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

​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?