Just-in-time (JIT) technique is usually applied to manufacturing and service functions of companies, but not to their R&D divisions. 

​Considering the vast benefits of JIT methodology, I recommended using it in R&D division of a Life science company (my client). This company had a major set back; consequently, had a severe cash-crunch and was looking for a better option to sustain business and avoid employee layoffs.

This project was accomplished few years ago. However, the learnings are relevant today perhaps more than ever before.

R&D departments of pharmaceuticals, vitamins & supplements, natural health products, cosmetics and personal product companies need a very large quantity of consumable items. Some of the consumable items are- raw materials, packing material, tools, machine spares etc.

Some of commonly used raw materials in life science R&Ds include- Active ingredients (such as bulk drug, herbal extract), additives (such as bulking agents, colors, flavors, perfumes, emulsifiers, solvents etc.), packing materials (such as tubes, bottles, caps, wads, aluminium foil, paper, glue), machine parts (viz. tablet punches, dies, chromatography columns).

These consumable items are extensively used during experimentation for new product development and testing. In fact, the R&D department cannot function at all if consumables are not provided.

In research-based life science companies and contract research organizations, consumables comprise of 20 – 45 % of their R&D budget. Therefore, any savings in consumable expenses help organizations to lower over-head costs big-time, and Just-in-time methodology does just that!

A four-step approach was taken for this project-

Step 1: The existing supply chain process was mapped, inventory demand-supply schedules reviewed and gaps in these processes were identified.

The objective was to re-design the supply chain process to include Just-in-time technique to lower R&D over-heads (without disturbing R&D output) and the savings generated thereof could be utilized for other needs of the business.

Step 2:  A supply chain process improvement strategy was designed.

Note that, there are several dos and don’ts prior to applying Just-in-time technique for process improvement or process design. One of such important to-dos, is to ensure all items being sourced comply to CQA (Critical Quality Attributes).

Step 3:  A core team comprising heads of R&D, Manufacturing, Quality, Regulatory and Procurement was formed.

Then all consumable raw materials were classified into- expensive, moderate and cheap items, based on their cost and availability. Vendors were approached to provide samples (of raw materials) for testing. Once test results proved compliance to CQA, the vendors were short-listed.

Step 4:  Just-in-time process was set up.

This also involved effective collaboration between R&D, resource planning and quality groups. Then, meetings were conducted with vendors to provide raw materials at negotiated price to R&D. Vendors for expensive raw materials were approached first, followed by those for moderate and cheaper items.

Note that-

• Depending on the size of the organization and the number of consumable items to be worked on, it might take from 2 to 8 weeks to fully set up Just-in-time in a company.
• Just-in-time methodology encourages sourcing from local or regional vendors rather than overseas. Should a company go for an overseas vendor, then make sure that vendor has a distribution warehouse situated locally or regionally.
• Savings from Just-in-time implementation are further augmented when R&D's follow Quality-by-Design (QbD) approach for product development.

Result Dashboard: 

1. Through flawless execution of Just-in-time technique, around 35% of R&D over-head cost was saved in the first year.
2. Besides lowering over-heads, Just-in-time also helped free-up warehouse capacities.
3. Continued implementation of Just-in-time technique maximized over-head savings up to around 80%.

#JustInTime  #ImproveOperatingEfficiency  #ContinueInnovation #ContinueProductDevelopmentInPandemic   #Covid19  #ImproveOperatingExcellence  #ProcessImprovement  #ProcessDesign

A few years ago, I was approached by a CEO of a pharmaceutical contract research company to turnaround his sick unit into a profitable enterprise. This company was dealing with the development of solid oral dosage forms. To bring about the necessary change, we initiated several Kaizen campaigns companywide, with 360 degrees focus to overhaul all processes and operational systems. We addressed all key areas across the organization including accounts payable/ receivable, material procurement, order processing, suppliers, R&D, scale-up, production, logistics, product dossiers filings, project management, business development, sales & marketing and PR communication processes.
 
Another key area where Kaizen helped us in a big way was to integrate various client information data sets maintained within different databases on separate systems.​

​At the end of nine months, this company’s books started showing profits, and from there on, it kept going from ‘good to great’. It was an excellent example of a successful transformation.
 
Unfortunately, this contract research company is not alone in the challenges it has faced. Studies indicate that 88% of business owners in North America struggle to maintain consistent cash-flow. Key questions to consider are:

• Can your organization benefit from increased workplace productivity?
• Does your team face challenges with reduced R&D budget?
• Does your organization face challenges because of inconsistent or poor cash-flow?
• Do you need to cut corners as you are forced to do more with less?

 
If you answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions, then Kaizen should be your mantra…​

​This book is a structured approach to designing Kaizen strategies, practices and implementation for pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotech companies.
 
It is an invaluable resource, an essential tool for all professionals within the pharmaceutical, medical device, biotech organizations i.e. all life sciences and health care companies, interested in employing Kaizen in their workplaces and their personal lives. This book will also facilitate running Kaizen in a manufacturing company and do it at a world-class level.

​This book doesn’t simply explain Kaizen process features, implementation, and application. The scope of this book is much wide.  

This book is meant for small to medium-size pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech research, manufacturing and contract services companies. This book is to-

• Demystify Kaizen and help business leaders in pharmaceutical, medical device, biotech, and all life sciences organizations, irrespective of their size or workplace culture.
• Apply Kaizen to what really matters, that is, ‘to achieve business expansion along with increased productivity and profits’.  
• Provide practical and useful examples of Kaizen principles that can be executed at various levels: across the organization; within a specific department, business unit or team, as well as for yourself as an individual to further your personal career.
• Improve revenues and create a lasting change using Kaizen principles and techniques.​

Some salient features of this book

• It shows pharmaceutical & biotech scientists, design engineers, operators and everyone involved in product development, how to utilize Kaizen- to create innovations, shorten product development times, improve first-to-file rates, conduct successful scale-up and technology transfer to manufacturing sites.

 

• It shows everyone associated with manufacturing, how to use Kaizen to decrease cycle times, work-in-process & quarantine inventories, the cost of distribution & logistics, improve equipment efficiency, facility capacity utilization and shift output.

 

• It shows everyone in Human Resources how to use Kaizen to minimize employee turnover, hire and retain talent, and motivate employees to create a difference.

  

• It shows the company’s senior management, stakeholders, finance and other supporting business units, how to use Kaizen to increase ROI (return on investment) while complying with cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) and other regulations, address rising competition and counteract fluctuating market economy.

 

• This book presents useful ideas that one can implement immediately, often at no additional cost.

 

• It shows how to transform a business from ‘good- to- great’. True benefits of Kaizen implementation are realized because, it adds value to your products, increases market share, and drives both top line and bottom line of your business.

 
Kaizen has mainly been used in Japan and many other SE Asian companies and in Europe. Up until now, it has not gained enough significance in North America, because of which it has not been utilized to its full potential. The root cause is the difference in work culture and corporate governance styles of companies in eastern and western countries; this book totally eliminates this gap.​

In addition, this book is an excellent resource for Kaizen beginners with a lot of real-life industry examples, case studies and provides several ‘do-it-yourself’ exercises, which is of tremendous value, in absence of a Kaizen coach.


Chapter 1:
 
Pharmaceutical industry growth unlike few other industries viz. retail, banking etc. is not completely determined by ‘value’ it brings to its customer. Frustrated customers can easily walk out of a shop and get their product from some other place. In contrast, pharmaceutical products are unique in the sense, the customer (i.e. patient) doesn’t usually have much say in its purchase. Patients usually buy medicines their doctors prescribe or pharmacist dispense (until such time they don’t experience any adverse effects). For the medicines where adverse effects are well-known or documented on the product label, patients really have no choice but to take bitter medicine (pun intended).
 
Also, a patient on a prescription drug may not always have the option to change medication or brand, because of lack of competing brands due to enforced Exclusivity and Patents laws. Even with the advent of generic medicines which offer price benefits, many patients don’t prefer to change the pill they have been taking over the years.

Moreover, Kano’s model may not strictly apply to Life science industries, because unlike other products, a drug product if not proved safe, efficacious and stable, will just not make it to the market. And this applies to all medicinal products- be it Rx (prescription), OTC (over the counter), medical devices etc.​

Pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotech companies are always under federal drug authorities radar for compliance to standards. The very existence of pharma business is based on meeting compliance- be it cGMP, safety, therapeutic efficacy, quality etc.
 
As federal drug regulations change, companies must upgrade to stay in business. Hence, there is an indirect continuous improvement happening all the time. This is probably one of the reasons why the majority of life science companies have not really attempted formal business process improvement methodologies.
 
However, Kaizen is not simply a business process improvement technique. Kaizen doesn’t just focus on cost-cutting or quality improvement. Kaizen is a way of life; of becoming ‘better’ every day; of becoming better than the best- consistently, and taking your business from being good to great with its products, market share, governance, and most importantly, Good to Great with PROFITS!
 
Let’s begin with what is Kaizen?
 
The name ‘Kaizen’ is an adaptation of the Japanese term that stands for continuous improvement. In Kaizen technique, it is believed that employees need to be empowered to enhance various processes of the company. Kaizen utilizes some of the Lean methodology philosophies to plan, implement and evaluate changes in a variety of roles. Kaizen must be integrated into a company’s daily operations to achieve maximum benefits.
 
Kaizen hails from the words, "Renew the heart and make it good." Therefore, an adaptation of Kaizen concept requires changes in the "heart of the business", corporate culture and structure; since Kaizen enables companies to translate the corporate vision in every aspect of its operational practice.​​

Dr. Shruti Bhat is an award-winning Business Excellence Leader, Global Continuous Improvement Mastermind, Best-selling Author and Speaker. She is Continuous Improvement Advisor to several start-ups, mid-size and growing firms in Canada, USA, India, Africa and Emerging markets. She has authored eight business books and is an invited speaker at several national and international conferences, symposia and workshops.
​

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Up to speed with workflow- How to choose business process improvement methodology for your organization and measure the positive change by Dr. Shruti Bhat- book preview

Businesses in US, Canada or in any country worldwide, are governed by five factors, referred as ‘5M’ umbrella- Man, Money, Machine, Material and Methods.
 
Methods or processes, being the most critical out of the five, as, it alone (to a large extent) determines the consequences of the other 4Ms i.e. Man, Money, Machine and Materials. For examples, if the processes in a company were engaging, then employees would stay committed and contribute positively. ‘Machines’ would be productive, costs would go down and ‘Materials’ would be wisely used to generate profitable products, which in turn will help the business thrive, grow and make more money. Therefore, processes drive a chain reaction. ​

Business processes in any organization, can be made more efficient, more effective, and adaptable to changing market and/ or economic needs. However, the biggest problem faced by most companies worldwide, is not its competitors, rather the biggest problems are self-inflicted, that is, created in-house by the management. Therefore, a step further in this direction is to build ‘quality’ and ‘profitability’ into business processes.

 
What will you learn from this book?
 
This book covers the following topics –

• Introduction to business process improvement lifecycle.
• How to strategically design process improvement initiatives to win campaigns.
• Roadmap to process improvement methodology selection including- base lining, change management, organizing business processes within an organization, identifying business process problem areas, various process improvement techniques and process improvement methodologies.
• Decision matrix for selecting process improvement methodology for your workplace.
• Action plan- for doing methodology implementation right!
• Qualifying ‘new’ business process and efficiency measurement metrics.
• Maintaining ‘continued’ operational excellence with the ‘new’ process.
• Illustrative examples of process improvement methodology recommendations for-
  • Healthcare organization.
  • Facility management and maintenance department of manufacturing organizations.
  • IT department of non-profits, technology companies and manufacturing industries.
  • Customer service departments of service organizations.
• Frequently asked questions and tips to maximize output from business process improvement campaigns.

 
Who should read this book?
 
This book is for Agile entrepreneurs and executives, involved in decision-making, directing their organization’s sustainability, profitability, expansion and who wish to apply business improvement methodologies to their work places in most beneficial, effective and practical ways.
​
 
Chapter 1:
​
Management of key business processes is of utmost importance to becoming a high performing organization, as they are the means to executing business strategies, by aligning process results with business goals.
​

​As customer needs change frequently, one has to monitor them continuously and this is the fundamental basis for ‘Business process improvement’ and ‘Continuous improvement’. Those who learn this outperform their competitors because they have a much better understanding of their customers.
 
Business process improvement drives substantial bottom-line increases, customer satisfaction, ultimately accelerating the company’s revenue cycle. In today’s highly dynamic economies, the ones who do not get this mantra eventually have two choices- they get it or they go out.
 
However, the biggest problem faced by most companies worldwide, is not its competitors. Rather the biggest problems are self-inflicted, that is, created in-house by the management. So how does a company choose the right business process improvement methodology to implement at their organization?
 
This would depend on what problem prevails in the organization, that one is trying to solve and why. For example- is there a design issue? A process issue? A defect issue? A variation issue? Or a combination of them.
 
The success of process improvement directly depends on the process improvement methodology selected to bring on the positive change.
 
It is equally true that choosing a correct process improvement methodology is critical and extremely challenging. This in turn depends on the ‘Process improvement lifecycle’ comprising of following steps-
 
Step 1: Base lining.
Step 2: Identify critical ‘process improvement’ implementation success factors.
Step 3: Organize and centrally locate processes.
Step 4: Standardize processes spread across multiple functions and business units.
Step 5: Re-design ineffective or in-efficient processes.
Step 6: Eliminate work-around or duplicate steps.
Step 7: Automate processes wherever possible.
Step 8: Identify and apply metrics and KPI (key performance indicators).
Step 9: Cross-train employees.
 
‘Identification’ of process improvement methodology stems out of information gathered from steps 1 to 3, while the success of ‘methodology implementation’ is dependent on steps 4 to 9.

​This book highlights salient details about “How to choose a business process improvement methodology for your organization and measure the positive change”.  Further, in the book we will dive into which methodologies might be appropriate for different industry verticals, different processes and different types of companies, as well as few important frequently asked questions.
 
Coming up in the next section- Potential success factors to winning process improvement campaigns…

 
Dr. Shruti Bhat is an award-winning Business Excellence Leader, Global Continuous Improvement Mastermind, Best-selling Author and Speaker. She is Continuous Improvement Advisor to several start-ups, mid-size and growing firms in Canada, USA, India, Africa and Emerging markets. She has authored eight business books and is an invited speaker at several national and international conferences, symposia and workshops.


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Business Process Improvement for Manufacturing & Service Industry by Dr. Shruti Bhat book preview-

One of the first people to describe business processes was Adam Smith (1776) in his famous example of a pin factory. Since then business processes have evolved and better defined. ​

A business process defines the various activities involved in achieving a particular goal. Business processes briefly describe the chain of events that are involved in an activity or a group of activities. It is common to use a business process if the activities have an effect on current products or data and bring about production. 

 Types of business processes include- 
​

• Management processes such as Corporate governance, Strategic management, planning and implementation.
• Operational processes, which constitute the core business and create primary value stream. Typically, they include Procurement & sourcing, Manufacturing, Marketing, Sales and Customer service.
• Supporting processes, which support the operational processes and include Finance & Accounting, Recruitment & Human Resources Management, Research and Technical support.

Some examples include invoicing, product shipping details, updating information, tracking orders, allocating budgets etc. Business processes used throughout organization, at any level, are outlined in order to improve organization in an effective and efficient way. There can be several inputs in a business process but there is always only one output or specific goal- that is to help business thrive.

Business processes are used practically in any organization and throughout an organization at any level. They are used in a variety of industries such as private, public sector, government, departments, hospitals, charities etc. Business processes are, typically outlined in order to improve an organization in an effective and efficient way.

Various computer software make it possible to create business processes on a computer, however simple business processes are just as effective when written with pen and paper. Some even find it better to jot down the processes on a piece of paper, or on several small ones, in order to kick start their creativity and thinking process. It is up to the professional (and/or organization) to decide whether a software or traditional method will work best for them. Business processes work best when there is input, support and ideas from various people that are involved in the organization (or department).

Key business processes are logically grouped related tasks and activities, independent of the organization’s structure, which utilize the resources of the organization to produce specific results. They possess measurable inputs & outputs, value addition and repeatable activity.

Tip- The effective management of key business process requires- Ownership & planning, performance metrics & control, process qualification, management and improvement methodology.

A business process always begins with a customer’s need and ends with a customer’s need fulfilment.

Customer needs change, technologies change, government policies change, competition changes and what used to be a high level of performance becomes a poor one and it’s time to replace the formerly good process with a new one- only every process cycle should have this capacity of identification, in-built in its charter.

As a practicing Business Transformation expert of many years, I am happy to mention here few case studies, nay success stories. Let me share three examples-

1. A consumer goods manufacturing company redesigned its product deployment process, by means of which, it now manufactures goods and delivers them to its distribution center such that inventory uptake was reduced by 35%, while stock-out goods situation declined by 70%.
2. A pharmaceutical company created a new product development process, which reduced time to market by 75%, development costs by 45% and increased productivity by 30%.
3. An engineering goods manufacturing organization increased its product delivery targets by 350% and reduced its supply chain costs by up to 55%. Something to note in these is the simultaneous achievement of apparently incompatible goals for e.g. reducing inventory while also reducing out –of-stocks.

Traditional organizations view these as conflicting goals and trade off against another. While process managed organizations, recognize that such payoffs, are achieved by improving business processes and continually maintain their business process efficient. So how do we go about bringing on a process change?

Three main categories of business process improvement techniques, have been found to be extremely effective in managing, expanding and /or transforming businesses worldwide including USA, Canada, Latin America and the emerging economies. They are – Breakthrough improvement, Streamlined improvement and Continuous improvement. The 18 methodologies described in this book belong to one or many of these three main categories.

​
In this book, you will learn about: 
​

• What is a business process? What are different types of business processes? Why improve a business process?
• 18 different business process improvement methodologies including Lean, ISO, Kaizen, Six Sigma, Capability maturity model integration (CMMI) etc.
• Advantages of each business improvement methodology. Precautions needed before implementing a methodology at your workplace.
• Strategic planning and risk assessments involved prior to implementing a business process improvement methodology.
• References of their use by startups, small companies who later on became big corporate houses and Fortune 500 companies.
• Tips to maximize positive results from executing business process improvement methodologies for your organization.

This book presents a practical way to build and improve business processes, and assists professionals whether they are learning the basics of business process improvement, planning their first improvement project, or evangelizing process-oriented thinking throughout their organization.

Dr. Shruti Bhat is an award-winning Business Excellence Leader, Global Continuous Improvement Mastermind, Best-selling Author and Speaker. She is Continuous Improvement Advisor to several start-ups, mid-size and growing firms in Canada, USA, India, Africa and Emerging markets. She has authored eight business books and is an invited speaker at several national and international conferences, symposia and workshops.

​

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Continuing on the SWOT analysis (from part 1), market research highlights few main problems with the sales and marketing processes within telecos namely-
​

1. OTT (over- the- top) players are growing quickly in comparison with traditional fixed and mobile communication services.
2. Many years of M&A (mergers and acquisition) have left telecos with disjointed systems that rely on outdated processes.
3. 77% of C-level executives from telecos state employee skill-gaps as a hindrance to driving digital transformation.
4. Decentralized customer data.
5. In-sufficient customer loyalty and appreciation for telecom products & services.
6. Sloppy customer care.
7. Lack of system updates for fully complying to GDPR and other regulations.
8. Not seeing problems from a customer’s perspective.

 
There are practical challenges to new ways of working- for example- how to reconcile the agile approach with long budget or approval cycles?

​I recommend 9 front solution for making telecos sales and marketing process improvement goal into reality:

1. Build right teams: Choosing the right core team members is crucial. They need to be advocates who exhibit energy, strong curiosity, pragmatism and entrepreneurial spirit within the teams. Moving some of the organization’s best resources into agile squads can be challenging, but it is key to ensuring ownership on subsequent levels, including education and participation in the design and execution stages.


2. Employee training & Anchor hires: The transformation towards next-generation customer engagement requires deep digital talent for a set of new roles such as data architects, marketing and digital advertising specialist. Existing staff probably won’t be able to perform all roles, so training and external recruitment will ne needed. External recruiting will require anchor hires i.e. hire one developer and his/her colleagues will follow.

​
3. Recruitment process redesign: New recruitment processes via digital networking events, dedicated recruiting days etc. to attract the right prospects. The approach of recruiting itself can also help build a brand and bring in the best people. The types of talent telecos need are attracted to forward-thinking companies, so recruiting culture matters. Having the right company representatives give the right talks at the right types of conferences at which talent can be found is one such method. Moreover, this also improves the hiring manager’s career aspirations and goals. Involving key team members in the entire hiring process is another must-do. This method can ensure that recruiters are completely on board with the goal of transformation and can effectively convey that message.  

Note: Transitions on this level almost always require some external support in the beginning. But as the capabilities become cores of the business model, those roles should be converted to internal ones in a six-to-nine months time frame to ensure the new culture is embedded and a lower cost base achieved.

​4. Multi-disciplinary teams: Traditional telecos tend to be highly siloed, often marketing and sales team working separately. This results in slow processes and low customer centricity, which is no longer sustainable. While it can take weeks and many back-and-forth handoffs to do something like put together a new discount campaign, working across functions in multidisciplinary teams can shorten the time to market for a new campaign to just days. This plus agile working methods is what accelerates digital customer engagement and can increase revenues by as much as 16%.  

To achieve this faster, targeted and dynamic approach, multidisciplinary teams need to bring together the consumer-functions and IT groups to ensure the latter isn’t left behind. Together, they should focus on ambitious, short-term minimum viable products that follow a data-driven test and learn methodology. A Design Thinking approach, Agile project management and empowered product developers to take appropriate decisions, facilitates fast-prototyping.
 
Since impact can be achieved by even a small team, the proven approach is to start with select proof-of-concept use cases, followed by a rapid rollout to wider organization.
 
The multidisciplinary teams must have end-to-end ownership mind-set. Rather than waiting for orders or permission to act or submit long change request documents, teams should be empowered to take responsibility and get their work done.


5. Strong flexible technical foundation: To succeed in digital customer engagement, the agile processes and mind-set must be complemented by a strong technical foundation that will increase execution power and channel reach, as well as enable new cases. Failure to resource effectively and invest upfront can leave teams without the tools and technology required to unlock next-generation opportunities, such as personalization at scale.

​Unlocking these use cases will require four elements to work together effectively – data, decision-making, design and distribution. Using Lean’s ’pull’ methodology will minimize the wait to build technology sophistication and digital maturity. Regardless of technology maturity, telecos can and should invest in technology enablers e.g. Google analytics, Tag Manager, Onsite AIS testing etc. to drive growth in marketing and digital sales.  


6. Overcome inflexible legacy systems: Shun duplicative layers of approval and restrictions on open-source tools. Also, traditional players lack the basic technology needed to achieve encouraging results rapidly. This includes tracking basic marketing tools and flexible IT to allow for better customer flows. Getting the technology foundation implemented quickly is critical to managing the low flexibility of legacy systems many of which are partially disjointed as a result of years of industry M&A.  


7. Corral data early: Customer data in telecos are usually found spread throughout the enterprise and have not been centralized in a single repository where they can be made available across channels. Developing a plan that priorities use cases and build a single source of customer insights for these use cases is critical. As the number of use cases expand, the data platform should continuously add more data signals as required. This will empower marketing activities and enable a consistent customer communication across digital and physical channels.  


8. Update data protection compliance to regulations: The complexity of privacy assessments and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) require extensive analysis that can cause delays. At an early stage, companies need to identify areas that will handle personal data and assess whether these areas are affected by the GDPR or other integrity requirements. Furthermore, they need to define ways to use available data not covered by these restrictions.  


​9. Make Lean Kaizen a daily habit: Lean Kaizen is a method of improvement that involves a continuous process in order to get rid of excess waste involved in a  process. Kaizen is the foundation of lean methods of production and focuses largely on reducing, or completely eliminating waste, increasing productivity and attaining continuous improvement relating to an organization’s methods. 
 
Lean Kaizen incorporates Kaizen’s ideal of continuous improvement and focuses on making and applying small changes for a significant amount of time in order to achieve desired results. This method involves all types of employees at different levels within the company and requires complete involvement by all parties in order to allow anyone to speak up regarding problems and ways of improvement. 

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This is definitely is an exciting time for telecos because of rising opportunities to collaborate for growth. Telecos can be best partners to any government, city or local administration. Together they can not only solve connectivity problems but reduce the cost of delivering public services for example- increased security for women travelling at night, reduced stress for commuters trying to rearrange an appointment etc.

The long-permitted concept of omnichannel, in which various distribution channels are truly integrated, is finally becoming a reality; with mobile and web gotten seamlessly connected, and automation and personalization possible with advanced analytics. These factors present a chance to take customer engagement to a new level accelerating ROI.

This article (parts 1 and 2) touches upon how to improve sales and marketing efforts of telecos via Agile and Lean Kaizen.

But, firstly, let’s take a quick look at results of telecos SWOT analysis-

One of the threats that has exposed the old way of doing telecom business is from over-the-top (OTT) players such as WhatsApp, Apple’s FaceTime and Tencent’s WeChat.

Market research data indicates that the OTT players are growing quickly and could decrease customer spending on traditional fixed and mobile communication services by up to 36%, which will put a pressure on telecos market share as well as revenues.

Improved customer engagement using a strategically structured digital marketing and sales approach, regardless of their digital maturity, will bring-in a breath of fresh oxygen for these telecos; though companies that advance their digital customer engagement will experience the biggest upside.

Moreover, this digital sales and marketing process (improvement) is likely to ring-in 10 to 40% increase in ROI in the first year of implementation. So, how to make this possible?

Here are seven salient points of digital customer engagement for telecos to generate 10- 40% ROI:
​

1. Drive customer acquisition by increasing incoming traffic (via SEO) and lead conversion.
2. Transform internal processes to speed up value capture via agile marketing.
3. Drive customer value through personalized outreach and cross-sell.
4. Improve agency consolidations.
5. Manage vendor relationships.
6. Build cross-functional employee teams.
7. Build technology stack, advanced analytics, optimized targeting and personalization at scale, leveraging both internal and external data.

​To pursue such supercharged digital marketing- based customer engagement, the incumbent telecos must start out by the organization’s top leadership’s total commitment to this goal, choosing the right change management and business process improvement methodology to succeed attaining the initiative, keep the process improvement excitement brimming by appropriate employee engagement and investment into new ways of working.

Part 2 of this article series will touch upon the sales & marketing process problems (within telecos), recommended solutions, Agile and Lean Kaizen process improvement strategy to bring telecos marketing & sales up to speed and excel!

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