As President of CRE8 independent consultants, I regularly work with CEOs, Chiefs, and Directors to solve organizational problems and identify new opportunities.  Based on this work, my top four C-Suite improvement ideas for 2020 are as follows.

1. Better understand your organization from the perspective of the customer. For a moment, forget about web site clicks, likes, deep data conversations, and internal reports; have your executives talk directly to customers. Ask why do they purchase your services or products?  When do they experience frustration?  What will inspire them to purchase more?  What will cause them to leave? Tip: Have your executives pose as a customer on the organization’s web site, phone system, store, and customer service lines.
2. Improve your organization’s processes.  Identify how internal groups need to interact to support customer expectations (above).  Discuss how internal groups should better work together to support internal goals (e.g., time to hire, on-boarding, support, payroll/expenses, evaluations). Tip: Start with a high-level discussion of processes, cycle time, cost, stress points, and ideas for improvement.  Drill down and improve as required. 
3. Innovate through technology.  Evaluate how changes in the configuration of owned technologies and the introduction of new technologies will improve processes and the customer experience. Examine incremental and radical change possibilities.  Tip: Before jumping to prototyping, identify at the process level (maps) what the change will accomplish.  Identify return on investment ROI before investing in new technology.  Develop application requirements to guide development, reduce development costs, and diminish change orders.
4. Lead, sustain, and accelerate customer, process, and technology improvements.  Develop an enterprise-wide improvement plan.  Identify roadmap, priorities, and timelines.  Assess key processes to be improved.  Evaluate new technologies, from a process and ROI perspective.  Tip: Gain external consulting assistance as required, discuss the development of an internal process improvement office (PIO), and if a full or part-time chief process officer/director will best sustain and lead these efforts.

Organizational improvement can be a powerful tool if properly planned, deployed, and sustained. For additional information on how CRE8 Independent Consultants can be of assistance, read more.

About the Author: George Dunn, President of CRE8 Independent Consultants, is a worldwide recognized process improvement and advanced technology planning consultant, speaker, and author. George has assisted hundreds of organizations and trained thousands of individuals. You can contact George as follows and on LinkedIn.