It is impossible to improve what you do not understand or even know about, but a business process improvement tool in the form of a simple structured business health check is a good place to start.
The major cause of process related problems and small business failure and inefficiencies are broken processes. This is because many business processes were created by default rather than by design.
Unfortunately, they have continued to remain in that state aside from minor tweaks even as the business grew, ultimately creating business chaos.
Difference Between a Business Assessment and a Business Health Check
While both terms are often used interchangeably, they are quite different.
A business assessment analyses and evaluates 2-3 years of past and current business performance, assesses potential risk, and recommends solutions to mitigate risks and increase overall performance.
On the other hand, a business health check is a snapshot overview of key business areas and structures at a point in time to see what is working well and what is not with a quick overview of them.
Process Related Problems – Use a Business Process Improvement Tool
Process Related Problems prevent businesses from increasing their profit margins and promotes stagnancy
Systems and Processes Cause Most Problems
One of the earliest fathers of quality management, Edwards Deming, stated that 94% of most business problems and opportunities for improvement actually come from the systems and processes and are not usually caused by individuals as we like to believe. It is always easy to find someone to blame.
9 causes of broken process in a business.
- presence of undefined processes,
- lack of process ownership,
- duplicate of alternate use processes in different departments,
- process is too complicated,
- process is not understood, the process creates excessive waste,
- supplier processes are not well defined,
- the needs of the customer are not understood, and finally,
- relevant metrics are not used to assess performance.
Check The State of Your Business with This Business Process Improvement Tool
A business operating inefficient or broken processes will be at a competitive disadvantage within its industry with slower or delayed customer response time to deliver products or services with escalating costs. In the long term, such an operation is unsustainable.
Could your business processes be literarily “costing” you – loss of customers or employees or a decreased profit margin? Download the Guide and identify areas with process challenges. PLUS how to go about fixing them, and other hidden opportunities!
