Innovate both process and product –Tip 13

When choosing between product and process innovation…choose both, says Mario Pretorius. It’s not an either or. Getting the process innovation right (by doing it in parallel rather than in series) will create time for the magic of product innovation.

business processThere are 2 directions of innovation:

  1. Product innovation (Expensive and difficult)
  2. Process innovation (Cheaper and easier)

Everything can be improved through process innovation. This is the easy, Darwinian way. The largest a-ha! leap in processes was when we figured out (idiots that we were before) that there are two approaches: things in series and things in parallel. We changed as much as we could to parallels, starting several processes at once when we received an order.

The credit checking started simultaneously with the system profile creation and the product set-ups. The technical planning started at the same moment; within a day everything was ready to roll, no-one waited on anyone else to start. Once the last of the processes was finished, installation began. This cut execution time from weeks to hours.

From time to time credit nixed the client or tech found terminal problems with e specific site, but these abandonments and wasted effort were miniscule to the benefit and confidence gained by the gang approach.

So how long does it take to receive a new passport? What would happen if everything was done in parallel? Or my favourite bugbear – the three weeks waiting list. Imagine if extra effort was made to catch-up and the goodies appeared from the machine in the time it took to make it?

Process innovation leaves permanent results. There are a world of ways to do things better – if they need to be done at all. At TeleMasters we abandoned the entire client credit checking procedure a decade ago. The delay was usually two weeks. The info would be out of date in a month, even less. The cost and effort of keeping all clients updated would be prohibitive. So we charged a month’s use upfront and solved the risk.

Processes are the lifeblood and can be diseased to death. Spend some time in every department watching what they do and how they do it and you may understand the term “creating work else I could be fired”. The inefficiency, the drudgery, unnecessary tasks, the compliance fears and worst of all, the showing up of a Jurassic and flawed methodology will drive you to tears. The inane emails, the excuses for repeating an ineffective procedure – herein lay the great maw of unnecessary cost in time and money.

Think through the process of keeping a client informed and happy. Plan around it, then relentlessly cut down the steps and ANY pass-along-to-Fred for the next step. Keep responsibility for the entire process with a single person, double up the people, in parallel. Sniff out the delays and time the executions.

Now you would be able to find time for the magic of product innovation.

You may want to choose between product and process innovation. Choose both.

This tip is an extract from the manuscript of “The Unconventional CEO: Common sense outside of conventional Management thinking” (by Mario Pretorius).

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