Traveling the world on business provides one with a unique window from which to view business operations. Incorporating culture, expectations, knowledge, and systems all play a part in dictating how well a business survives and thrives locally, nationally, and internationally.

No matter what the scope of a business or where it is located, there are opportunities to improve by implementing positive change as a result of investigating business processes.

Don Swift provides some insight into helping your business through investigating business process.

What is Business Process Improvement?

Business Process Improvement is a coordinated, planned, and managed approach observing every aspect of a business enterprise. The objective is to identify issues affecting opportunity for achieving better economic returns, better employee performance, lower costs, and more satisfied customers.

That sounds complicated. However, Don Swift says, “It’s really looking at every facet of a business to see how owners and managers may improve their business. Sometimes people are just too close to the business to see the more detailed issues that affect productivity, quality, and ultimately profitability.”

Don concluded, “I come in and help identify the positive changes that can be made to improve the business. I work with the business through a cycle to help with the implementation.”

Driving improvement in your business using models, metrics, and analysis to evaluate and identify needed improvements will expose new opportunities. Don Swift suggests bringing in a specialist solves three problems:

• Management is free to continue to run the business.
• There’s greater opportunity for a non-biased opportunity report.
• It’s usually easier for a consultant to address the “fear factor”.

Four of the ways Process can assist your business are:

Efficiency –Don Swift says, “There are always opportunities to be better at what we do best. Those who don’t continue to improve will be passed by the rest.”

Your business processes can all affect business efficiency. Processes are affected by many potentially wasteful factors such as manual labor, less-than-perfect coordination, and a lack of monitoring systems in place to measure overall performance.

The benefits of improved efficiency will put your business in the best position to weather any storm.

Effectiveness –A more efficient business can be more effective in addressing exceptions and making well-informed decisions. Management and laborers will execute consistently. This is critical to quality and meeting an expected level of customer service or delivery.

Agility – To survive and thrive, any business must be agile. Don Swift states, “Even the small, local business needs to consistently think about agility. An agile company can change, re-engineer, and re-engage to protect itself from external factors beyond its control.”

One example is how agile companies have grabbed opportunities the Internet brings for marketing and driving new sales. Check out Think of IT Digital Marketing for help in this area.

Labor – Having an engaged and happy workforce speaks volumes to the success of a business. Don Swift suggests, “Many companies have a significant opportunity to improve the quality and efficiency of output from their employees. Think about dining at a restaurant. If the employees are just doing their jobs, does that create an inviting atmosphere? Are you encouraged to return? Probably not. That response will ultimately affect the business.”

An Example of Process Not Working

There is nothing more frustrating than having a flight check-in service that doesn’t work. At an airline counter, no attendants were eagerly waiting. When they did show up, they had to set up. Then the computers didn’t work. They were working with laptops that had to be connected to their main system. Although I was first in line, I waited 1.25 hours to get my boarding pass.

The inflight magazine contained a message from the Chief Executive Officer. He stated, “We begin 2016…to work to meet the business targets we have set… and the service we provide is what should differentiate us from our competition. The quality of our operation lies at the heart of our strategy. Hence we will give total priority to reviewing and adjusting the processes that enable us to offer safe, punctual flights.”

Interesting; over an hour to get a boarding pass and a flight leaving late. All I can say is, “The CEO has the rest of the year to get it right. He didn’t say “when” in 2016.”

This is an example of a disconnect between processes. What was exhibited was no agility to change to meet circumstances, unhappy employees, and an ineffective computer system. In short, the whole system of customer service was broken. Quite likely, the CEO will never know. Who’s going to report that their system is broken and needs fixed?

Don Swift says, “Internally, for any process improvement to work, there must be a process that allows everyone to walk the walk. That’s where a specialist is needed.”

Who Is Don Swift?

Don Swift is a Life Coach. He breathes life into businesses with his multi-disciplined approach to HR Management in Wichita Falls, Texas. Whether it’s outsourcing mediation, implementing quality improvement processes, or addressing the myriad of HR issues facing businesses, Don Swift is our first choice as an HR Specialist.

If you want to improve your business, call Don Swift at 940-228-0550 or contact him directly through the Don Swift and Associates website. Every day is costing you money.