Our research in the last five years demonstrates that there is a high level of untapped capacity, absorbing on average 33.6 per cent of management and staff time in all organisations. This amounts to 1.66 potentially wasted days out of everyone’s five-day week and costs about $25,000 per person employed per annum. This untapped capacity therefore presents a huge opportunity to virtually every organisation. It arises, as we explain here, because management are largely unaware of the plethora of undocumented activities which need to be done to make business process steps interface with each other.

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A business-operating model is a combination of roles, skills, structures, processes, assets and technologies that allow an organisation to deliver on its service or product promises. It is, in effect, the way a business is set up to deliver.

For example, it can refer to the way an organisation is vertically or horizontally integrated. It can refer to the way an organisation thinks about its staff (eg, contract or permanent). It can refer to the way personnel work together and how responsibilities are divided up within the enterprise.

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Most of us will now be convinced that the Australian consumer is a much more conservative spender than in the heyday of retail. To add to that, the nature of retail business models seem to be changing at a rate that continues to accelerate: the rise of internet shopping and supply change transformations are examples of this phenomenon.

For some organisations margins are under pressure, for some volumes. For many, both margins and volumes are under increasing strain.

Back to thinking about unit costs
So many of you will have already been thinking about costs, and many will have been doing something about it. However, there are different ways to conceptualise the cost challenge: some of which can get you over a short-term challenge, or can lead to a downward spiral, or perhaps lead to genuine innovation and creativity.

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Even as the economic outlook appears to brighten, the fact remains that many organisations can no longer operate as they have been. A key feature of this changing landscape is the need for organisations to restructure.

As process and structure specialists, Bevington Group has observed the good, the bad and the ugly of restructures. Based on our experiences, we have devised seven broad restructuring principles to help make any restructure a successful one.

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A key feature of the changing economic landscape has been the push to operate in the most efficient manner possible. As revenue has dried up, organisations have been realigning teams, trimming staff, cutting spending, all in the interest of finding the most cost-effective way to operate.

As productivity and restructuring specialists, we have observed the good, the bad and the ugly of organisations’ attempts to increase efficiencies, including within marketing teams in various organisations.

From these experiences, we have distilled some critical pieces of advice for any marketer that wants to run their team, department or business as efficiently as possible.

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With the patchwork economy, increased savings, and shaky  consumer confidence, you would be forgiven for questioning whether we are in a boom.

However, it really is a mixed economy. This article will  be addressing one of the consequences to this environment – an increased focus on costs.

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Among the most commonly-used change and improvement methodologies are Lean, Six Sigma, Process Reengineering and hybrid methodologies. This overview is intended to guide executive decision-makers through the advantages and disadvantages of each, and the particular circumstances in which they are best deployed.

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Most workers at one time or another have personally experienced or heard about some form of organisational restructure: a small department becomes subsumed into another, lines of reporting are altered, entire divisions are broken up...

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A key feature of the changing economic landscape has been the push to operate in the most effi cient manner possible. As revenue has dried up, organisations have been realigning teams, trimming staff and cutting spending, all in the interest of finding the most cost-effective way to operate.

As productivity and restructuring specialists we have observed the good, the bad and the ugly of organisations’ attempts to increase efficiencies, including within marketing teams. From these experiences, we have distilled some
critical pieces of advice for any marketer that wants to run their team, department or business as effi ciently as possible.

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There is an opportunity in the current economic climate to rapidly but rationally assess the way our organisations work; an opportunity to ensure that core activities and processes are efficient and fit for purpose. Organisations that implement a structured, considered response to the financial downturn, will be the best placed to take advantage of the inevitable cyclical change.

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Here are seven broad restructuring principles to help make any restructure a successful one

1. Align structure to strategy
2. Reduce complexity
3. Focus on core activity
4. Create feasible roles
5. Balance ‘own work’ and ’supervisory load’ of managers
6. Implement with clarity
7. Maintain flexibility

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A prudent way for HR to address the prospect of cost reductions is to ask a series of business-driven questions.

• What are our core processes? Where are people working on core processes? Where are people not working on core processes? What percentage 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?

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