When facing short-term staffing challenges, supplement your needs with temps, contractors or consultants. To be successful, be clear on the purpose and staff accordingly. I find that almost every one of my clients and prospective clients are growing significantly. One complication of growth is to find, upgrade and keep [...]
Creating an IT roadmap shouldn’t be all about the bells and whistles of the system, but rather on the technology that supports the strategy and business objectives. Ever heard about 1's and 0's as it relates to computers? That level of detail is often what I see with systems. [...]
Systems transactions are often treated as an afterthought but are critical to building a stable foundation for your business. As mundane as system transactions seem, I continually find that whether or not they are deemed a priority can make the difference between a successful operation or not. The bottom [...]
Being a systems pragmatist is critical in not making assumptions about your processes, but rather review every production step to uncover any issues that were not being addressed. When the idea of The Systems Pragmatist service line popped to mind, I was thinking about the critical importance of systems [...]
Strategic planning has long been hailed the business cornerstone for projecting profit and growth. Oftentimes, the strategy, “what”, gets mixed up with the tactics, or the “how”, which leads to failure. Although almost everyone uses the term strategic planning, it doesn't make sense. Setting strategy is a clear; however, [...]
Develop your business vision with an eagle eye to see further out into the future creating clarity and purpose for your company. In thinking about an eagle's eye (in concert with my Eagle Eye service line), it comes to mind that vision is a key contributor to success. An [...]
Manufacturing and distributing product to meet customer demand can be like a puzzle unless you start using SIOP as a core process to run your business. SIOP (sales, inventory, & operations planning) taken to the best practice degree is often associated with integrated business planning. In some circles, they [...]
Locate your best employees, particularly in leadership positions, and invest in them for continued success. I find that the best process will fail with the wrong people. The best system will not drive results if the wrong people are involved. Yet if exceptional people are involved, even the most [...]
August 25, 2015 As I was debating about what to write about this week, two colleagues walked into my client's office for help in resolving an issue. Upon leaving, one said "It's not what you know; it's who you know". I thought this phrase rang true. Clearly, you have [...]
Though reducing inventory is generally advisable special situations arise when stocking inventory makes good business sense. Certainly reducing inventory on hand is typically preferred as you can accelerate your cash flow. It is one of the key focus areas of my consulting practice. I have found that reducing inventory [...]
