​This ‘new normal’ is Covid19 induced. We are still dealing with Covid-19. It is not over yet. What more is in store for us to deal with Covid-19 menace? How will the virus behave going forward? By when we will have ‘Corona- The End’ no one really knows!

Therefore this ‘new normal’ is a moving target. As organizations, we will have to consistently change as Covid-19 induced situation changes. Although we all hope that worst is over!

Business plans must be redrawn as circumstances change.

The Covid-19 pandemic has upended nearly every aspect of life from personal (how we live and work) to the professional that is- how companies interact with their customers, how customers choose and purchase products and services, how supply chains deliver them etc.

The fallout from Covid-19 is expected to fundamentally change the way business happens over the next five years especially because this crisis will have a lasting impact on the customer’s need and employee’s mindset. It can also bring big opportunity for certain industry verticals.

Amidst the Covid-19 turmoil, I notice that companies are deprioritizing innovation.

In majority of cases, company’s commitment to innovation has decreased as they work through the crisis, focusing solely on short -term issues; except pharma and medical device verticals which show almost 30% rise in innovation budget.

In my view, this short-term focus by companies and ‘playing it safe’ attitude may in future turn out a short-sighted decision. Companies must rethink on their innovation management strategy, because seeing the opportunities emerging from the pandemic crisis is not the same as being able to seize them.

Post Covid-19, numerous organizations are letting their employees telecommute. A few companies have chosen to have 50-90% of their people work distantly through phone, PC frameworks, video conferencing and so on. 

According to an article published on Forbes.com Coinbase, Google, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Capital One, Zillow, Slack, Amazon, PayPal, Salesforce and other major companies are leading the ‘work from home’ revolution.

While such a move guarantees operational cost-savings and continued productivity (thru the pandemic); remote working has its own bundle of difficulties both for the employee as well as the company.

For instance, you may need to set up procedures to ensure that there is no disturbance because of children or pets at the employee's home or some woodwork clamor originating from their neighbor's home.

People ordinarily are social creatures. Working continually from home or distant places can have unfavorable impact on the employee’s output, personality and in extreme cases, even on their psychological wellness.

Organizations seeking to change over huge amount of its work through far-off tasks should necessarily assess their employee's capacity to bear distant working before allotting them remote work duties. Comparative test must be accomplished for every new hire. Hence, HR processes, recruitment, employee development, learning processes must be appropriately amended prior to changing traditional working norms to remote operations.

Another challenge to remote working is changed operational framework. For example, computer systems, software, cloud-based working platform, ERP, cyber-security, eLearning platforms and so on.

Drawing process maps for every single business process, division wise and also cross-functional processes will help identify potential challenges to transitions from conventional working to remote operations.

Employing Kaizen to bring -on such transitions will not only augment smooth transition, but also bring-on the change effectively, lower costs and increase employee morale.

Kaizen is a time-tested Japanese business improvement methodology. It got popularity after it was implemented by Japanese auto companies to rise from economic downturn post world-war II.

Covid-19 pandemic has rattled businesses all over the globe. Bigger businesses with stronger financial ability are perhaps few notches better-off than others who are struggling. ​

But all businesses must deal with today’s battered economy, disrupted supply chain, and changed buying habits of shoppers.

This necessitates that businesses today become more malleable to deal with long-standing turbulence. And that can only happen with continuous improvement of business processes and implementation of solid risk management strategies. I shall discuss Continuous Improvement aspect here … ​

​​For many organizations, Continuous Improvement means something we do when our business is doing good and now, we are looking for a tool to sustain it. But that’s not true. Continuous Improvement campaign on the contrary, must be initiated the moment you are in business.

For organizations which didn’t begin Continuous Improvement while they were start-ups, must begin ASAP. And for all businesses which are struggling to survive either because of the pandemic or otherwise, must initiate Continuous Improvement campaign immediately.

It is not always essential for organizations to undergo a complete make-over since continuous improvement can also be done in increments.

If your organization is small or low on budget front, no worries, simply start with Kaizen.

I’ve separate posts on Kaizen which you may want to check out here. However, I shall briefly introduce Kaizen here-

Kaizen is a Japanese technique of continual improvement. Kaizen involves making small incremental changes to business processes to improve them continually, to bring about exponential rewards. And the best part is that Kaizen can be applied to all industry sectors including manufacturing, service etc. Also, Kaizen can be applied effectively in both non-regulated and regulated industries.

In fact, Kaizen-ing had got most of Japanese companies out of a messed-up economy post world war II. Therefore, Kaizen is a proven business improvement methodology. Having said that, do make sure you’re tweaking Kaizen to suit today’s business environment, especially your organizational culture.

Industry 4.0 involves digitization, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, remote working etc. Kaizen can be superbly adapted to present day’s work and working norms. Know more about how Kaizen can help your company here.

Combining Kaizen with yet another Continuous Improvement methodology- Lean, has been found to bring-in larger and faster returns. 
​
Overall there are more than eighteen scientific, structured, and time-tested Continuous Improvement methodologies. Pick any one or a combination of methodologies that can bring best rewards for your organization.

Once you have decided on which Continuous Improvement methodology to take-on, the next question is- How to initiate the Continuous Improvement campaign (in your organization)? 

It’s said, “Every journey begins with the first step”… and the first step in the Continuous Improvement journey is to acknowledge whether your business processes are or aren’t Effective … since, if the problem isn’t identified, all solutions are bad! 

Lack of business process effectiveness is usually exhibited by low employee motivation, high employee turnover, defective products/ services, product recalls/ returns and customer-complaints. While poor business process efficiency is exhibited by high overheads as well as wastage of time, money and other resources.

The first step of initiating Continuous Improvement in an organization is to build a robust Process Improvement strategy and execution plan. This strategy must be broad and encompass all aspects of the organization’s operations, products, finance, competitors, employees and customers that impact the company’s survival and growth.
​
This broad strategy must then be sub-divided into sub-strategies with an aim to modify or re-design each underlying business process to make them Efficient and Effective.

After strategy design, the next step to initiating Continuous Improvement campaign is to conduct a Value Stream Map and Swimlanes to identify all underlying business processes that must be either improved or re-designed. Then map out and detail various stages in each process, analyze each process step and investigate to find out root cause of the problem.

Once root cause(s) of the problem(s) are known, then go ahead with modification or re-design of the process(es) to get rid of the problem(s). Once the problems are ridden, the new process must be backed up by appropriate resources.

Another vital point while improving business process effectiveness and efficiency is to find out- What the customer wants and whether the company has its focus on those wants.

Note that implementing new business processes can be a large step and may require special change management models to facilitate bringing-on change. In addition, employees must be educated on the reasons behind new (modified) business processes that are being implemented to ensure that the process effectiveness rises high.

Therefore, create an environment which fosters employee-engagement. Employees in all departments need to be able to communicate freely and to be heard on various topics, such as their ideas regarding inadequacies or areas that are lacking within the organization. It is vital to take employee suggestions, especially from those most close to the process.

Alongside Continuous Improvement campaign, a successful way to increase business process effectiveness and efficiency is to add greater focus on daily business activities and figure out how they can be made more profitable.

After all steps of Continuous Improvement installation are complete, it is vital to review the changes and continue to use the modified business process to sustain both process effectiveness and efficiency.

Note that, even if a good Continuous Improvement strategy is developed, it does not mean much unless it is applied effectively. 

​In most organizations big and small, business processes such as those underlying Communication, Employee engagement, Training and re-skilling, Product life cycle, Infrastructure, Voice of customer are some of the critical ones to first look at for modification or re-design to thrive-in thru the new normal.

In conclusion, note that, all Continuous Improvement methodologies must be tweaked to include evolutionary customer demands, organization's culture and workplace changes such as- digitization, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, remote working etc. and adapted to present day’s work and working norms.

​Planning on initiating Continuous Improvement campaign at your workplace?

#ContinuousImprovement  #Kaizen  #Lean #BusinessProcessEffectiveness  #BusinessProcessEfficiency  #ContinousImprovementStrategy #NewNormal  #Covid19  #BusinessProcessImprovement #ProcessDesign

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

When we think of innovation, we typically think of something new, something that has been modified to resolve an issue or to provide enhanced features and benefits. But it is important to remember that every once in a while, a new technology, an old problem and a big idea turn into an innovation. 
​
Above all, Innovation is about having an ‘innovative’ mindset- that is constantly looking at bettering the overall experience for the user, with respect to a product or service.

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#Innovation

​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.