Early excitement usually leads to backsliding.
STARTING WITH Frederick Taylor and W. Edwards Deming, managers have long been obsessed with ways to improve business processes. And in the past 20 years, a host of improvement initiatives, including lean production, Six Sigma, and agile, have swept through a range of industries. Studies show that companies embracing such techniques may enjoy significant improvements in efficiency and costs. But when the University of North Carolina’s Brad Staats and the University of Oxford’s Matthias Holweg and David Upton looked at the benefits, they noticed a gap. “These things always work well initially, but often the gains fade very quickly,” Holweg says. “It’s always felt like researchers were telling only half the story. It’s not just about putting the programmes in place – it’s also about making them stick.”
To understand why some improvements are sustained and others aren’t, the researchers examined 204 lean projects launched from 2012 to 2017 at a European bank with more than 2,000 branches in 14 countries and serving more than 16 million customers. The lean initiative, started by the head office, was supported by a global consulting firm, which helped create an in-house academy to train lean “champions” at each regional subsidiary. Initial projects focussed on processes (such as opening an account and making a wire transfer) that could benefit from decreased hand offs and fewer steps and were common to all regions. The regional offices subsequently identified additional projects according to their needs. The projects shared an overarching goal: to increase labour productivity, a key variable in service operations.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 02, 2018-Ausgabe von Business Today.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der December 02, 2018-Ausgabe von Business Today.
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A Man of Multitudes
IN A NEW BOOK, CAPTAINS OF INDIA INC. AND OTHERS PAY TRIBUTE TO RAHUL BAJAJ, THE TITAN OF INDIAN INDUSTRY
HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN
WITH THE GOVERNMENT OFFERING SUBSIDIES UNDER THE PM SURYA GHAR MUFT BIJLI YOJANA, MANY HOUSEHOLDS HAVE TAKEN A SHINE TO SOLAR ROOFTOP PANELS. BUT HOW MUCH DO THEY COST?
FROM GREY TO GREEN
WITH THE CLIMATE CRISIS BECOMING MORE ACUTE, GREEN HYDROGEN COULD BE AN IMPORTANT SOLUTION
ECO CHAMBER
DATA CENTRES ARE A VERY VITAL PART OF THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION THAT IS UNDERWAY, BUT THERE'S A PROBLEM: THEY CONSUME TOO MUCH ENERGY. AS DEMAND FOR SUCH CENTRES INCREASES IN INDIA, IT HAS NO OPTION BUT TO EMBRACE GREEN SOLUTIONS
THE GREEN BARRIER
THE EU'S CARBON BORDER ADJUSTMENT MECHANISM COULD MAKE INDIAN EXPORTS UNCOMPETITIVE, UNLESS EFFORTS TO REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS ARE ACCELERATED
HUMANISING SUSTAINABILITY
THERE IS A NEED TO MOVE BEYOND INDIVIDUAL WELL-BEING AND FOSTER A SENSE OF INTERCONNECTEDNESS AND SOLIDARITY
DE-RISKING THE BOOKS
INDIAN BANKS ARE BEGINNING TO TAKE BABY STEPS TOWARDS ADDRESSING CLIMATE-RELATED FINANCIAL RISKS IN THEIR BOOKS. BUT THEY MUST PUT THEIR FOOT ON THE PEDAL AND ENHANCE PREPAREDNESS
PAYING FOR CHANGE
WITH EXTREME WEATHER INCREASINGLY PUTTING THE COUNTRY AND ITS ECONOMY AT RISK, INDIA SHOULD EXPLORE CLIMATE FINANCE PATHWAYS TO FUND ITS NET-ZERO JOURNEY TOWARDS A GREENER FUTURE
BEYOND THE BLIP
ESG HAS BEEN UNDER SCRUTINY GLOBALLY AMID ALLEGATIONS OF GREENWASHING AND RECORD REDEMPTIONS FROM ESG FUNDS. BUT THAT MAY JUST BE ONE SIDE OF THE STORY, SINCE SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES HAVE BECOME CORE COMPONENTS OF COMPANIES' STRATEGIES
PROFITING FROM ESG
INITIALLY DRIVEN BY REGULATORY COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS, BUSINESSES ARE INCREASINGLY VIEWING ESG AS A TOOL TO ENHANCE PROFITABILITY. BUT THERE IS STILL A LONG WAY TO GO