As President of CRE8 Independent Consultants, I regularly help the C-Suite and Directors of companies solve organizational/process issues and identify new innovative ways of working. As such, here are my top four C-Suite improvement ideas.

1. Reduce Friction.  Assess where friction (unnecessary resistance or effort) exists for customers, internal departments/groups, and the vendors you engage. In today’s quick-moving, split-second world, it is not enough to look at customer reviews or internal suggestions. Be proactive. Avoid customers buying from someone else by reducing the friction to obtain service/product information, order, receive delivery, pay, and speak to customer service. Avoid employee burnout by reducing internal friction, especially during peak work volumes. Maintain good relationships with your vendors by reducing friction around ordering, returns, and tracking. Tip: Start with a high-level discussion/ map of each process, and use the map to identify process friction, stresses, cycle time, costs, and ideas for improvement. Drill down and improve.
2. Improve the ROI of currently owned technologies. Evaluate how to improve the usage of currently owned systems.  Tip: Improve processes through re-examining current system configuration, integration, dashboards, reports, and if modules can be used more fully. 
3. Innovate through new advanced technologies. Examine how new advanced technologies (e.g., digital signature, content management, workflow, RPA, AI, and machine learning) can improve organizational processes and the customer experience. Examine incremental and radical change possibilities. Tip: Before jumping to prototyping a new technology, identify at the process level (maps) how the technology can improve the process (step-by-step) and what is required to support a return on investment for money spent. Before technology purchase or implementation, document software application requirements to ensure what is delivered meets requirements, is on time, on budget, and holds vendors responsible for results.
4. Lead, roadmap, sustain, and accelerate customer, process, and technology improvements.  In conjunction with solving specific problems and planning for technologies, develop an enterprise-wide process improvement plan and roadmap. Use the enterprise plan to identify your top twenty process – list, roadmap, priorities, costs/benefits, and timelines. Focus on how procedural changes, currently owned technologies, and new advanced technologies can be of benefit.  Tip: Gain external consulting assistance from a subject matter expert to help your organization quickly improve specific processes, plan for new advanced technologies, digital transformation, and develop an enterprise process improvement plan. I do happen to know of one 🙂

For more information on how to reduce friction read more.  For information on how CRE8 Independent Consultants can be of assistance and a free consultation, contact us.  

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 ranging from 25 to 250,000 employees across all industries and trained thousands of individuals. You can contact George as follows and on LinkedIn.