image credit: photoeverywhere
Business Transformation is a process to introduce any new approach, process, strategy and change in an organisation. However to successfully transform a business there needs to be buy in, from multiple stakeholders and refining processes to match the stakeholder engagement.
From Logistics/Supply Chain Perspective its most critical that everybody knows what’s the transformation, what processes are refined and the intention behind the change. Too often the Forklift operator is clueless about the change that involves him as well. It is then harder for the exercise to be a success if all people do not change and adapt to the new process.
Here are 4 factors to consider before embarking on business transformation exercise
Strategy often gets discussed and approved in board rooms between consultants and top management. Strategy gets communicated to the departments without clear intent explained. This creates friction at various levels. At one level the employees fail to understand how to change or the new approach is going to benefit their department. On second level the employees themselves have to find a way to adjust the process to match the strategy. This is when most issues happen as most employees would rather stick to the old approach of running operations rather than change. A clear department wise standard operations procedure /Plan that explains the intent has clear metrics and address the challenges taking into confidence the key people from the department is needed for smoother implementation.
Engaging stakeholders is another important aspect of a successful business transformation exercise. Engaging means understanding each stakeholders interests and addressing their challenges in the execution approach. Whats in it for me principle applies to internal as well as key external stakeholders. External stakeholders mainly include vendors who are very critical to supply chain success of most companies. Their challenges also need to be considered and carefully integrated in the processes.
Stakeholders include vendors, communities, employees and customers however processes are often forgotten. Each process is a unique combination of people, machine/software and objective that needs to be carefully documented. Only interviewing employees doesn’t give insights into process changes and implementation. For detailed process integration needs deep observation of employees going about their work. details observation insights are need to understand how employee run the processes and trial runs of the new process along with training and re-training of employees needs to be instituted to make sure the newly documented process is understood and followed. Audits need to be conducted on regular basis to make sure the process is followed and results are visible.
This is the most important element of any business transformation exercise. Transitioning often means introducing new processes in small parts to help companies, departments ease into new method of execution. Typically software processes and implementation are the hardest since they affect all work processes and employees. Transitioning is very important stage and should be part of every transformation exercise.
This article will help HR, operations and execution teams as well as consultants to help their business transformation exercises. You can consult with the author Abhishek Date abhi@abhishekjdate-logistics.in to improve your business transformation.
