“Winners change their business mix year after year; while laggards sit still” is a popular adage. So, why must you put your portfolio on the move?

Portfolio management has always been key to business growth across all industry verticals. It is more so now in the pandemic induced new normal, where organizations face daily challenges, be it running operations, cash flow, disrupted supply chain, employee engagement or customer care.
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An analysis of financial results of several hundreds of companies from 2008 to 2018 through a long cycle of downturn, recovery and growth indicate that, those businesses that put its portfolio on the move tend to outperform. The reverse is true as well. Businesses with a static portfolio serially underperform. Why? Because the market moves on and the company doesn’t. 

Let’s take them one by one.

Portfolio Management:
Here are seven main takeaways from my review of the aforementioned finance study-

1. Keep the portfolio moving:
There is an optimal rate to rotate the industry you operate in. Leading companies tend to rotate their portfolios steadily, not widely. Also, do not keep them fixed in a place.

2. Move with the market:
Headwinds and tailwinds matter a lot. Best companies identify where the winds are shifting and deploy resources aggressively where they predict the value creation to be. Work to create value. Anything that is not ‘value’ is ‘waste’; and wastes lead to high operational costs.

3. Manage innovations:
Organizations that wisely invested in innovation be it product or process innovations created profitable portfolios. Like all aspects of business, innovation too must be well-managed for it to be strategic, customer-centric and profitable. Innovation management becomes more critical in todays times where economy is battered, and organizations face heavy budget crunch. (Tip- Remember innovation is not R&D. I have a separate post explaining the difference).

4. Use M&A to speed up your way:
Mergers and acquisitions are generally essential to realize value creation. There are different approaches to M&A and they tend to produce different outcomes. I shall write a separate post on tips and tools for M&A during crisis/ challenging business environment. The central message though is that, high performers conduct programmatic M&A. The next logical question is- How far from your core should you aim M&A? 

5. Focus on acquisitions at the perimeter of your portfolio: 
The acquisition radius study is vital before each M&A deal and this acquisition radius is based on the type of acquisition. Broadly, there are four main categories of acquisitions-   
   

• Adding to portfolio’s primary, including segment.
• Adding to an existing secondary industry segment.
• Buying into a segment adjacent to an existing business.
• Stepping out into an unrelated industry.         

The odds are best when companies use M&A to accelerate a move towards new opportunities in existing but secondary businesses that is outside, but not too far outside of their core sectors.

6. Go harder when you are in a tough spot:
How you stack up against your competitors affects how hard you need to pull-on these levers. Make aggressive portfolio moves when you are fallen behind. When you have a declining business focusing on performance improvement alone and ignoring your portfolio does little for your odds of sharply turning things around.

7. Top performers are relentless capital reallocators:
They assign their current businesses to the categories 'grow’, ‘maintain’, ‘dispose’ and keep clearly differentiated rules for how much capital goes into each.

​How to conduct portfolio management strategically to thrive in the new normal is a vast topic. I shall be writing several blog posts on this in the coming days, so do stay tuned-in. For now, let’s move on to the second winning tool- Continuous Improvement.

Continuous Improvement:
A dynamic portfolio demands strategic Continuous Improvement of products and business process alike. In most organizations, Continuous Improvement on product usually happens as a part of business development group's product life cycle management agenda via market research and financial models, though it is not the ideal way to do it. 

Business processes on the other hand, even in profit making organizations usually are antiquated. And this is the starting point of the corporate's downfall, which generally begins with either customer complaints or high running costs, then unmet quarterly financial goals and if not checked in time, can have a free fall leading to the company's close down. ​

​There are over eighteen scientific and time-tested Business Process Improvement methodologies to choose from depending on the size and nature of your business; though Lean, Kaizen, Kanban, Hoshin and TRIZ give maximum benefits rapidly. Checkout more on Continuous Improvement here.
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Effective Portfolio Management and strategic Continuous Improvement have proved themselves in good times and bad, and they are also harder to apply than they seem on the face of it. But how much derives comes from taking steps to get there…

If you feel like the call to enrich your company's portfolio, manage innovations and implement strategic continuous improvement needs best expertise reach out to us.

According to a Gartner study 2019, traditionally companies have spent as much as $2420 per employee comprising- flexible work policies, workplace redesigns, learning & development opportunities etc. However, only 13% employees in the study reported ‘satisfied’. 

Satisfied and motivated employees bring-on innovation, continuous improvement, increased productivity and in general creates a ‘happy’ space for everyone to work together in the organization.

Employee morale is one of the key ingredients of business success, thus it cannot be overlooked. So, the glaring question here is- How can leaders keep employees happy?

I would say that it is a three-part process, namely:

1. Calibrate expectations.
2. Personalize experience.
3. Shape memories.

Calibrate expectations-
Organizations should be clear about what it can and cannot deliver given their available resources and priorities, which will change as the economy ebbs and flows.

Once this map is ready, HR leaders should involve employees in creating a topography thru a survey about what changes they would like to implement and what makes them excited to come to work.

I would recommend using Personal Kaizen (or Employee Kaizen) tool to create an ‘experience blueprint’. You may combine Kaizen with day- long workshops designed to help employees determine and document their priorities. Use these blueprints for employee engagement.

Next, Managers should engage in one-on-one dialogue with workforce to align each employee’s aspiration with organization’s vision.

On the face of it, this exercise may look lengthy and cumbersome, but it is not. Calibrating employee expectations with organizational expectations is a sure win-win approach to go for.

Personalize day-to-day experience:
Employees might fear repercussion from voicing their requests or objections if any, so leaders need to create a psychologically safe environment for discussions. Encourage transparent, often and intellectual dialogues between leaders and employees. Scrap-off ‘Do as I say’ work code (that is, if it still exists at your workplace) .

Shape memories:
This involves shaping memories both good and bad. HR leaders can ask employees to reflect on how the employee development programs have improved their work lives. Encourage them to post their stories on company blog, newsletter, and share them at team meetings, open-house gatherings, off-site boot camps and other forums.

As companies emerge from the current economic crisis leaders might seek ways to highlight examples of how they supported their employees, such as- by continuing to pay sidelined workers or providing extended sick leave.
Of all the times, today’s business leaders and decision-makers must exhibit high emotional maturity, empathy and tolerance.

Installing a culture of Leadership Kaizen at your workplace creates successful leaders, motivated workforce and a thriving business.

Governments of practically all countries have initiated unlock procedures after a complete lock down for 3-4 months due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Organizations are slowly getting back to business, but situation is different now. Wearing mask in public spaces and offices, physical distancing is the new normal. And companies must gear up to this challenge while ensuring operational productivity and profitability.

Here are top 3 guidelines which companies can follow to keep their workforce safe despite the uncertainties posed by crisis such as Covid-19:
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1. Protect the workforce.
2. Engage the workforce.
3. Manage risks effectively to ensure uninterrupted workflow.

Protect workforce:
Formalize / revise SOP (standard operating procedure) and tools that keep your workforce safe. This includes man and/or material flow, air flow patterns, building maintenance, housekeeping etc. Conduct regular swab tests and volumetric air sampling to monitor clean air and surface conditions at your facility.

Engage workforce:
Leaders and superiors must exhibit high emotional quotient and tolerance. Let there be a two-way communication with your workforce than just top down. To achieve this, ramping up your company’s communications strategy is a sure winner. Regularly share information about your company’s evolving knowledge of the crisis and how it is using that knowledge to protect its employees and organization.

Clarity, simplicity, transparency, positivity, framework, and frequency of message together play an important role in effective communication.

Manage risks effectively to ensure uninterrupted workflow :
Just as it is important to receive correct information, it is also equally important to stay away from fake news and rumors. This implies consistent content, reflecting a single source of information at the corporate center.

Open offices are shrinking; soon they will be a thing of the past. Remember we went for open offices because it allowed better people contact and created mini bonds between members of the workforce which ultimately boosted productivity.

Now with social distancing, work-pods and remote working in place, we have moved a notch farther away. In such a scenario circulating fake news or rumors can cause a state of chaos and confusion among employees thus resulting in apprehension and conflicts.

3Cs- Clear, Correct and Concise communication plays a vital role in ensuring uninterrupted workflow, high employee morale and productivity.

So how do we head-on to it?

Managers and supervisors must maintain open and two-way dialogue with their workforce. Collect queries and concerns from front-line team members each morning.

The company’s HR/ PR division can publish an updated daily list of Q&A which are displayed on the company’s intranet, staff notice boards or sent out as email or text messages to employee cell phones. This will help drop absenteeism and increase productivity.

As an additional benefit this approach will uncover several previously un-asked questions perhaps unrelated to the pandemic, but these questions may have been brewing in the minds of front-line workforce for a while.

Answering such questions and dealing with whatever needs to be done to sort out any issues will boost productivity and workforce satisfaction.

A parting note- Capitalize on these improvements by standardizing the enhanced communication approach, periodically improve communication SOP in order to prevent letting things regress to pre-crisis norms as the situation stabilizes.

Begin Kaizen-ing your communication SOP. It does not cost much. Just 10-15 minutes daily and you can reap exponential rewards.

Kaizen is a time-tested Japanese technique of continual improvement. Kaizen professes small incremental changes to business processes and brings-in faster returns. 

Want to initiate Kaizen at your workplace?

‘Go- digital’ is the new magic mantra in today’s time of the ‘new normal’. The new normal induced by the pandemic compels us to work differently as we successfully wade thru the un-lockdown phase …

Clear and inspiring communication is central to making returning to work a success. In addition to moving decisively on strategic changes, leaders need to help unnerved workforce believe in the future.

Traditional ways of working are ebbing fast. Most companies have installed sophisticated IT infrastructure such as ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, payroll programs etc. More companies are moving towards automation and digitization. Industry 4.0 involves automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, IoT (internet—of-things), cloud-based working, big data etc. Needless to say, this involves big money.

A well -defined post-pandemic IT strategy should guide cuts and investments. Consider following three points while building your tech modernization strategy-
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1. Define the target product portfolio based on current and new business with strongest prospects and most feasible funding models.
2. Invest efficiently and stick to the plan, operational and commercial excellence will deliver the strategy is full potential.
3. Create clear structure and processes for executing the new strategy across the organization.

Companies will also need to greatly improve their IT productivity to lower their cost base and fund rapid, flexible digital solution development.

Firstly, this requires quickly reducing IT costs and making them variable whenever possible to match demand. This means figuring out what costs are flexible in the near-to-medium terms. For example- by evaluating nonessential costs related to projects or maintenance and reallocating resources. Using process design methodologies such as CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) can give first-class improvement in IT productivity while lowering costs to minimal.

Secondly, this involves defining a future IT product platform, establishing the skills and roles needed to sustain it, mapping these skills onto the new organization model and developing leaders who can train people to fill the new or adopted roles. Using process improvement methodologies such as- Design Thinking, TRIZ or Hoshin during new product platform development ensures a customer-centric product.

Thirdly, the adoption of cloud and automation technologies will need to be speeded-up, including bringing cloud operations on the premise and decommissioning legacy infrastructure.

Increasing the speed and productivity of digital solutions is key. To deal with the crisis and its aftermath, companies not only need to develop digital solutions quickly, but also to adapt their organizations to new operating models and deliver these solutions to customers and employees at scale.

Solving this challenge requires integrating business processes, incorporating data-driven decision-making and implementing proven change management models to manage the change. There are different ways to do this …

#ContinuosImprovement  #NewNormal  #ITStrategy  #DigitalSolutions

Covid- 19 is powering a shift to remote working, heightening cyber security concerns for many organizations and fueling growth for investors in the space.

​These are three under-invested areas in IT resources today that are critical and must be first addressed for a secure remote working; namely:

1. Identity and access management.
2. Endpoint protection.
3. Application (or App) security.

Cyber security has always been on top of minds for organizations, many of which have had to deal with data breaches, ransom attacks, phishing scams and other forms of intrusions. The pandemic has brought that concern into even greater focus.

So far network boundaries of access were relied upon for threat security. The rise in remote workforce and the proliferation of access points means that organizations will need to extend their cyber security priorities beyond protecting their networks.

So far, IAM (Identity Access Management) has been considered as add-on to cyber apps, but not anymore, as a greater number of people opt for work from home or remote locations.

The most important feature of a good IAM solution is usability and consistency. If employees become frustrated because of a cumbersome log-in process or multiple levels of verifications; they will seek workabouts and undermine the very security.

As more devices get into the company’s network, this prolific user endpoints also need data protection and security.

Endpoint protection solutions serve the simple purpose of enabling access while blocking malware. They assist with data encryption and data transfer between many endpoints from a centrally managed system. Also, user-owned devices that are not controlled by the company must have up-to-date operating systems, applications, and web browsers, for reducing the risk of vulnerabilities.

For all Apps, security features must be built-into at the time of app development, while minimizing friction in workflows.

One change at a time thru Kaizen technique is all that it takes to enhance your IT system’s performance and productivity, and simultaneously bring-in exponential returns.

Would you like to know more on how Kaizen can help your organization’s IT process improvement?

#Digitalization #ITProcessImprovement  #CyberSecurity  #RemoteWorking  #KaizenForIT #ContinuousImprovement #Covid19 #WorkFromHome #AppSecurity

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way customers buy- be it buying channel, format or quantities for that matter.

Early on during the pandemic, we witnessed panic buying by shoppers. Everything from toilet papers to grains was stock-out. Both online and brick-n-mortar store shelves were seen left barren; something unheard-off in the North American continent. While physical distancing norms pushed buyers to shop more online rather than visit malls.

A paradigm shift to online way of getting items means companies and their outlets must go digital in a big way. This indicates that the customer is changing, customer’s needs and demands are evolving. Overall, customer persona is changing and also the customer-touch points.

Thus a structured and strategic refocus of digital efforts that reflect changing customer expectations is a must. 

To adapt, companies need to quickly rethink customer journeys and accelerate the development of digital solutions; though the emphasis will be different for each industry sector.

For many retailers, this includes creating a seamless e-commerce experience, enabling customers to complete everything they need to do online, from initial research and purchase to service and returns.

For auto companies, this could mean establishing new digital distribution models to handle trade-ins, financing, servicing and home delivery of cars.

For airline and other transportation industries, it may mean ensuring health and safety. For example- by reinventing the passenger experience with contact-less check-in, boarding and in-flight experience.

For pharmaceutical sector, one of the many areas of going digital means expanding reach of medicinal products via online pharmacies. Drug companies must develop online platforms that facilitate selling of prescription products to patients. This necessitates deep development of platform software to ensure accuracy of dispensing. For example- how to ensure ingenuity of prescription, how to consider health insurance benefits while dispensing medicines for a hospitalized patient etc.

Another arena of digitization in pharmaceutical sphere is detailing to doctors. In a recent survey it was found that 75% of doctors prefer e-detailing as against face-to-face meetup with a sales rep. The e-detailing platform must hence not only be secure but also versatile- meaning all pharmaceutical companies must preferably use the same platform for e-detailing.

Besides digital marketing and e-detailing, drug companies also must consider changes in the healthcare sector, as any change in healthcare process directly impacts drug product sales.

For example, the ongoing pandemic has resulted in minimizing patient visits to clinics. Instead telemedicine is booming where physician consultation happens via videoconferencing or over the phone. The software and/or hardware used for telemedicine purpose must also be compatible with the one used for e-detailing and online pharmacies; only then prescriptions can be tracked.

Drug companies, healthcare professionals and IT developers must collaborate to set up a robust digital platform. If done strategically, this can also be a huge opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to save on recurring overheads in a big way.

Did you know that practicing Kaizen for 15 to 20 minutes daily, is the shortcut to business process improvement including digitization and digitalization processes? You may checkout more on how Kaizen helps pharmaceutical companies here.

Have you initiated steps to improve digitization and digitalization processes in your organization?

​Covid-19 pandemic has left business leaders to deal with unprecedented challenges such as- poor cash flow, fluctuating customer demands, social distancing affecting both business operations as well as product sales etc., the list can get exhaustive … And we do not yet have any sight of ‘Corona- The End’. 

So how do business leaders get their organizations back in shape and thriving? My short and crisp answer to this question is- Innovation and Continuous Improvement.

But both need funds. In today’s times most businesses are hand-to-mouth with cash flow. Research budgets of most industry sectors (except pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and software) have taken huge cuts. Fund allocation for Continuous Improvement projects have also taken a back seat.

So how come I’m recommending Continuous Improvement for businesses at such a turbulent time? Because Continuous Improvement initiates changes in the way companies operate, thus leading to increased cash flow. Once cash flow problem is sorted out, everything else can be put in place quickly.

There are over eighteen time-tested scientific Continuous Improvement methodologies to choose from. Select a methodology that will bring-in best returns for your business. For example, IT companies can go in for CMMI, pharmaceutical companies can choose Lean etc. While companies from all industry verticals can opt for Kaizen. Note that, Kaizen methodology is also best suited for start-ups.

But it is important to understand status of your business before beginning with Continuous Improvement initiatives. For example- Is your business going through difficult times because of a pandemic, recession, or natural disasters such as cyclone, earthquake etc.

Secondly find out- Is it just your business going through difficult times while your competitor(s) and other industries by and large are unaffected? Answers to those questions will pave way to solutions to wade through the crisis successfully.

A question I often get is when to start with Continuous Improvement initiative? And I often rephrase the question- It is not Continuous Improvement that’s a technical term. What you are doing is Business Improvement. As improving your business’s operations and performance is the lifeline for its survival, so begin with it ASAP!

Therefore, earlier you begin Continuous Improvement campaigns in your organization, quicker will be the rewards and it will also be smooth sailing … because turning around a sick business is definitely more challenging than transforming an otherwise working business.
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Usually Innovation and Continuous Improvement either singly or in combination bring about business improvement; but its is vital to know when to ‘innovate’ and when to ‘improve’...

#BusinessTransformation  #ContinuousImprovement  #BusinessTurnaround #Lean #Kaizen #CMMI #StartUp