Business processes help companies to realize their own organizational objectives so that management can review and realign as the market changes, customer needs change, products change, and strategies change. The general unfixed nature of business demands new growth because of changing legislation, global competition, and market saturation. Without a process-focused organization, employees are stomping out fires, missing out on opportunities, and generally wasting time and money because of poor planning and lack of vision.
The successful company focuses on its customers, and in order to do that, leadership has to be involved and focused on improving employees and all business processes. Senior managers have to be involved, instead of just delegating training to lower-level managers. It is the senior representatives who need to have the vision for the company, and they are the ones who need to focus on the critical processes, and in turn teach and mentor each lower level of management.
So how does a company become process-focused? First, each company has to prepare. Leaders need to get organized and have vision. Companies need a mission statement so they can identify their key processes. Think of the most successful companies operating, and review their values and key processes. It changes as the company evolves, and each step of the way, there is a plan. With the plan comes development; a crucial step towards the deployment of the plan and how it is carried out. Here are where the senior leaders are overtly involved to monitor improvements, identify problems, implement new processes, and create new opportunities to enhance the plan.
Take for instance, the customer service process for a company. A customer calls in with an order. How is it handled now, and how can another process improve the service? The process-focused organization will research delivery lead times, on time delivery from their suppliers, and their relationships with other companies. If an improved quality and time of delivery can be implemented with suppliers, ultimately the customer will have less wait time between the time of the order and the delivery. It sure would save a lot of time for the company, the customer service agents, and especially the customer.
When a company focuses on their processes, they improve quality, lower the costs, and provide more value and convenience for customers. This is what sets one company apart from their competitors.
photo credit: lizzardo
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Great article, Cheryl! You are absolutely right that processes can help companies become even better at what they do. As this article (http://www.upyourservice.com/learning-library/customer-service-contact/how-to-be-customer-unfriendly) points out though, big changes in how things are done don’t always equate to improvements. Companies need to tread lightly in the improvements they choose to make.
Yes, getting people to focus is key.