I get this question all the time- What are the top technical and people skills we should look for while hiring a Continuous Improvement / Business Process Management Consultant or a Consulting Firm?

As the response is broad, I will take them point wise. But, before heading to the skills of the consultant, let me begin with what are the success factors for achieving Continuous Improvement? There are three success factors namely- Choice of the Continuous Improvement methodology, its strategy design and flawless execution.
 
I won’t be exaggerating if I say, “Choosing the right Continuous Improvement methodology is the lifeline of your business- be it a small firm or a large multi-national corporation”.
 
As the consulting expert or the consulting firm usually recommends the best Continuous Improvement methodology for a company, selecting a right consulting expert therefore becomes key.
 
A Continuous Improvement consultant plays dual roles. Firstly, she /he advises the Continuous Improvement methodology a company must go in for. And secondly, she / he may be become the change leader for that campaign.
 
It is up to the company to select one individual who can wear dual hats, or they can get two separate individuals. Although, in my experience of two decades in this field, I believe that it is better to get one individual on board who will play dual roles, that is, advise on the methodology to be used as well as lead to bring-on the change.
 
When the Continuous Improvement project is large, a group of consultants may be needed to handle it well. But this consultant group must be led by one individual, who is the Principal Continuous Improvement Expert.
 
Usually I witness that Continuous Improvement projects in companies are ill-coordinated. The result of which is that several projects either fail or sometimes do not lift- off the ground. Too many cooks spoil the pudding is an old adage and this is very apt for projects too.
 
Another vital point to note is that companies run Continuous Improvement projects department wise. For example, Facility maintenance  may run a Continuous Improvement campaign in their department. Another campaign may be going in Manufacturing division or, yet another campaign may be happening in Supply Chain division etc. Each of these campaigns are led by individual consultants who are assigned for the project. And these consultants report-in to the Manager or Head of the respective department. In my view, this is wrong, because costs rise while rewards generated are few.
 
Also, many a times Continuous Improvement function is clubbed with Quality Management department. This is again wrong, because quality improvement or quality management is only a small part of Continuous Improvement campaign.
 
If a company is indeed serious with its Continuous Improvement initiative, then they must create a full-fledged Continuous Improvement department. Small companies can perhaps have it as a department of one individual, while larger companies can have bigger teams.
 
This Continuous Improvement department must identify improvement projects that will bring-in maximum rewards for the company. If pains in business operations are already known, then surely, they can be picked up as Continuous Improvement projects, but this selection must be done strategically and with a flawless execution road-map. The success of the Continuous Improvement project therefore lies with its Leader.

There are several criteria of a successful Continuous Improvement Leader. But here I have mentioned nine crucial skills of a highly effective Continuous Improvement consulting expert-

1. The consulting expert must have the ability to understand client’s business and be efficient at stakeholder management.
2. The consulting expert or firm should have an integrated and overall understanding of the industry sector, its verticals, peculiarities, regulations & legislation, product types, customer avenues and marketing geographies. Most importantly for companies, it is imperative to match ‘chemistry’ with the Expert rather than looking at ‘geometry’ of the Consulting firm.
3. The consulting expert must have an up-to-date knowledge of different continuous improvement or business process management methodologies. She/ he must be hands-on with applying those methodologies successfully.
4. The consulting expert must have a passion for creating a culture of Continuous Improvement  in your organization, to bring-forth the desired positive change within prescribed time, scope and budget.
5. The consulting expert must have the ability to speak up whenever top management is wrong.
6. The consulting expert must have the ability to explain complex ideas in simple words.
7. The consulting expert must have the ability to listen and must show openness to continuous learning.
8. The consulting expert must have high emotional quotient (EQ). She/ he must be patient, persistent and persuasive while bringing on and/or managing change.
9. Amnesia- This is the most vital criteria.The Continuous Improvement expert should forget all the good work she/he did with previous organizations- What worked there may not work at your workplace, as each company has its own set of business processes, people, organizational culture, office politics and associated problems as a result thereof. The continuous improvement expert should have a mindset of always ‘starting with a clean slate’.

Want to invite Shruti to speak at your organization or evaluate Continuous Improvement prospects for your business?

So far rising competition and changing customer demands have posed immense challenges to businesses. However, businesses today must deal with two additional problems namely- high rate of 'change' and irregular cash flow. 

There is little direct control a business has over change, market economy, competition or customer demand. But preventing a situation of irregular cash flow is hundred percent in the hands of the company.

As many as 80% of small businesses worldwide deal with irregular cash flow crisis on a daily basis. This can be completely avoided by installing a culture of Continuous Improvement in your company.

A culture of continuous improvement straight away means continuous business improvement, lower operational costs and higher profits.

But, for Continuous Improvement programs to generate faster ROI (return on investment), we must consider following four factors-

1. Employee engagement.
2. Communication strategy.
3. Employee training.
4. Choice of Continuous Improvement methodology.

Let's look at them one-by-one ...

Employee engagement-
One of the most important ways of developing culture of Continuous Improvement in an organization is to let the employees know their significance to the 'Continuous Improvement' goal.

​Adding an incentive to Continuous Improvement campaigns has often been found to raise employee morale. Incentives such as monetary rewards, flexible work timings, insurance, promotions, paid education, low-interest loans are usually appreciated by employees.

Next success factor is- Communication strategy.

Communication strategy-
Developing a culture of Continuous Improvement often relies on the Continuous Improvement change leader's ability to communicate regularly, precisely and authentically share ideas with employees.  

While designing communication strategy, it is necessary to be conscious that, everyone do not have the ability to communicate exactly what's in their mind. Regardless of the caliber, level of education or work cadre, people do have challenges expressing thoughts and feelings, and it is very human, nothing wrong with it.

Hence, continuous improvement change leaders and HR leaders must design communication strategy over a solid foundation of emotional quotient to empathize and anticipate employee concerns.

Also, change leaders must repeat their messages frequently. The '7 times rule' of branding also applies here.

The 7 times rule says that information must be brought in front of the audience at least seven times via multiple channels and at periodic frequency. Employee-communications must be repeated frequently, so that employees are often reminded of the objective underlying the continuous improvement campaign, and also how their contribution is vital to the success of the campaign.

Further, employees should know whom they can ask questions to; because it is vital that employees are encouraged to ask questions and feel comfortable asking them. 

Lastly, the communication strategy  must be modified from time-to-time as work-place realities change.

The third success factor is Employee training ...

Employee Training-
Continuous Improvement in an organization means that employees are constantly learning, improving and consistently contributing to the main goal of the company.

​In any company big or small, employee mix has various components- old hands, new hires, varied levels of intellect, analytical ability and memory. Therefore learning tools and techniques must be malleable and customized according to leaner's capabilities, only then it will give best rewards.

Another point to note is that, unlike previously, skills today have a short shelf life of 2-3 years. As technology advances or customer demands change, companies need to continuously reinvent themselves to stay afloat. Employees too must unlearn and reinvent themselves to stay relevant. And this can happen with continuously learning.

Therefore corporate learning and development strategy must focus on continuous re-skilling and up-skilling, so that your talent pool is always confident and job-ready.

The fourth success factor is Continuous Improvement methodology itself...

Choice of Continuous Improvement methodology -
​Continuous Improvement necessitates all individuals within the company to move in the same direction and meet goals in an organized manner. Using a variety of assessment and planning tools determine the speed and duration of change, operational effectiveness and sustained organizational excellence with the Continuous Improvement initiatives. 

There are over 18 different time-tested Continuous Improvement methodologies including- Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma, ISO, Kanban etc. These Continuous Improvement methodologies are scientific in outlook, easy to implement and versatile- meaning they can be applied to any industry sector.

The choice of the continuous improvement methodology largely depends on the size of the business, work-place culture, product offerings, regions of operations, customer persona, cash-flow situation and operational pains of the organization. Hence, it is extremely important to understand ‘how to choose a continuous improvement methodology’ that is most beneficial for your business.

Selecting the right continuous improvement methodology is therefore, lifeline of your continuous improvement program.
​
Ensuring excellence in strategy design of all of the above four success factors and its execution, largely guarantees sustained success with continuous improvement aka business growth!

#ContinuousImprovementMethodology #ChangeLeader #BusinessImprovement #CommunicationStrategy #EmployeeEngagement #StrategicBusinessImprovement

​Many times, people are unaware of the effects of drinking alcohol and fruit juices while on medications. 

Certain medications such as anti-depressants, anti-blood pressure, anti-diabetics should never be mixed or consumed along with alcohol (not even 1-2 social drinks). Similarly, certain anti-blood pressure medicines and antibiotics should never be consumed along with fruit juices especially grape-fruit juice. Why so? There are three main reasons: 

Firstly because many drugs inherently interact with alcohol and/ or fruit juices (including natural juices). In technical terms this is called as drug-food interaction. What this means is that, the drug’s behavior on a patient’s body changes and it may not show the desired beneficial effect or cure. This is called In other cases, it may also show single or multiple adverse effects including vomiting, head ache, flushing, paralysis or even death.

Secondly, if a patient takes multiple medications (including vitamins and supplements), consuming alcohol or fruit juice along with medications can lead to potential drug-drug interactions inside a patient’s body. This can aggravate effect of one drug while minimizing effect of other drugs, producing toxic effects of one drug while the other drugs show no effect at all !  

Thirdly, if a patient takes a ‘Time Release” medication, consuming alcohol along with such medications might prove to be fatal. 

A time-release medicament is a hi-tech product. It typically contains 2 or more doses of the drug (or medicament) in a single tablet or capsule, which is programmed to automatically release appropriate drug doses at programmed time intervals. Alcohol damages this programming and the patient gets all doses in one go, scientifically referred to as ‘dose dumping’. And the adversity of toxic effects as a result of dose-dumping, will directly be dependent upon the extent of dose-dumping and may include headache, vomiting, skin rashes, difficulty in breathing, loss of vision, memory loss, paralysis and death. Since, each person’s body reacts differently to alcohol initiated dose-dumping, it is absolutely impractical to predict severity of adverse effects. 

Synonymous time-release formulations include- Extended release (ER), Modified release (MR), Controlled release (CR), Sustained release (SR), Prolonged release (PR), Delayed release (DR) etc. 

Time-release medications are available both as Prescription (for example Sedatives, Marijuana, Antidepressants, Opiates, Anti-diabetic, Anti-blood pressure, Antibiotics etc.) as well as Over- the-counter (OTC) products (such as Cold, Flu, Anti-allergy, Aspirin, Pain remedies etc). 

Regardless of the medicament being regular or a time-release product, if you take prescription or over-the-counter medications, ask your health care provider for advice about alcohol, fruit juice intake. An important point to note is that even herbal medicines and supplements can have adverse interactions with alcohol and/or fruit juices.

Such information about a particular drug product's potential interaction with alcohol, fruit juices, or any other hot or cold beverage can be displayed on the pharma manufacturing company's website. This is an un-met opportunity in Continuous Improvement of patient engagement process. 

Disclaimer- Readers are advised to please note that, the information contained in this article is NOT a substitute for medical advice. It is intended to empower general public to understand the pharmaceutical world and consider ideas and alternatives while discussing their specific health scenario with medical and pharmaceutical professionals. Please discuss your specific scenario with a qualified Medical Doctor and ONLY follow health advice given by a qualified medical professional. Also, please note that each country has its own health care related regulation(s), readers are therefore expected to over-ride any information presented here to adhere to rules of their land.

Today USFDA announced addition of QR Code to certain export certificates for food products. This unique QR code will allow easier verification of the authenticity of the export certificates. ​

​Practising 'Daily Kaizen' has brought about swift turnaround of the sick contract research organization (CRO). Learn how Japanese Kaizen principle was used to speed-up Generic Pharmaceutical Product Development in a contract research company in Asia.

Watch on...

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#Manufacturing #Lean #ContinuousImprovement #Kaizen  #QualityImprovement  #ManufacturingManagement  #LeanInnovation  #Pharmaceutical  #LifeSciences  #Drugs #KaizenLeaderMasterclass  #Kanban  #ProductDevelopment #BusinessTurnaround  #BusinessTransformationofaCRO

​Have you ever been in a situation where there are open positions in your department that haven’t been filled out for one or two years?

On one hand there is mounting workload while on the other hand the response from HR office is that, they are and have been doing their best- they have personally looked out for good candidates, contacted several recruitment companies to get biodata of suitable candidates, yet they haven’t been able to find a correct fit for the open roles.

Many a times supervisors and department heads term such HR responses as ‘excuse’. 

To learn more about how Shruti can help your organization achieve new heights or to book a Workshop, Contact Dr. Shruti Bhat via Form or WhatsApp

Follow Shruti on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn

​#Kaizen  #HR #ProcessExcellence  #ContinuousImprovement   #BusinessProcessManagement  #ServiceIndustry    #BPM #LeanManagement  #KaizenLeaderMasterclass  #kaizenInHR

A business process improvement project within an organization usually starts out with statements like “We have this problem and we think this is the issue that must be sorted out”. In my experience, 9 times out of 10, the cause of the problem is radically different from what one ‘thinks’ is the issue. Hence, the precursor to choosing a process improvement project is to acknowledge that there is a problem whose root cause(s) must be first be identified before going any further with the process improvement idea.

Once you have an idea of the ‘real’ issue(s) or the ‘root cause(s)’ which must be addressed, you must establish what sort of improvement you are seeking. Because a goal provides the  context for determining as well as designing  an action plan. For example, the improvement steps to save $1000 via a process improvement campaign are obviously far different from the steps to save $100,000 or $1M - but that’s also the only way you can draw a project's finishing line and establish whether that project was a success.
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Also, the journey for reaching goals may vary and the execution plan documents the road map for achieving the goal.
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All popular continuous improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, Hoshin Kanri, Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen , Kanban etc. incorporate the same focus on setting goals that are easily understood, across an organization.
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