Business Recovery
Get back on track
Speed up your pace
Full order books or severe economic crisis - many reasons can cause struggles
The challenges of rapid business growth, process inefficiencies, or market impacts often cause loss of operational control. Consequences are delays in delivery, overload of staff, conflicts with customers and suppliers, and ultimately significant financial impacts.
There is a broad spectrum of reasons for business struggles - these are the four main triggers:
Root causes are different for each company - the approach to overcome a crisis has many common elements
Regardless if a pandemic impacts the supply chain, full order books exceed the production capacities, or production delays cause penalty payments - the path to recovery starts with an honest assessment of the root causes, requires full buy-in of team and partners, and requires quick wins to get traction for sustainable improvements.
Some general thoughts to consider on the path to recovery:
Assess & Plan
Assess key reasons for current performance issues – be honest and ask: what could we foresee; what can we influence; what is externally driven; what would have happened anyways
Define products and goals to meet market demand and plan realistic quantities to be delivered over timeline – challenge yourself: how do your products meet the needs; do you need to pivot; what are promised deliveries vs. existing capacities; what are capabilities needed / existent for product delivery
Set the path to get out of the trouble zone – set goals; define key performance indicators for success; plan milestones
Do assessments and goal setting as a team to get best support from staff, customers, and suppliers
Quick Fixes
Focus on short term improvements of critical processes
Streamline organizational set-up
Implement or modify governance incl. communication and reporting
Drum-beat routines for immediate deliveries
Close gaps in training and procedural knowledge
Talk & Track
Establish stable communication with customer, supplier and internal team on product quality, demands, and possible disruptions
Install feedback and early warning routines to ensure quick response to process or delivery disruptions
Introduce performance tracking and visualization
Sustain
Train the team on processes, market needs and company philosophy
Provide a full process map with all relevant procedures and policies to apply
Implement a continuous improvement approach incl. responsibilities for sustaining excellence