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Our services include consulting, training and mentoring in the following renewal specialisations:
Business/service conceptualisation and positioning
Many business or service providers fail to understand their underlying business model. This set of activities produces answers to questions such as:
- What is the fundamental nature of our business or service?
- What do we produce (rather than what do we do), i.e. our products and services?
- What must we do well (core competencies)?
- On what basis can we and should we compete or differentiate ourselves?
- What should our value proposition be (Treacy/Wiersema) and hence what underlying operating model (Value Model) should we adopt to support this?
- What processes do we need to perform or own (enterprise process model)?
- What processes do we perform versus what is (or should be) undertaken by third parties?
Business process design and improvement
Many businesses are unable to articulate and sustainably improve their business processes because they do not possess the skills. This set of activities therefore:
- Defines the rationale and boundaries (scope) of business processes
- Determines the business context which should "shape" business processes
- Applies a set of proven rules to mapping, design and improvement of business processes
- Determines process performance measures
- Considers process audit and control considerations
Organisation designOrganisation design and change management
Sustainable change resulting from new or improved business processes will not be realised unless the design of the organisation required to perform them is aligned to the new/improved processes. Organisational Design and change management have to date been essentially intuitive processes. At best they are shaped by adopting generic models which (purportedly) represent best practice. At worst they are an opportunity for business executives to re-shuffle an organisation around key individuals and then communicate and re-train around these. Good organisation design should rather:
- Determine which business functions need to be tightly coupled (complementary interests)
- Determine which business functions must be separated (competing interests)
- Define the competitive and cultural context which must shape the organisation
- Identify compulsory (delivery) processes and roles and also discretionary (sustainability) processes and roles
- Define the organisation leadership model
- Identify the structures which will support both the delivery processes and roles and sustainability processes and roles
- Provide "all" input required for subsequent job design, reward system design and performance measurement/management design
In contrast, good change management requires far more than mere communication, marketing and training. It requires the application of a complex process designed around understanding sources of resistance to change, surfacing and addressing these, whilst also finding the right incentives for change. Assessing the climate for change and stakeholder management are also key elements of successful change management.
Formalisation of Governance Frameworks, Risk Assessment and Compliance
A governance framework typically comprises those policies, processes, roles and standards which support orderly/compliant practices in business environments. Whilst shareholder/stakeholder pressures have placed good Corporate Governance in a prominent business light, less attention has been given to operational governance. Operational governance frameworks should set the "standards" by which performance (and compliance) are measured. This set of activities:
- Defines the underlying taxonomic (information content) structure of the governance domain
- Identifies the individual policies, processes, roles and standards required within the taxonomic structure
- Populates the framework with “best practice” content, aligned with organisational values
- Identifies resources/structures for institutionlising the framework
- Designs compliance monitoring practices
Risk Assessment is the process of identifying sources of operational risk, assessing the likelihood of such risk being realised, and making recommendations as to risk avoidance/resolution. In support of good risk management practice we believe it is important to deliver risk/fraud awareness programmes to sensitise operational staff as to sources of risk/fraud and avoidance practices.
The Process Works also offers compliance services. This may take the form of a simple "health check" of key aspects of good governance. Should the client require it, our lead consultant (compliance) is fully equipped to assess all aspects of board performance and compliance.
Design of business / service performance measures
What cannot be measured cannot be managed. Improvements resulting from renewal activities can only be demonstrated through formal measurement. Businesses have traditionally limited performance measurement to two domains: the business (unit/sub-unit) and the individual/team. Performance measures need to be holistic, designed top down and designed within a business context, i.e. with a business model in mind. Unfortunately the business model has to date been the budget which is essentially financial. This set of activities should rather:
- Create awareness and support for the six domains of business performance management and their interrelationships
- Apply frameworks for defining appropriate measures for each domain; this includes frameworks which include but are not limited to the Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan/Norton)
- Identify the business context (models and assumptions) which drive performance measurement and management
- Identify suitable performance measures for each component in the six domains encompassing the business/ service
Satisfaction and Climate Assessment
Satisfaction and climate assessment provide information which is both an essential input to renewal (what do we need to do better) and a formal measure of the outcome of renewal (what did we improve). However, satisfaction and climate assessment are essentially perceptual views of performance in the workplace. As such they should form a part of the overall measurement framework or model, but require their own perceptual instruments to measure and monitor satisfaction/climate. This set of activities should:
- Determine the perceptual constructs to be assessed
- Design the questions and rating scales required to support the constructs
- Determine the delivery platform for the survey/assessment
- Agree the statistical tools to be applied
- Stratify the target audience and agree the sample limits
- Undertake the survey/assessment
- Report back on results
Business requirements definition (IT solutions supporting renewal)
Information Technology plays an ever-increasing role in "enabling" businesses to work differently and thereby supporting renewal initiatives. The failure rate of new IT initiatives remains decidedly high, in the main because the planning and conceptualisation required at the outset is rushed and often unstructured. This set of activities should:
- Identify the specialist roles and competencies demanded of requirements definition
- Supply a framework for defining business requirements
- Draw on public domain techniques for sizing, scheduling, resourcing and costing business requirements, e.g. functional decomposition and function point counting
- Ensure that outcomes are tightly coupled (not loosely coupled) to the business processes to be supported
- Provide a method for compiling a business case (costs and benefits) to justify the requirements
Training
Training implies the development of technical competencies or skills. Formal training courses are available, which are closely aligned with the renewal processes described. Courses can be arranged at clients premises or at independent venues. A minimum of six candidates is required to run a course and fees are charged on a per candidate basis. You are invited to click the “Training Products” button for training course details.
Training Products, click here
Mentoring
Mentoring implies personalised advice and guidance. Many organisations now identify target groups of key individuals who require personal development in specialist business domains. These are often professionals in "boundary" roles, i.e. professionals vested with the responsibility for renewal, transformation, business improvement or new behaviours. Mentoring services focus on developing a "process capability" and include assessment, personalised development programmes (which include reading, training, visits to "experts" and competitors) and monitoring/ feedback. Clients are charged on a retainer basis, per person entering a mentoring programme. Budgets are negotiated for discretionary costs which include assessment.
Consulting
Consulting services involve the use of resources from The Process Works and the consultancy network it draws on, in the production of outcomes within a renewal programme. For clients who desire to drive renewal from within, this has become the least preferred of our delivery methods as it creates a dependency on external resources and may discourage ownership within the clients business.
Consulting fees are usually charged on a time and materials basis. However some fixed price projects are undertaken and projects requiring a "watching brief" are undertaken on a retainer basis.
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