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Point of View

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Today, almost in the last quarter of the dramatic 2020 year, many organizations are not only at risk financially, but are at risk of losing their relevance, of becoming the dinosaurs of our modern world. COVID-19 has launched Digital and Technology with an amazing speed in the top 3 on the priority list of the CEO's. The speed of development of Digitization and Technological progression (DigiTech) is accelerating. It not only changes the Tech side of organizations. It also impacts leadership and people systems. In this article I will guide you through Five Imperatives of DigiTech Leadership I have identified.

 

Operational Excellence programmes were, and still are, important components on the management agenda of companies from many different industries. According to a study recently carried out by EFESO, in partnership with ICIS, more than 75% of the responding companies rate OPEX as a top 3 or top 5 agenda item.

 

DARE Acceleration (Digitization, Autonomation, Robotization and E-Commerce)

Yes COVID-19 has let us enter unprecedented times but historic data learns us that during disruptions like this, systemically things will change much deeper and more sustainable than we foresee in the middle of the disruption itself. During crisis like this, companies are much more likely to make capital investments. Specially if the reason for the crisis has shown us the risks of (dependency of) humans, the investments will be targeted on eliminating these risks.

 

Do you measure your performance? Probably yes, but do you also measure the behaviour in your company?

The key factor to keep and improve the results of a company is the sum of all human behaviour in the company. And in this fast moving world, you need to continuously progress in order to keep your competitive advantage. After all; “it’s not the big that eat the small…it’s the fast that eat the slow”.

 

What learnings can we gather from the experience of Covid-19 and what will we change in our legacy business models?

This pandemic crisis, having “frozen” current business models, is creating a significant disruption to the worldwide economy. The impact varies from sector to sector, some exceptions being e-commerce and life sciences but, overall, it is trending towards a global recession. How far and how long the recession will be is the question that we all have. What is clear, is that this new “shut-in” economy requires change. Fast and deep. 

 

EFESO World Class Operations Management - WCOM

The book "WCOM™: why you need more than Lean" captures the reasons why 5 global enterprises (St. Gobain, L’Oréal, Groupe Bel, Tetra Pak and Bemis), with combined revenues of over 100B€, have adopted World Class Operations Management (WCOM™) in more than 1000 plants across the world.

 

The pandemic crisis has had a devastating effect on worldwide GDP and, from now on, there will be major changes in the way we do business ("shut-in-economy"). Most of these changes were already in progress but the pandemic event has forced the rate of this change to accelerate. A simple “evolution” will not be enough, a step change (a quantum leap, a breakthrough) will be necessary. As such, we cannot waste time trying to understand what has happened and will happen through the lenses of the previous business paradigms. Instead we must imagine ourselves already catapulted into this new competitive scenario and look at it through a new perspective.

 

The 5 fundamental challenges to address

Healthcare systems differ greatly across countries and regions. It is challenged by many external factors to deliver higher levels of service at constant or even lower cost, which means simple efficiency measures are no longer sufficient.

 

The new capabilities offered by Digitalization are significantly changing existing Supply Chains. It would be unwise to consider digitalization just as a performance boost of existing activities. In fact, digitalization can be the first step to new Value Propositions, new Value Chains and even New Business Models. But, it is not possible to identify these new opportunities and implement new business configurations while still looking at the business with today’s understanding. To do this would hide the real potential of a new technological business environment. The best way to understand new Value Propositions is by using a helicopter overview of business ecosystem trends jointly with a review of newly available digitalized solutions. A cross-industry perspective is also recommended.

 

Having a clear and powerful "Why"

The Shingo Model’s definition of the principle Create Constancy of Purpose is, “an unwavering clarity of why the organization exists, where it is going, and how it will get there", which it goes on to say, "enables people to align their actions, as well as to innovate, adapt and take risks with greater confidence.”

 

New business ecosystems and new business models

by Giorgio Merli

Today, Smart Cities and Smart Services are a key topic for Companies and Governments. Both are engaged in planning and implementing new realizations, interacting with different purposes and objectives in the same Ecosystem. In this article, the author considers this topic from two perspectives of Business and Government Services for Citizens, who live together sometimes synergistically, sometime conflicting. Examples and cases from both sides are included to highlight how the two parties should manage it in the best way in order to develop the Ecosystem sustainably and satisfactorily. It is also explained why the goal of having an Integrated Sustainable Plan is a priority of a Territory Government, while the understanding of the possible Business Model is the priority of the Business Organizations.

 

7 winning strategies identified and described

Is it possible to create lasting value in today’s food industry? Is this something that you can still achieve? The added value created by the food industry in mature markets like Europe as a whole is mostly stagnant, if not actually decreasing.

 

When is a CMO not a CMO?

by Hugh Williams

Contract Manufacturing Organisations (CMOs), particularly in Asia, are facing some interesting times and challenges. In their own countries, they are looking at how to respond to growth, different buying practices in China, and an ageing and maturing market. In the West, they have to satisfy growing complexity and an increasingly complicated demand model that is looking for much faster delivery, smaller batch sizes, and customer centricity.

 

Identifying 8 forms of human waste

The book ‘Performance Behavior’ (by Neil Webers) describes how an organization can link performance to behavior to minimize waste and optimize performance behavior.

 

How Digitization Is Potentially Changing The Game And The Rules

by Filippo Mantegazza

Returning from Barcelona, where I attended the World Congress for IOT Solutions
#IOTSWC19, I brought back 3 strong impressions:

  1. Connectivity is a fact, even becoming a commodity.
  2. We are starting to see many instances of IoT in Manufacturing and Supply Chain and a lot of application of Advanced Analytics, but we still do not see a well progressed 4.0 transformation. This will be the next step.
  3. What is key for the next step, apart from the architectural capability, is the ability to develop people with new leadership and new capability, new roles, new knowledge and new skills.

This is where we must focus our efforts.

 

Operational Excellence in Laboratories

The pharmaceutical sector is very different from the short cycle manufacturing environment that Lean was originally developed for (i.e. mostly batch processes with relatively long cycle times).

 

How we can build a state of the art manufacturing exploiting the whole potential of Technology and Digital solutions

by Filippo Mantegazza

Last week I attended the yearly show of digital and manufacturing 4.0 at the #HM19. I had the chance to visit and, as anybody else, I was really impressed by the level and numbers achieved by Technology. Today the industrial and logistics environments can really take a big step forward. The technology is ready, available and more accessible than before. All the consolidated companies are continuously progressing, and new companies are rising to the challenge. Digital and Virtual Reality are developing dramatically and increasing the depth of process management and productivity and widening the manageable horizons.

 

Why You Need More Than Lean

A new book about World Class Operations Management (WCOM™/WCM) has been released.

 

Industry 4.0's investments and approaches will actually increase the levels of competitiveness of companies only if they are used to enable new levers of competitive advantage. It is, therefore, necessary to have a strategic vision that can identify the new Products/Services that can be offered to the market and the related business models.

 

A 6-step holistic approach to ensure strategic consistency

Despite having spent years and countless millions on optimising their operations, 61% of companies (according to the Economist’s Intelligence Unit) find themselves frustrated with the same problem.