Pay attention to business processes Speaking of Business

Question: My company has made a series of investments in technology products to improve productivity. Though many aspects of our business are running much better, we still don’t seem to be making the improvements in growth and profitability that we expected. We’re all working hard, but it just doesn’t seem like we’re getting enough done. Is there an element of our business that we need to take a closer look at?

Answer: According to Tom Doerr, a member of Strategic Leadership Group (tom.doerr@strategic-leader.com), businesses in our country, especially during the past decade, have focused on improving the productivity of their organizations through the implementation of complex enterprise software and hardware systems. These investments have been very important and necessary for success in an information-based economy. E-commerce and the global economy are a reality and any company that chooses not to make these investments will find it difficult to do business with the vast majority that have.

Many businesses, in their rush to keep up with advancements in the technology of commerce, have created an environment that is fundamentally reliant on the technology to take care of the business. This reliance on technology caused many businesses to forget how work gets done and has led to a loss of creativity and problem solving capabilities.

Our businesses have been slow to realize that even with the awesome power of our technology we must still rely on our employees to take the data processed, turn it into information and make decisions with it. These processes, performed by the people in our organizations, aren’t reliant on technology. They are the processes that utilize the innate creativity and knowledge of our employees. They are the processes that create customer satisfaction, solve problems, define what the next generation of technology will look like and drive our growth and profitability to the next level.

Well-designed and implemented business processes are vital for the ongoing and long term health of organizations. They are the elements of our business that are used to ensure that strategies are effectively implemented, goals and objectives are met, and the requirements of our customers and stakeholders are satisfied.

Well-designed business processes aren’t overly complicated, and are easy to measure. They reduce the amount of organizational overhead and bureaucracy, and provide effective measurement systems for our organizations with a clear objective of progress toward goals.

Business processes typically operate across one or more areas or functions of the business. Good examples would be the processes of new product development, management or organizational review, and customer satisfaction. The objectives and deliverables of the functions and employees in our organizations need to be properly defined and orchestrated to ensure a successful product launch, an organized means of achieving goals, a happy, satisfied customer, and most importantly, profit and growth for the business.

There are no clear cut rules as to when and where business processes need to be put in place, but there’s a general rule of thumb that can help: If you’re feeling pain, then create and implement a business process to take the pain away.

Three principal elements that need to be considered in the creation or repair of a business process are: