Implementing a business improvement process can deliver a transformative impact, helping you to achieve sustainable excellence at every level in your organisation. However, to unlock the full benefits, these improvements need to be targeted correctly.
Therefore, every effective business transformation process needs to begin with a holistic review that identifies the areas where improvement is most needed, and what kind of changes must be made in order to deliver the greatest impact.
Here, we explore how you will be able to identify the areas for business improvement, ensuring that you are able to target the most important strategic, operational, financial and workforce challenges with your transformation efforts.
Every organisation faces its own unique business circumstances, with sector-specific challenges, operational goals and structural factors to consider. However, there are several methods and principles that can be used to identify the areas for business improvement which can be applied generally.
Review and formalise your business goals and plans
To determine which areas of the business, need to improve, it is first essential to establish clear targets and goals by which to measure success. Every organisation needs to have a firm strategy in place that sets ideal benchmarks for key metrics, which may include factors such as earnings, income, turnover, new customer acquisition and market share.
The goals that the business sets for itself need to align with SMART principles, meaning they need to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. This will ensure that the company’s current targets are realistic and properly aligned to the overall vision and long-term ambitions of the organisation.
Once these metrics have been established, the business will be able to quickly identify any areas in which performance is currently falling short and develop solutions to address these issues.
Analyse your financial position
When reviewing a company’s current position, its financial performance will be a key metric. Even if the business is delivering strong headline results, there may still be areas in which efficiency could be improved.
This means asking the following questions:
The organisation’s financial position needs to be analysed holistically to achieve useful, actionable insights regarding how sustainable improvements can be achieved. By doing so, you will be able to identify the best-value areas for investment, efficiency and cost rationalisation.
Obtain feedback from staff, customers and clients
To get a complete view of your organisation’s current performance and its potential areas for improvement, it is essential to assess the business from the perspective of as many key stakeholders as possible.
One of the most important points to consider is that of your customer and client base. It is vital to regularly solicit feedback and opinion from service users and commercial partners, through customer surveys and one-on-one interactions, to gain real-world insights into their experiences of your services, the pain points they are encountering, and to understand how to make vital improvements.
Additionally, it is similarly essential to regularly review the experiences of your staff at all levels of the organisation to find out where potential issues are creeping into your processes. Is the team encountering inefficiencies and roadblocks of which the management may not be aware? Do knowledge gaps exist within the organisation that need to be addressed through training or hiring? Are staff being managed and motivated correctly to help them achieve their full potential?
By reviewing this information, you will be able to understand where your business methods can be improved, and how the organisation could be delivering better outcomes for everyone connected to it.
Carry out regular audits
Business improvement should always be considered an ongoing process, driven by an embedded culture of continuous review and change. As such, it is necessary to carry out company-wide audits on a regular basis to ensure all aspects of the organisation continue to operate at peak efficiency, and that any emerging areas for improvement are identified and actioned as soon as possible.
This means regularly reviewing your business performance and key metrics against your existing plans and goals, to identify areas of waste, underutilisation of resources, poor performance or quality concerns. This will allow you to continually reassess your progress towards your goals and the achievability of these targets, and make the changes needed to deliver the necessary results.
These findings will also help the organisation to review and update its business plan on a regular basis, ensuring it remains relevant and reflective of the organisation’s strategic direction.
For more insights and advice on how your business can identify areas for improvement and put a plan of action in place, get in touch with the business transformation and change management experts at Linea.
You can find out more about how we can help your organisation assess its current challenges holistically, put a plan of action in place and deliver a long-term process of change to ensure a consistent pursuit of organisational excellence.
Please call us on +44 (0) 124 442 1095, or complete our contact form to request a call back any time.
Click below to chat to a team member
