Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.
Joseph B. Wirthlin – Author
Process is pretty much how repetitive and core work gets done in most organizations and is the most vulnerable to automation. Organizations are usually focusing on core work and leaning-out through ‘relentless’ automation.
Every organization performs a sequence of activities to produce a product or offer a service. These activities add value to customers who continue purchasing the company’s products and services. These value-adding activities provide income to satisfy shareholders, provide employment, and ensure the company continues to be viable.
Profitability is king (OK – queen) The goal for all commercial companies is to make a profit for investors. Process management, which include automation, project management, safety, environmental compliance, six sigma, lean, quality improvement, and other operational excellence initiatives, is critical to streamlining a business to profitability. Most if not all global companies are great at this. They also make their organizations less bureaucratic and transparent. They have standardized and controlled their operations and supply chains.
All large companies are following a similar process as the CEO of PepsiCo said:
“Our second set of priorities … involves becoming more capable, leaner, more agile and less bureaucratic, … In doing so, we will drive down cost and that enables us to plow the savings back into the business to develop, scale, and sharpen core capabilities that drive even greater efficiency and effectiveness creating a virtuous cycle.”[i]
Work Lesson Earned: The future challenge will involve bringing VUCANs on board with all the changes. Employees will need to be calmed about change (not disruption). Women and technology will need to be integrated into organizations. Operations will have to be environmentally friendly. This will involve institutionalizing RBPS and RBDM in all functions. Companies will have to reframe work as safer and more enjoyable using smart machines as a work partner.
[i] ‘PepsiCo Is Laying Off Corporate Employees As the Company Commits to Millions of Dollars in Severance Pay, Restructuring, and ‘Relentlessly Automating’, Business Insider, February 21, 2019.