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The first time I acted as management consultant was in 1996 when I was a student and had a summer job in one of the major German consultancy companies. They sent me off alone, during my first week, to a client whose process efficiency I had to evaluate. In those days I never expected that improving efficiencies and cashing in financial benefits for my clients was to become my main activity in my future working life. After more than a decade in the consulting business I have focussed on the following areas: - Change Programmes: I managed various major change initiatives for my clients where we turned around organisations and made them efficient and effective. We changed processes, work patterns, organisations, and people's behaviours. The results were slim and functioning organisations and management teams that reached their targets as set prior to the projects. - Operational Excellence Projects: We have all seen it, departments are not talking with each other, and if, they don't talk about the right things, within departments communication is down to zero, no actions are being taken, nothing is measured, or people think 'being busy' automatically means they added value to the organisation. My job is to sort out organisations making sure everyone knows their processes and responsibilities and what to talk about in crucial review meetings. People should be able to evaluate their performance. I would put my clients back on track and make sure the operation is running smoothly and effectively. - Business Process Improvement: Processes are like ivy, after they are cut to an agreeable level they keep on growing and growing till they are so monstrous that they need cutting back again. And what is even worse, unlike ivy, processes are invisible and this whole cutting back exercise seems impossible. As a consultant I would normally make sure all current processes are visible, and that at the end of the project lean and trimmed ones are in place. Cost savings and customer service level improvements are normally the main benefits. - Cost Savings: Too much labour, a too deep organisation, too many hierarchical levels and inefficient processes, untrained staff, ineffective management, high stocks in the warehouses, lots of raw materials, unmanaged temporary staff, working capital is not measured, hence not managed, machines don't run to their capacity, in fact, capacities are not known, bottlenecks are blocking the whole operation, sales forecasts are not translated into operational plans, and again, the list goes on and on. A project would tackle these issues and success would be measured during it and afterwards. - Revenue Enhancement: Selling skills, up-selling, more-selling, cross-selling, the perfect sales organisation. When it comes to revenue enhancement I would normally dig deeply into the sales organisation and their processes, evaluate how they sell, what tools they use, how effective they are in their selling process and retaining customers, and whether they know what they should sell (in terms of big margins and strategically important products). The result will be an effective sales force and an efficient sales organisation. - Supply Chain Excellence: Even though it is the last item on this list, it is actually the one I have specialised the most in the last few years, especially as main consultant for my major client PPG Industries. During a pilote project my team and I developed an efficient supply chain model which we/I then implemented worldwide in all their factories and warehouses. Of course, most projects are an ideal mix of all sorts of tools and ingredients; a bit of cost saving, mixed with some supply chain excellence, topped up with sales enhancement, some coaching will be added (on all hierarchical levels), processes improved, bottlenecks analysed, organisations evaluated, and the result will be a slimmer organisation which is able to reach their cost saving targets and promised customer service levels. ____________________________________________________ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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