Successful Strategic Execution Business Processes Must Be Addressed to Achieve Desired Results

Business processes exist in every business from paying invoices to delivering the products or services. However identifying, documenting and enforcing these sequential step by step course of actions appear to be the last concern for many firms and is the biggest productivity drainer not to mention the loss to the bottom line.

The word process has Latin origins from the word proceed which means "to go forward." Process is often used interchangeably with the word system; however they do not mean the same thing. "System" from its Greek roots means to set together. From an organizational perspective, the system is the plan while the process is the action necessary to make the plan work.

One way to determine if such actions are truly moving forward is to listen for one of these two frequently made remarks:

1. "This is how we have always done it."
2. If it ain't broke, why fix it?"

When I hear these words, I usually know that:

• The process has not been recently been reviewed
• There is probably no documentation of the actions
• Change and innovation are not on the immediate landscape

Another area where there is failure is within performance appraisals. A lot of organizations say they are performance driven, but when you look at the job descriptions to the actual performance appraisal process there exists numerous gaps. When gaps happen, there is backward movement happening. The result continues the drain on productivity not to mention profits.

With some small business owners looking to the future and possibly selling their enterprises, the lack of process documentation is a real deal breaker to making the sale. What I share with my clients is that when you open your business you should plan on selling you business. Document all of your daily operations actions from billing to following all sales leads. Challenge how you have done it (whatever actions you take on a daily basis) to make sure your processes are both efficient (doing things right) and effective (doing the right thing). Business training coaching tip: Succession leadership planning is a must for any organization from the micro to the macro.

Business processes or would you prefer the phrase Systems Operations are continually evolving because change is happening at whirlwind speed. How you move forward today will potentially change in the next 6 months to 2 to 5 years. Again, you must be ahead of the flow instead of being in the flow if you wish to not only to survive, but also to thrive.

Business Process Reengineering When to Use It

As companies grow and establish themselves, over time they will have developed a set of processes that are specific to their core business. This set of processes is what defines the company and how it runs their operations. It becomes almost predictable. These processes may be very well suited to run every day activities, and may even be sufficient to cope with changes in the markets they are operating in, however eventually the pace of their competitors and the markets will outrun them. That is, if they do not adapt accordingly and swiftly to these ever present and continuous changes. They will start to notice that they are no longer performing as efficiently as they were doing when they founded the organization.

For an organization to remain competitive or even lead in the markets in which they operate, it is vital to analyze if the foundation on which it was built and as it was once laid out, is still a good match to the current landscape they are in. The methods which have been developed and most likely extended during their existence may need to be reviewed, analyzed and re-built, as they lose efficiency.

This is where Business Process Reengineering - many times abbreviated to BPR - steps in. It is an analytic thinking which helps to understand and view how one can optimize the processes on which the company is built. In other words, optimizing them to today's market conditions, and clearly also to those of tomorrow. Although sometimes people tend to refer to this endeavor as improvement of business processes, for it to be really effective, reengineering is a technique that is way more dramatic than just improving existing processes; it is a complete redesign. This extensive and impactive exercise recognizes and analyzes the core processes, the goals it is trying to achieve, the services and products, and the customers and stakeholders. It will then re-align the business processes to these areas of focus.

The analysis is generally carried out on a broad and wide range of processes, ideally all processes of the enterprise. The reason for doing so is because the intention of the exercise is to make major improvements in the company's presence by incorporating changes that will strip inefficiency from the entire set of processes, i.e. in its totality. This will lead to results with more impact than when assuming an approach of parallel processes being analyzed and optimizing each of them separately and independently. The real and major benefit of the entire undertaking is that by applying a broader and more holistic view, the changes will be bigger than optimizing each process on its own.

Business Process Management Solutions

In designing an environment for the effective performance of individuals working together in groups, a manager's most essential task is to see that everyone understands the groups purposes and objectives and its method of attaining them. If group effort is to be effective, people must know what they are expected to accomplish. This is a function of business process management solutions. Planning plays a pivotal part in attaining the solutions.

Planning involves selecting missions and objectives and the actions to achieve them. It requires decision-making, choosing from among alternative future courses of action. Plans provide a rational approach to pre-selected objectives. Planning bridges the gap from where we are to where we want to go. It makes it possible for things to occur that would not otherwise happen. Although we can seldom predict the exact future, and although factors beyond our control may interfere with the best-laid plans, unless we plan, we are leaving events to chance.

Business process management solutions are an intellectually demanding process. They require that we consciously determine courses of action and base our decisions on purpose, knowledge and considered estimates. Any attempt to control without plans is meaningless, since there is no way for people to tell whether they are going where they want to go (the result of the task of control) unless they first know where they want to go (part of the task of planning). Plans thus furnish the standards of control.

The failure of some managers to recognize that there are a number of different types of solutions has often caused difficulty in making planning effective. It is easy to see that a major program, such as one to build and equip a new factory, is a plan. But a number of courses for future action are also plans. In fact, a plan can encompass any number of courses of future action that clearly show that plans are varied.

Business Process Outsourcing Management

Business process outsourcing (also known as BPO) management is crucial to the development of a business if done right. We are basically talking about a special type of outsourcing that will contract just a part of the business functions or responsibilities of a company. For instance, a business process outsourcing company might be responsible for the management of articles in a content writing business. Although BPO can relate to a number of things, nowadays we usually use it to describe service outsourcing.

When talking about business process outsourcing management we are referring to the management of BPO in any company. Business process outsourcing can be divided in 2 main categories:

- Back office BPO - linked with different possible internal functions of a business like finance, accounting, human resources and so on - Front office BPO - linked with services connected with customers

When people talk about business process outsourcing management that is done through the services of a company that is based in another country we must use the term "offshore outsourcing". It is very common to mistake regular BPO with offshore BPO due to the use of outsourcing.

We need to understand that BPO management is really a big field of activity. For instance, in India alone we are talking about over 11 billion US dollars in revenues generated by offshore activities done for other countries. Very big profits have also been recorded in South Africa, Egypt, Philippines, Morocco and Eastern Europe. As a total figure we can say that the entire BPO market is currently worth over $150 billion.

Why Business Process Outsourcing Management?

The biggest advantage that comes from BPO stands in flexibility. By outsourcing we are faced with a more flexible working environment that eventually builds up more time and bigger profits. It is quite easy to find an outsourcing company that will work cheaper than the local market, all at the same quality level. Also, if we take away some business functions from a company we are faced with a better work flow and a better focus on the internal activities. This basically translates in an increase competency of the core of the company.

The bottom line is that business process outsourcing management can easily increase the growth of a small business and even a bigger business. At the end of the day it is important to understand this and even try to incorporate it in your own business. It is basically impossible not to find the right BPO Company to handle your outsourced needs. All that you need is a good outsourcing strategy and profits can constantly rise.