Operational Review - Jamesford Management Consultants Ltd

The operational review is designed to answer several key questions, namely:-

• Is the business delivering on the strategic intent?
• Is the business performing in the most effective and efficient manner?

An effective operational review includes the following:-

• Customer review – what does the customer think of the product/service offering?
• Operational review – which processes are effective in delivering the customer proposition and which ones need to change?
• Structural review – does the structure support the business processes? does the culture support the strategy?
• Financial review – what are the profit drivers? what are the cost drivers? trends? benchmarking? forecasting?

And will evidence the effectiveness and efficiency of the business model:-

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We typically find the following business issues are brought into focus during this review process:-

• The product/service offering has become less competitive due to quality or cost of delivery.
• Operating processes are less effective/efficient. Costs have escalated.
• Structural issues around role/responsibilities, team effectiveness, silo mentality, wrong structural form (ie functional vs product), cultural mismatch etc.
• Business management/reporting issues around the efficacy/adequacy/appropriateness/periodicy/timeliness of management information, plus the reporting and managing processes.

The resultant projects are tailored to customer requirements but invariable include one or more of the following programme of activities:-

• Business (hi level) or operational (lower level) process redesign and implementation – to correct quality issues and the effectiveness/efficiency of processes.
• Cost reduction programme. We typically apply one or more of the following business levers to drive the cost reduction programme:-
• Competitor driven i.e. the focus is on benchmarking competitors and setting targets for lower costs.
• Customer value driven i.e. the focus is on re-balancing valuable resources towards driving customer value and away from less valuable back office activities.
• Process driven i.e. the focus is on more effective/efficient processes to drive lower costs.
• Stakeholder driven utilising techniques such as zero based budgeting.
• Restructuring the team, the department or across the business.
• Management reporting, including information and process.

A feature of our performance improvement programmes is that they are designed and closely managed to demonstrate the effectiveness of best in class performance management techniques, including:-

• The programmes are costed to deliver a measureable payback to the client.
• The subject of agreed business logic.
• Measureable, quantifiable and easily understood objectives.
• Detailed plan of action.
• Regular review, measurement and management of delivery.
• Delivery of objective to quality, time and cost.