gaps in her knowledge.

And it sounds like she's feeling the pressure to be more human.

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“Start Quote

It's about knowing your industry but having the ability to lead people who know more than you,”

Sim TshabalalaCo-CEO of Standard Bank

"Showing vulnerability sometimes as a CEO is not a bad thing, but it's not always easy… CEOs don't like to be vulnerable, and show their weaknesses. Actually for me, it's something I have to really think about and really force myself to do."

Establishing exactly how you do that is tricky. It's possible to try too hard.

"The worst thing you can do is go on an authenticity course", says Prof Morris.

"You need to be consistent with your values, your purpose, with what you want to do and why."

Prof Morris says the power of social media means that it's impossible to switch off and dealing with that required much more subtlety than in the past.

'Shut the door'

He says there's a feeling among the chief executives they interviewed that as soon as they wake up they're aware of their responsibility.

"You can't just say sorry that's not my problem, I'll deal with it on Monday morning. There's a sense that it's all-consuming."

But he said a trait many of the executives had was an ability to shut the door on a decision after having made it.

The other factor that the CEO report highlights is how there is increasingly a global standard to the job. The answers and expectations in Japan and Korea, were not significantly different to those in the US or Europe.

And indeed the clearest answer I got on what makes a good chief executive came from Sim Tshabalala, Co-CEO of Standard Bank, one of Africa's largest.

"It's about knowing your industry but having the ability to lead people who know more than you," he says

SOURCE:  BBC