Enterprise Management Blog

We have quickly accepted and adopted the concept of “Virtual Business” in recent years.

For example:

Many companies no longer produce their own branded products. There are specialist sub-contract companies who can take your products from design through to end-customer delivery, and at less cost than the in-house option.

Customer support services are often delivered by a 3rd party contact centre, possibly even on another continent.

Back office services can be expertly and efficiently delivered by specialist  providers.

Entire supply chains can be managed by outsourcing to specialist 3P logistics companies.

However, when it comes to management expertise we have been slower to adopt the virtual organisation concept.

A full-time team is usually in place to plan, organise and control specific functions within the company, without external help.

However, business needs change and evolve while experience, expertise, and indeed time, are relatively finite.

Business circumstances and situations arise all the time that may require another skill set or “third eye”.

This is where the experienced Business Advisor can bring substantial benefits, both at an overall business level and also across the range of functions.

In addition, strategic projects that need additional expertise and focus, not necessarily available within the team, may be better managed and delivered  by such an “as required” resource.

Having a Business Advisor, on some form of retainer, with the experience and expertise across the full business spectrum, to bring additional focus and a different perspective to your business can be a very effective and beneficial way to have immediate access to a wide range of management skills and knowledge at a relatively low cost. Usually the “3rd eye” will bring another insight and perspective to a business. A good advisor is also a mentor; someone to run ideas through and get an honest view based on experience.

Obviously a Business Advisor’s contribution will increase as they get to know you, your business and company culture better.

In my experience with clients this can be a  commitment to e.g. a day a week or a couple of days a month. It really depends on the scale needs and budget of the company. An advisor should also be expected to be available at short notice to work on-site or from their own base when a need arises. With the pervasive use of phone, email, network sharing etc. there is no excuse for being out of touch in today’s environment

Flexibility and honest engagement is key for any advisor; as is a broad range of management experience at high levels.

It’s worth a thought. I am happy to explore the option with you in more detail and possibly introduce you to client companies who are benefiting greatly  from a “virtual” manager.

John@enterprisemanagement.ie                   Linkedin profile:  www.linkedin.com/johnosullivanem     Mob. +353 (0)87 2236760

When we consider the implementation of Operational Excellence programmes, the intent and focus is predominantly on manufacturing related activities. For example, lean projects tend to be almost entirely directed at production throughput, efficiencies, flexibility, quality and the elimination of all waste activities and materials etc. These are indeed essential elements to creating a competitive, lean business in a manufacturing environment.

But what about Operational Excellence (OE) in business administration? i.e the “Lean Office”?

• In fact, waste and inefficiencies in manufacturing and distribution can often be sourced to errors in administration, e.g., Incorrect customer order data; errors in purchasing or receiving data; poor forecasting; Bill of Materials errors ; stock status errors, etc…
• Poor quality of documentation submitted to customers can be a major timewaster and an irritant for customer and staff alike. E.g. invoice errors; incorrect despatch documentation; incorrect delivery status. These not only consume valuable staff time and distract from the essential focus of 100% customer satisfaction, they also cause customer frustration, possibly resulting in payment delays and even lost business.
• Errors in purchasing information can cause shortages of supplies and/or surplus supplies.
• How much of your employees time is spent on continuously checking, chasing and correcting wrong information?
• How much effort is expended, throughout the organisation, and by suppliers and customers, due to incorrect or missing data?
• Is your sales staff spending too much time in chasing internal errors and problems and therefore not enough time in nurturing existing clients and building more business?
• Any activity which does not add value, for the customer, must be a target for elimination, or at least minimisation.

All of these wasted activities consume huge amounts of staff time and working capital, which will be more productively used in building more and better business and creating greater customer trust and loyalty.

The solution is not as complex as many think.

01. De-clutter the work environment and work processes.

02. Define your business process as a “flow of value” to your customer. Map the process. Anything that is not essential and adding real value in the “flow of value” must be critically examined and, if not possible to eliminate, then minimised .

03. In a cross functional team environment, optimise and standardise the remaining elements of the process. Make them error resistant through the detailed analysis and correction of root causes.

04. Improvement teams must be trained and motivated to continuously appraise what they are doing and to find more efficient and error free ways to carry out their activities, as a matter of routine.

Companies we have worked with have found the implementation of Operational Excellence in their business processes can yield very significant savings through the identification and elimination of wasteful activities and the identification and correction of root causes of errors. Furthermore, remaining necessary processes are analysed in great detail in order to minimise and standardise the activities. Ultimately this allows much more time for staff to focus on building increased, more profitable and more sustainable levels of business.

Do not allow the valuable time, experience and intellect of your employees be wasted in a cycle of analysing and correcting unnecessary and repeated errors, or in carrying out unnecessary activities.

The Lean Office is focused on creating accurate and predictable processes. Staff are trained in identifying waste, standardising the activities and continuously improving their process. They will be trained and motivated to work in effective cross functional teams that continuously strive for world class excellence.

Within months your employees and customers will see tremendous improvements. You should also expect to see an increased order book and a stronger bottom line.

While every OE programme will be tailored to the needs of your specific business and environment, a typical project might include the following:

• Practical training in Effective Teamwork
• Workshops – Introduction to Operational Excellence
• Introduction and implementation of 5S – de-cluttering the work environment and process
• Process Mapping – current state & desired future state
• Identifying the problems and creative problem solving technigues
• Project Management of improvement implementation
• Measuring and reporting results

Enterprise Management will be happy to come and discuss Operational Excellence / Lean with you. We will also be happy to conduct a brief up-front analysis of the relevance and benefits to your organisation. We would be happy to hear from you.

In Ireland, Enterprise Ireland clients may be eligible for substantial support for Lean implementation projects. Check it out at; http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/productivity/lean-business-offer/

The question of whether an advisory board can be of benefit often arises, particularly with early stage companies. It is important to be clear on the differences between an advisory board and a board of directors. It is equally important to consider what is an effective advisory board.

A board of directors becomes essential when a company is considering external investment. The BOD exists mainly to protect the interests of external investors and to ensure that the company management  is conducting itself in the interests of shareholders and within legal and ethical requirements. When appropriately constructed it can also act in an advisory capacity to assist the executive management in growing the business, but that is not it’s main function. For example a BOD may not be necessary where the owners are also the executive management, which is often the case in early stage companies.  It is worth keeping in mind that any directors, executive or non-executive, take on legal liabilities for their inputs and actions when they take up their position.

The focus of  an advisory board is somewhat different. They do not usually have a fiduciary responsibility in that they are not making financial decisions.  They serve to bring specialist and relevant knowledge and expertise to the running and growth of a company. This knowledge and expertise is available to the executive management, and where a BOD is in place they may provide similar support to them. However, it must be clearly understood by all that the BOD has the ultimate responsibility for any decisions.

Members of the advisory may have extensive market or technical knowledge in the field. They may also have strong networks which can assist the company in it’s sales efforts or when raising equity  investment.

An advisory can be invaluable; but only when carefully and strategically selected. A few pointers:

• Only select members to an advisory board that are bringing additional knowledge and input to the company strategy
• Have a clear charter and roles & responsibilities agreed between executive management, BOD (if there is one)  and the advisory board
• Agree rules for the operation of the advisory board; e.g. frequency of meetings, reimbursement, handling conflicts of interest etc.
• Ensure the members are fully conversant with the business plan, product/service offerings, customer base and financial status before coming to any formal arrangement.

Don’t be overly concerned if you cannot immediately put all of these together. In fact advisory board members may be able to help you do this at the outset.