Surviving the recession with breakthrough thinking - Part 2

[Continuation]
Thinking should be a process
Now that your management team is has identified a goal and they have a theory by which to consider the data they might collect, they are far better situated to determine what information might be valuable to them. If your team is focused on gathering relevant information where the goal is making more money, and the framework or theory tells us that there must be at least one bottleneck or constraint in our system (the whole enterprise), your team now knows the very first question to ask and answer. That question is: “What is our constraint or bottleneck to making more money tomorrow than we are making today?”
 
While we might find some hints in the data stored within your existing ERP database and other computer systems, it is far more likely that what is really valuable in finding the answer to this critical question is presently being held in the minds of your own firm’s managers and leaders all across the organization. We call this kind of undocumented information consciously or subconsciously filed away by the organization’s people day by day “tribal knowledge.” Tribal knowledge is what they have learned through facts and circumstances accompanied by their subjective intuition about what they have garnered objectively.
 
The relatively limited amount of information that is required to soundly answer the key question we have identified is actually better defined from probing the staffs’ intuitions – tribal knowledge – regarding the context of the organization, the uniqueness found in it and its products, and how it works or does not work in delivering value to its customers.
 
In almost every problem, the value of the factual details pales in significance when compared to the framework and setting in which the details transpire. Breakthrough thinking comes from the application of intuition that gives meaning and cohesiveness to the observations made.
 
Traditional information-gathering efforts focus on the past (historical data captured in computer systems or elsewhere) or the present failings. Unfortunately, since these cannot – by their nature – be an effective guide for the future, the real breakthroughs emerge from the intuition of those closest to the workings of the “system” – the organization taken as a whole.
 
You and your management team might begin by gathering a cross-functional team of staff whom you deem to be trustworthy and experienced in their functions within your enterprise. Then, simply commence by asking this simple question: “What small handful of things do each of you see as keeping our firm from making more money tomorrow than we are making today?”
 
 Give each of them several three-by-five cards or large stick-notes and ask them to jot down these factors for you. Before they begin writing, give them the following guidelines:

• State each thought as clearly as possible 
• Include an “actor,” as in “Our vendors provide us with too many defective components for Product Line A.”
• Do not include assumed cause-and-effect statements. For example, do not say “Competition is driving prices down, so our salespeople offer too many discounts to make sales.” Instead, make each of these comments stand on their own if you believe them to be true. Write them as separate items thus: “Our competitors are driving prices down,” and “Our salespeople offer too many discounts in order to make sales.”
• Put each statement on a separate card or stick-note.

You should refer to these as undesirable effects or UDEs (pronounced: YOU-dee-ees) as did Eli Goldratt when he first promulgated the Thinking Processes. Naturally, some of the participants will have more ideas to jot down than others. Your object in this part of the exercise is to come up with roughly 20 unique UDEs with which to begin creating your organization’s Current Reality Tree – a logical tree that will depict what is not working – what is keeping your organization from making more money tomorrow than it is making today.
 
You can learn more about Eliyahu Goldratt and the Thinking Processes, including Current Reality Trees by doing an Internet search on any or all of these terms, or review this and related Wikipedia articles. You will also find additional references and application of the Thinking Processes right here at GeeWhiz to R.O.I.
 
Every problem is unique and is likely to require a unique solution
A wise man once said, “No man crosses the same river twice: for both the man and the river have changed with each crossing.” The must be said in the realm of business problem-solving.

One of the most frequently occurring and devastating errors executives and managers make in problem-solving and planning is that one problem or situation is identical to another. Fads in management come and go, but no fad or prior experience can take into account fully the differences in time, place, people involved, surrounding conditions, and the present purpose of reaching a breakthrough. The Thinking Processes, however, are able to leverage the “tribal knowledge” and intuition available within your organization to discover unique responses to unique situations even when they may appear (on the surface) to be “just like” what you faced last month or last year.
 
Furthermore, the Thinking Processes are able to decipher and disarm cultural differences and conflicting values within your organization without compromise – which is nothing more than accepting the best of the worst options and blending it with the worst of the best solutions.
 
Far too many managers and executives go out of the way to draw comparisons between their present reality and some other situation believed to be similar. These similarities may be expounded to great length even though the two situations may be separated by miles, years and even involve entirely different companies and personnel. This propensity stems from a desire to reach an “efficient” solution while feeling some satisfaction about being “objective,” as well. It also reduces or eliminates much of the requirement for actually thinking about the uniqueness of the organizations present situation. The Thinking Processes’ Current Reality Tree (CRT) simplifies that while providing management with a truly objective and rational view of what is keeping the “system” from achieving more of its goal.
 
[To be continued]
©2010 Richard D. Cushing

Surviving the recession with breakthrough thinking - Part 1

If there is one thing you need to survive and thrive during a recession, it is a competitive advantage. And if there is one thing that can help you and your organization discover and secure a sustainable competitive advantage, it is breakthrough thinking. But how do you and your management team go about conjuring up a breakthrough? After all, the very word "breakthrough" indicates that there is a barrier between you and "the other side" of the breakthrough. How will you break through?

Become an expert on "the solution," not "the problem"
Over my career of more than 25 years in consulting and senior management, I have met lots of executives and managers that believe that "data" is central to improving a company. They did not have this same thought before computers became widely available to small-to-mid-sized business enterprises (SMEs). It seems that as PC-based computing and storage became faster and cheaper, managers' and executives' hunger for data grew. If some data was helpful, then (it seems they reasoned) all the data would make them infallible in their management actions.

The data are not right
What many of these executives and managers fail to understand, however, is that it is impossible for the data they collect to be right all of the time. To paraphrase P.T. Barnum: Some of the data will be right all of the time, and all of the data will be right some of the time; but, all of the data will never be right all of the time.

You will never possess all of the data
Of course, we need to add to that the fact that no one will ever possess all of the data in any given situation, if for no other reason than that there are hundreds of data elements affecting any given situation that are not quantifiable and cannot be reduced to empirical data points in a computer.

The data are not objective or impartial
Even the data that is collected may not be objective. How the data is collected, the programming that went into the computer application that collects it, the operator who enters it, the people making the measurements, and even the staff that categorize, select and report on the data are all potential influencers of the end result. The reports, dashboards or presentations that many executives will consider as being "neutral," "objective," and "impartial" really may have none of these attributes.

You are wasting time, energy and moneyFor all of these reasons and more, executives and managers that seek to amass volumes of data in order to solve problems are wasting the three things most companies can least afford to use unwisely: time, energy and money. Not only so, but too much data is more often a hindrance than a benefit to breakthrough problem-solving. The executives seeking a solution are more often than not simply buried in the minutia - much of it being unmanageable and irrelevant to the underlying core problem. The result is "paralysis by analysis."

Data-gathering is not accomplishment
Sadly, far too many executives and managers equate information gathering with actually accomplishing something that benefits the organization even though the act cannot be linked to increasing Throughput, reducing Inventories or demand for new Investment, and/or cutting or holding the line on Operating Expenses while sustaining significant growth. This approach to problem-solving frequently reports "progress" without any real accomplishment leading to improvement - short-term or otherwise.

Missing the goal and a frameworkIn management's misplaced attempt to become an expert on "the problem" through data-collection, they have already taken a wrong turn. Management should not be in the business of becoming expert on "the problem." They should be seeking to become expert on "the solution." However, their mistaken belief is that the data will lead them to a solution. This, however, is highly unlikely.

Data is nothing more than documented experience - the organization's history having been captured as data. However, as W. Edwards Deming told us so clearly:

• "Information is not knowledge. Knowledge comes from theory." 
• "You should not ask questions without knowledge."
• "There is no knowledge without theory."
• "Experience teaches nothing without theory."
• "If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing."

Managers busy amassing and combing through data frequently have neither a goal nor a theory in mind. They are, as Deming would say, "Asking questions without knowledge." They are seeking to be "taught" by the firm's experience (as captured in the data) without a theory about what the data should be showing them.

Begin with a goal
It is the awareness of a goal or purpose that will enable managers to determine what data might really be relevant to achieving a breakthrough.

Firefighting does not qualify as a goal
Firefighting might be a requirement, but it cannot qualify as "a goal." I say this because - like real, honest-to-goodness firefighting - the most it can do is minimize damage and restore the "normal condition" of "no fire." It cannot bring progress, let alone lead to breakthrough thinking and competitive advantage for your company.
 
If your executive team is going to achieve breakthrough thinking, then the breakthrough better be about something more important to your organization's success than how to put out - or even prevent - the next fire in department X. Your thinking had better be focused on the critical matters of achieving more of your goal - and, in a for-profit enterprise, that goal should be how to make more money tomorrow than you are making today. Any other goal is short-sighted: improving quality, improving customer service, and even making happier, more satisfied employees are require making money if they are to be done well and for very long.
 
So, if the goal is making more money tomorrow than you are making today, what are the right questions to ask and what is the theory (or framework) in which to ask those questions in order that you and your management team might come away with real and practical knowledge leading to breakthrough improvements?

The theory and the goal
Let us begin with this hypothesis: Every for-profit organization has at least one constraint to making more money. Of course, the evidence supporting this hypothesis is that if at least one for-profit organization existed with no constraint, its profits would be approaching infinity. The resulting theory - set forth by Eliyahu Goldratt more than 25 years ago - is called the theory of constraints, or TOC.

There are many nuances to understanding all of the implications of this theory and it is beyond the scope of this present writing to discuss them all. However, it seems simple enough as a concept: the organization - the "system" - is, in a for-profit situation, nothing more than a "money-making" or "profit-making" machine. Therefore, the following two statements should be considered:

1. The "system" - the entire organization - should be considered as a whole and not managed piecemeal by department and function. It is the "system" that produces profit, not the individual products, processes, departments or functions. The constraint is - or constraints are - related to the "system" and should be addressed in the context of the "system." 
2. In order for the "system" to make more money tomorrow than it is making today, it is important that the following occur:
1. IDENTIFY the constraint(s)
2. EXPLOIT the constraint(s) - i.e., take steps to get the most Throughput available under the current constraint(s)
3. SUBORDINATE to the constraint(s) - i.e., subordinate all other decision-making across the organization to the governing factors surrounding the constraint(s)
4. ELEVATE the constraint(s) - i.e., take steps to expand the capacity(ies) of capacity-constrained resources (CCRs)
5. CHECK to see if the constraint has moved - i.e., see if you now have a different constraint or set of constraint(s)
6. GO BACK to the first step - do not let inertia set in; enter into a POOGI (process of ongoing improvement)

Now you can start thinking - wisely
Now, with a theory in-hand (the theory of constraints) and a goal in mind (making more money tomorrow than you are making today), you and your management team are actually ready to begin "thinking" toward a breakthrough.

[To be continued]
 
©2010 Richard D. Cushing

Constrained by your ERP?

Are you feeling that your ERP "solution" is more constraining than liberating?  Maybe it's your approach?  Maybe its the way your ERP reseller or vendor treats you?  Maybe your "systems integrator" has no vision -- no ability to "think outside the box."  Click on the link or the title of this post and watch a very funny video on this subject.

Whatever it is, you'll get a kick out this (click the link), and you'll find answers by reading more posts right here at GeeWhiz To R.O.I.

Thanks.

...

The New ERP – Part 24

It is all academic

We have covered several aspects in the matter of developing a "requirements list" so far. (See prior posts.) Of course, whether you are developing your requirements list in-house or your firm is retaining as traditional Everything Replacement Project consultant to do it for you, it is entirely academic and suffers from the same bad assumptions and lack of focus.

As I am writing this, I have before me a real-life "Request for Information" (RFI) stemming from a real-life traditional Everything Replacement Project. This particular document presents 286 "requirements." Sadly, it is quite likely that the folks behind this RFI – because they are employing traditional ERP concepts and methods – have absolutely no idea which of these "requirements" reflects the small handful of things that will actually permit their organization to improve by increasing Throughput (T), reducing demand for new Investment (I), or cutting or holding the line on Operating Expenses (OE) as their firm grows. In fact, they probably "hope" – but cannot state with any certainty – that any of these requirements will actually aid the firm in growing beyond its natural trajectory as of today.

The danger of lack of focus

It is precisely this lack of focus as reflected in a 286-item "Requirements List" that drives firms to undertake an Everything Replacement Project rather than identifying and changing that very small number of things that will actually deliver results by permitting the firm to elevate or even break a constraint and, thus, to increase Throughput – or to make significant improvements in I or OE, for that matter.

The firm that unwisely elects to spend half-a-million dollars on an Everything Replacement Project when a more focused investment of some (likely, significantly) smaller amount would deliver effective and valuable improvement has wasted capital that it will never be able to reclaim.

The Everything Replacement Project approach is supported by the false underlying assumption that, if we just throw enough money and technology at our organization, our organization will somehow improve. As evidence, I quote a gentleman who once said to me the following regarding a time-consuming and costly implementation of SAP that he had ongoing in his organization: "We've spent so much money already, it's got to work." (Emphasis is his.)

This unfortunate lack of focus in a traditional Everything Replacement Project, is to be contrasted with the New ERP – Extended Readiness for Profit approach that we are introducing here. The New ERP encourages you and your management team to focus on "what needs to change" (by looking at the roots of your Current Reality Tree [CRT]) – that relatively small handful of things that will actually lead to measurable improvement. Then, and only then, should you take your precious cash and other resources to apply them in a focused way, knowing in advance the measurable outcomes you expect from each critical investment.

What does all this have to do with "software selection"?

While traditional Everything Replacement Project methods will have you and your organization searching for software (and, potentially, other technologies) to replace – well – "everything" based on the all too traditional "Requirements List," the focusing steps of the Extended Readiness for Profit method will direct your team to consider only those particular technologies that will actually lead to real and rapid improvement (read: return on investment). Rather than a shotgun approach – throwing time, energy, money and technology – at everything – the New ERP gives your management team the option to become sharpshooters for improvement and new profits.

The New ERP approach will

• Conserve cash
  
• Provide more targeted uses for capital
  
• Avoid the waste of spending on IT projects that result in little or no real value-add to the "system" – the organization, as a whole
  

Going back to the example company (see early prior posts in this series), since the management team understands precisely "what needs to change" in order to improve the "system" – the organization – as a whole (namely, integrated bar code printing, integrated and automated ASN generation and transmission, and reducing or eliminating paper-based pick-pack-ship operations), they do not need to look at replacing everything. Rather, this wise team is prepared to turn to vendors and do "software selection" based on a very small domain of critical functions.

Rather than spending several hundreds of thousands of dollars on an Everything Replacement Project, our example team can set – as we previously described – a reasonable budget for the accomplishment of just the critical changes they have identified and for which they have already created measurable objectives.
[To be continued]

(c)2008, 2009 Richard D. Cushing

Getting more of what you want - Part 1

Most of my clients are small to mid-sized businesses when I meet them. Many of them have already achieved a significant level of success. These firms have proven themselves and grown -- many of them have grown rapidly -- and frequently they are on the precipice of making the leap from entrepreneurial to enterprise.

Generally, what makes an entrepreneur successful is something of a sixth sense that communicates to them an almost instinctive connection between opportunities (or revenues) and truly variable costs (TVC).

Entrepreneurs thrive and grow on this instinct and worry about the "cost accounting details" later. However, two things begin to change as their organization begins to grow:

1. The entrepreneurial individuals in the firm -- the founder and his or her closest associates -- may become less connected to each opportunity the firm may encounter and similarly disconnected from a sense of the TVC involved.
   
   
2. The more disconnected these, now, executives become from the details surrounding opportunities and TVCs, the more they begin to rely on standard "cost accounting methods" to guide their organization's decision-making.
   

Interestingly, the more "sophisticated" the decision-making process becomes in their organization, the more profits and profitability growth may tend to decline. The entrepreneurs find it increasingly difficult to make that leap from entrepreneural to enterprise capabilities.

What's keeping entrepreneurs and firms in this position from getting more of what they want? What's stopping them from making more money tomorrow than they are making today?

[To be continued...]

Contact me.