as a two-day workshop to be awarded to the lowest bidder.
The company had somehow gotten the idea that such training would lead to dramatic improvements in operating performance and customer relationships. But it was badly misled. Two-day retreats are no substitute for the hard work of
mastering the techniques involved in building effective
internal and external relationships—and of relating them to
business objectives of revenue, profitability, quality, performance, and sustainability.
What if …?
Bottom line: Technology- and process-driven approaches to
business transformation will not produce sustainable results
if the “people” part of the equation is ignored. “Feel good”
organizational development initiatives will be of limited
value without continuous improvement in the process and
technology dimensions.
Until and unless we can get to genuinely integrated
Business Transformation programs that deal simultaneously with people, process, and technology development, we’re
destined to fail in our attempts at transformation.
The good news is, all this talk about integrated programs
is not conceptual. It’s real. A few pioneers are doing it now.
Unlike pioneers in some other initiatives, they’re not returning with arrows in their backs. They’re coming back with
transformed businesses—and money in their pockets.
But we’ve got to confess. These programs are more difficult to put together—getting the right parts in the right
sequence—than methodology-driven approaches to systems and technology or process engineering solu-tions.
Where the effort and investment pay off is in their
repeatability and in their embedded continuous improvement components, which deliver value year after year after
year. And which include continuing development of the
human potential that keeps them going. ;
Art van Bodegraven, practice leader at S4 Consulting, may be reached at (614) 336-0346
or avan@columbus.rr.com. You can read his blog at http://blogs.dcvelocity.com/
the_art_of_art/. Kenneth B. Ackerman, president of The Ackerman Company, can be
reached at (614) 488-3165 or ken@warehousing-forum.com.
