Pausing for Thought
Inefficient processes are hugely detrimental to a growing business
The world of business can be a bit confusing at times. We all know the drill – head down, work hard, put the hours in and that potential promotion could be yours. Even gaining acceptance by your Manager and peers can be a clock watching game. We are all taught from a very young age that the harder you work the more successful you are. But does it always pan out that way?
The reverse is true for businesses themselves. By dangling the carrot of promotion, management attempt to encourage staff to work longer hours – often without mirroring this in the rewards dished out. Ignoring inefficiencies in the process leads to employment of additional staff to manage the extra work coming through from that new batch of customers or the latest product issued to market.
It gets to a point where this becomes overwhelming. The end result? Unhappy and unmotivated staff, and an increasingly inefficient business that struggles to grow sustainably. There’s a painfully obvious solution. Improve efficiency, streamline processes and by doing this boost productivity. Right?
Sounds ideal. In reality, it’s all well and good coming to this conclusion and aspiring to transform a business through process improvement. But actioning a comprehensive strategy to implement this across the business and managing this to completion is where the whole thing falls down. Businesses are quick to assume that this failure was due to the fact that they are “too far down a certain road and there is no turning back”. However, this is rarely true. A carefully considered long-term view, a bit of investment (time and money) and a buy in from the individuals within the company are key components needed to see it through. Short term there will be pain but long term is where the rewards lie.
Technology is playing its part in helping businesses to optimise productivity. Today, systemised processes and cloud-based data management are key productivity drivers. We think a good system should do 3 key things:
- Encourage and incentivise business-efficient processes onto its users, to ensure standardisation is easy to adopt.
- A slick and intuitive interface for a smooth user experience to ensure uptake resistance is minimal.
- A strong reporting suite, to feed back to management the time and cost savings realised from their investment.
The 21st century has seen a technology revolution. Social media and mobile devices have stolen the headlines – but, more importantly, the impact that technology can have on business management is out of this world.
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