Given that you have recruited the right staff, have the best suppliers and look after your customers, a key differentiator of any business is the performance of the operations. Operational excellence, therefore, is a prerequisite for a successful business.

Best Practices

Best practices should provide achievable stretch targets within a business, as otherwise unnecessary effort can be expended trying to reach an unnecessarily high performance. However, it should be recognised, that best practice processes are potentially innovative, and allow a business to change the rules of the game and thereby become significantly more cost effective than their rivals. Examples of this are where one sector leader has effectively applied best practices from another sector.

Business Processes and Continuous Improvement

Assessing business processes by their effectiveness, efficiency and outcomes, is therefore key to fostering an environment of continuous improvement. The need for continuous improvement should not be considered a negative, but instead should be seen as a necessary mechanism for the business to remain cost-competitive.

Cost Reduction

Cost reduction in isolation, without process improvement, exposes businesses to the real danger of false economies. Any cost reduction exercise must be done in the light of process improvements and improved performance.