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Identifying Winning Process Improvement Opportunities
Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.
Ever wonder where the winning process improvement projects are in your organization? Ever wonder how to know if the project you are going to manage has the trappings of a winner or not? Read on. In this series, we will explore some ideas that might shed light on how to identify winning process improvement opportunities.
There seems to be an unlimited number of projects an organization can pursue. Your success or failure in an organization is often based on the outcome of projects on which you have worked or managed. Ideally, we would only get involved with projects that are guaranteed to be successful. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees. So how are winning projects recognized? Do projects have inherent attributes that make some more likely to succeed than others? What about payback? What is it? Does payback mean a high return on investment, or is it driven by perception?
How Money Is Spent
First, I want you to think about how organizations spend money. The monies an organization spends can be grouped into three categories. I call the first category positioning dollars. Positioning dollars are those monies spent with a specific objective or return on investment (ROI) in mind. Typically, positioning dollars are future-oriented and highly visible. Capital expenditures, research and development and various projects are budgeted in …
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