3 key ingredients for operational excellence

The definition of operational excellence is undergoing profound change. Instead of an enterprise consisting of multiple islands of expertise and efficiency, operational excellence now means breaking down the operational barriers to improve collaboration across departmental lines.

This more holistic approach unites the complementary expertise of different teams to create a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. It delivers fresh thinking and creative solutions to many of the long-standing challenges that have kept businesses from operating at their best.

In the current business climate, enterprises face challenges that span multiple teams and departments. To manage risk effectively, organizations must identify vulnerabilities, be proactive, and coordinate efforts and resources. Previously disparate teams must work together to keep the business running. Every business function must identify its contribution to customer success and its interdependencies with other teams.

In other words, operational excellence now means a lot more than simply cutting costs. It requires three key ingredients:

1. Achieving strategic outcomes

In an ideal world, projects and programs seamlessly align with organizational goals. But decision-makers don’t always have visibility into budgets and resources to properly gauge their impact and verify their strategic value.

By increasing visibility and transparency and improving access to project data, companies can better prioritize, plan, and execute the work that best supports overall goals. Organizations can see where people are working—and how that work contributes to strategic direction. They can also gain flexibility to pivot quickly when strategy evolves.

2. Driving efficiencies

Global business services (GBS) organizations don’t have unlimited budgets—but the demand for services keeps growing. Business leaders want the digital foundation that will help them standardize and automate service processes while keeping costs in check.

By streamlining processes that cross organization boundaries, companies can deliver simpler and more consistent employee experiences, improve visibility into service budgets, and scale service delivery.

3. Managing risk and resilience in real time

Every day, the scope and severity of risk seems to grow. New technologies and business models open the door to business transformation—but they also introduce the unknown. Virtually every business on the planet witnessed the disruption that a black swan event such as a pandemic can cause.

In this more volatile and unpredictable climate, business continuity and disaster recovery plans are table stakes. Today’s risk teams need wider and more accurate visibility into risk to stay on top of a quickly evolving competitive landscape.

Businesses must embed risk management and compliance into their digital workflows and provide familiar user experiences that deliver efficient performance, promote resilience, and reduce third-party vendor and supply chain risk.

Discover the advantages of a single, holistic platform to drive operational excellence in our Book Of Knowledge: Operating Excellence.

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