Alex’s background is typical of many COE graduates as she had worked her way up from being ‘on the tools’. She had excellent instincts for operational excellence but lacked formal leadership training. Embarking on the Core Operational Excellence leadership development program taught Alex the science behind her instincts and the confidence to further develop with the 70/20/10 learning approach. When she was promoted into a large leadership role following an acquisition, she sensed many gaps in the two business areas that had come together. Over the following six months during her COE training, she progressively identified and addressed these gaps, raising business maturity and helping her team step up.

THE ISSUES

The many challenges Alex found were consistent with a low maturity business:

• Misaligned teams 
• Some operational processes had nil process documentation and key person risk
• Several teams had limited or no process data
• Limited engagement with stakeholders (siloed)
• No business plan or monthly reviews
• Perception of insufficient staff – in reality, too much time spent on waste activity
• Few employees had active development plans and succession gaps existed 

ACTIONS TAKEN

This had to be a team effort so Alex engaged her leaders from the outset to gradually lift the business maturity with numerous actions:

• Aligned roles, objectives and operating rhythms 
• Developed a business plan with a monthly review mechanism
• Team meetings run with agendas, minutes and follow-up actions
• Closed gaps in process documentation
• Implemented individual development plans to address key skill gaps and reduce succession gaps
• Commenced manual data tracking on priority areas
• Established regular stakeholder communications
• Focused improvements on several inefficient processes

RESULTS

The results that Alex achieved within SIX MONTHS are incredible:

• Cycle time on two core processes reduced 70%
• Increased employee engagement
• Continuous improvement driven by customer feedback and structured risk assessments
• 100% succession coverage with no key person risks
• Process improvements reduced waste equivalent to 1 FTE
• Culture change with leaders working as a team, delivering on their plans
• Interest reduction of $40k pa from reduced refund events 
• Team are increasingly using data to separate fact from fiction

To this day, Alex still keeps her ½ day per week for working on the business – there is no going back!

RAISING BUSINESS MATURITY IN YOUR ORGANISATION

If you need your leaders to step up, raising business maturity and overall performance while reducing risks, click here to learn more about Core Operational Excellence and QBS’s other development programs.