Impactful Element: Processes
Impactful "Processes": systematic refinement of operations to drive efficiency, peak performance, and continuous improvement.
Welcome to The Impactful Executive!
Read time: 2.5 min
The Impactful Executive newsletter uses the Impactful Framework as a loosely structured sequence of nine elements, each with evidence-based practices and tactics for executives, managers, advisors, and their teams.
See the reference article below, if needed, before this Element deep dive.
The Impactful Framework
Evidence-based practices for executive teams.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy are the noise before defeat.”
Sun Tzu
Impactful Element Defined: Processes
"If you can't describe what you are doing as a process, you don't know what you're doing."
W. Edwards Deming
"Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them."
Henry Ford
The “Processes” element is defined as:
The focus of this post is the “Processes” element, which is defined as:
Documented and standardized procedures or sets of actions that are repeatable, sequenced, and designed to achieve a specific goal or output.
Evaluated and optimized to ensure maximum efficiency and minimal waste, aligning with the overarching business strategy.
Include everything from manufacturing and supply chain operations to customer service and HR functions.
Embody the transition from inputs to outputs, converting resources efficiently into deliverables.
Integral to business operations as they provide the structure, clarity, and leverage for all business activities.
"Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets."
Paul Batalden
"You can't improve what you don't measure… Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing... layout, processes, and procedures."
Tom Peters
Impactful Element Practices: Processes
The following is a sample selection of Impactful Processes Practices:
Use Benchmarks and Data-Driven Decisioning: Companies using reliable data and analytics benchmarks are more profitable. An example: Southwest Airlines improved its turnaround time for planes at the gate using benchmarking. Similarly, the Oakland Athletics baseball team used data-driven decision-making to scout players, maintaining a competitive team on a modest budget.
Employ Theory of Constraints (TOC): This management paradigm helps recognize the bottlenecks in any manageable system or process. Companies implementing ToC have reported better throughput, reduced inventory levels, and improved due-date performance. The World Food Programme applied TOC to enhance the efficiency of food distribution to crisis areas.
Practice Lean Management: Lean practices, which aim to eliminate waste and continuously improve operations, can significantly cut processing time and enhance productivity. The Toyota Production System, a leading example of Lean Management, has revolutionized manufacturing processes worldwide.
Implement Agile Methodologies: Agile is a flexible project management approach that can significantly boost revenue growth and improve product/service delivery speed. Spotify and John Deere effectively apply agile methodologies to promote agility, collaboration, and innovation and respond quickly to market changes and customer needs.
Emphasize Continuous Improvement: Continuous improvement can lead to substantial productivity increases. Amazon exemplifies this principle with its efficient business process management and improvement, aiding its dominance in the e-commerce market. Another unique example is the weekly cycle of writing, rehearsing, feedback, and performance of the Saturday Night Live comedy show.
Embrace Digital Transformation: Leveraging digital technologies to modify existing processes can improve organizational performance, customer value, and cost reduction. Netflix has used technology to change content delivery through its streaming platform, securing its industry leadership.
Use Quality Control Mechanisms: Quality control reduces defects, rework, and waste, saving costs. Zappos extends quality control to customer service with a 100% satisfaction guarantee return policy, ensuring customers are satisfied with their purchases.
Adopt Six Sigma: Six Sigma, a set of techniques for process improvement, can lead to substantial productivity gains and profit margins. For example, Mount Sinai Medical Center applied Six Sigma to drastically reduce the turnaround time for radiology reports, positively impacting patient care.
"Without data, you are just another person with an opinion."
W. Edwards Deming
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
Leonardo da Vinci
In subsequent newsletters, we will deep-dive into many specific practices outlined above.
The Impactful Executive’s Purpose
Reminder: this newsletter pursues high-impact practices and tactics across each element to share fact-based, usable, and (hopefully) surprising insights.
It takes deliberate and sustained effort to drive organizational greatness. The Impactful Executive aims to make this greatness far more reachable.
In Jim Collins’ words, "Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline."
Impactfully yours,
The Impactful Executive Team
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