For many years I have been analyzing the activities of a large number of companies, and I often ask myself the question: “How do they still manage to remain viable with low efficiency and with this approach to doing business?” Surprisingly, they not only stay afloat, but are also quite financially successful. How can this be explained? The fact is that the vast majority of competing companies are at a similar level of organization, if not lower. Efficiency does not look low if there is no standard for comparison. Few people would dare to compare their business organization with the most successful public companies in the industry - the gap may be too wide. And finding adequate data on average for industries is almost impossible. That's why we see that the problem of efficiency is of little concern to anyone until profitability begins to decline.

Today, competition is increasing, and this is forcing companies to do business more efficiently. Especially considering the growing momentum of automation and digitalization, which makes it possible to think about a significant reduction in the number of personnel or, more interestingly, about a multiple increase in productivity. In fact, prices from suppliers are approximately the same, the final prices for manufacturers’ products are also at the same level - there is nothing to gain here. And those who build internal processes in the company most effectively, providing their customers with maximum opportunities, will be able to gain a serious competitive advantage.

EXAMPLE: There are quite a lot of companies on the market that produce PVC windows. The differences in pricing policy are insignificant. But if a company quickly goes to the site, quickly calculates the cost of the order, produces, installs on time - and all this takes 1.5–2 weeks, then the customer is satisfied and will recommend this company to his friends. And the manufacturing company has no overhead costs. At the same time, there is a different approach to organizing work. Let's assume that the surveyor appears on site within a week. Then it turns out that he did not measure all the parameters (it’s good if this becomes clear before the order is transferred to production). We have to go again. The production time is also not impressive; the process is delayed. And the installation team can go to the site for several days, working for a couple of hours and periodically forgetting to take the necessary tools. And when you look at such work, you think what kind of profitability is built into it in order to ensure the profitability of the business even with such huge losses in efficiency. And, again, what profit could there be if we manage to increase efficiency and eliminate these losses. And how many new customers can be attracted by increasing the level of satisfaction of existing ones. Which will ultimately allow you to gain a serious advantage over your competitors.

But why do companies experience such losses in efficiency? Obviously, everything depends not only on the performance of individual employees - a systematic approach is required. If a company is interested in a stable and guaranteed result, it is unlikely to count on the responsible attitude of individual specialists, on their understanding of how best to complete a particular task. It is necessary to think over a system that will include both methods for obtaining information (collecting orders) and regulations for actions that will be most suitable for customers and most effective for business. And this goal can be achieved using a tool such as description and optimization of business processes. Which, by the way, form the basis of automation, since one of the most ineffective things is to automate incomprehensible and ineffective processes. What problems are solved using this technology? What do we get as a result?

1. We bring order to the company, make business transparent and manageable. When the processes are described, each employee understands what he should do, within what time frame, what documents to draw up, in what format to transmit information further, who is responsible for what processes, what to do in the event of force majeure, etc. It is important that the manager gets the opportunity to control the process at any stage - when he considers it necessary, and not in a situation where he already has to solve the problem.
2. We reduce the cost of processes, shorten their duration, improve quality - in some cases, we solve all these problems at the same time.
3. We get the opportunity to create an effective organizational structure, having well-described and structured business processes.
4. We can replicate the business, launch new enterprises faster, and open similar structures.
5. We reduce dependence on personnel: if the regulations are described in detail and clearly, it is much easier to introduce a new specialist into this system.
6. We save time for managers, freeing them from the need to make many small decisions every day: there are regulations that simply need to be followed.

The example given above shows that the whole process consists of a sequence of certain points, arriving at which we must decide where to go next. If there is no description of actions, then employees turn with questions to their manager, who is constantly distracted by these tasks, and the process ultimately lengthens. If for each point instructions are given on how to act, then significantly fewer mistakes are made and the process goes faster.

Process logic is exactly what distinguishes the technology for describing and subsequently optimizing business processes from a simple description of functional activities. As the famous management gurus Michael Hammer and James Champy wrote, a business process is a combination of several types of activities, when certain types of resources are used at the input, and the output is a product that is valuable to the consumer. And this is not only an external, but also an internal consumer, that is, one who is in the organization itself. For example, when organizing the production process, such a consumer is the logistics or sales department.

Thus, the process approach makes it possible to implement changes faster, using more flexible and fairly simple approaches. And the main thing is that there are people who are responsible for the results obtained.