The coming
calendar year will turn
out to be one of the most
challenging periods of our
professional careers. Economic
growth has stalled, business
and consumer confidence have
faltered, and income for
many enterprises (public
and private) is likely to
decline.
The challenge for any executive
team is the help its organisation
through these choppy waters.
In practice this means managing
costs without damaging the
enterprise’s critical
services, growth prospects
or long-term viability.
The harsh reality is that
for many public and private
sector entities “headcount
reductions” will be
one of the options pursued
to create a sustainable balance
between income and expenditure.
A very large percentage of
private and public sector
enterprises are already planning
personnel reductions. We
saw this in the late 80s
and early 90s, and we will
see it again in 2009.
However, many leadership
teams will respond in a manner
which is ill-considered.
The consequences of a poorly
thought-out or implemented
restructure can be ruinous.
Such damaging outcomes include,
but are certainly not limited
to, the following.
- Key Tasks and Activities
which were performed under
the old structure can get “lost
between the cracks”
- Quality challenges
- Customer responsiveness
- Billing issues
- OH&S challenges
- Reputational or regulatory
risks
- Staff and middle
management may
become disengaged,
disappointed and
even angry
- Sales can be
impacted due to
- Staff distraction
and disempowerment
- Poor account
handover
- The Restructure
happens but the
work remains
- Increased pressure
on existing staff
- Decline in staff
morale / presence
of cynicism
- Loss of key personnel
- Personnel return
as higher paid
contractors/consultants
- Key processes
are damaged
- Sales drop
in-transition
- Customer service
is detrimentally
impacted
- The processes
are just as inefficient
as beforehand – there
are just fewer
people to fix
them
The good news is that the
above-mentioned pitfalls
are eminently avoidable.
It is possible to craft
an intelligent response to
rapidly emerging cost pressures,
in a timely manner, without
impairing the long-term prospects
of the entity.
For the last 15 years the
Bevington Group has been
successfully helping clients
balance this need for prompt
action with well-founded
organizational solutions.
At the core of the Bevington
Group’s approach is
to a series of business driven
questions, such as
-
What are the core
processes? Where are
people working on core
processes? Where are
people not working on
core processes? What
% of a given team’s
working day is non-core?
-
Can we adjust our resource
levels if we adjust
service levels? Are all our service
levels optimal?
-
Where is complexity driving up resourcing
levels?
-
How do we really adjust our resourcing
levels in
central functions
when
volume decreases?
The oft faced problem is
that executive management
rarely have the appropriate
information on the contributions
of teams or individuals to
core processes. However,
the science and art of productivity
improvement now provides
means to rapidly address
this information gap.
Furthermore, the information
gap can be closed quickly.
Indeed, a typical Bevington
Accelerated Productivity
Program is a 60 to 90 cycle.
In this timeframe a combined
client and Bevington team
can conduct data gathering,
solution design, planning
and many elements of implementation
(refer to the case study
thumbnails for examples).
In essence we propose that,
during these tumultuous times,
the role of the executive
team is to ensure that firm
action is taken - but that
it is based on the best that
modern productivity methods
offer. Furthermore, such
well considered activity
need not be slow; indeed
a 60 to 90 day program can
and should deliver the goods.
The Bevington Group has a 60 to 90 day Accelerated Transformation
Programme to ensure you
adjust quickly in these difficult
times.
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