Has your company suffered directly or indirectly from the strengthening Canadian dollar versus the US dollar? Once you get over the shock of seeing daily currency fluctuation, your time will be better spent focusing on how to remain competitive.

Ahh, the good old days when the weak Canadian currency could hide waste and a lack of productivity. Management can be excused for not anticipating the rapid and significant climb in the value of the Canadian loonie.

This problem, like most problems is not answered by a single knee-jerk response – it requires and demands a serious strategy from the executive team to strengthen the weak and neglected areas of the business.

Accountability at Every Level

Now more than ever, everyone in the organization needs to be conscious of the customer, maximizing revenue, eliminating waste and productivity. Advanced organizations are looking at how every position either adds value or takes away from it. If you can’t link what you do to how it impacts the customer and the bottom line of the company, it may be time for some serious reflection.

Lean Isn’t Just for the Shop Floor

In manufacturing and service operations, a considerable amount of time has been spent implementing Lean Manufacturing techniques. The results of these initiatives are well documented. What’s missing is that Lean can apply to every single department in your company. In fact if you are not a high-volume operation, you’ll find that much of your cost is in the support departments – engineering, sales and purchasing. We can help with implementing lean solutions in various areas of your business.

Weak Leadership Equals Weak Productivity

If your organization is like most, a majority of your managers and supervisors have been promoted from within. While their technical and industry knowledge is definitely an asset, you may be paying a significant price in terms of the lost productivity of the people who work for them. By developing their leadership skills, they can develop a vision for their department, motivate their people to do their best and either prevent people problems from occurring or deal with them so they don’t escalate and rob management of their valuable time. If the managers are stressed and the employees are relaxed, it's time to delegate tasks and responsibility downward so that everyone is fully deployed to meet the challenge.

Hiring, Training and Performance Management

The HR department doesn’t get a free ride in this economically challenging environment. Poor hiring practices create a potential lifetime of productivity problems. The wrong person will not learn the job fast enough, generate the necessary results, will take up valuable management time and potential severance costs. A cohesive plan for cross training and succession planning needs to be implemented so that the organization is deep and strong with talent to support future growth and business strategy.

Shrinking Lead Times, Design Times and Engineering Costs

Still dreaming of the good old days when you had longer lead times and could invoice for lots of extras? It’s time to put the engineering, design and development process under the microscope. Ask questions such as, “Why does it take so long?” and look at how much actual in-process time there is versus the elapsed time. If you blame it on suppliers – perhaps you should look at their lead times and ask the same questions.

Sales Needs to Look in the Mirror Too

If you feel that you are stuck with business and customers that are unprofitable and not growing, the sales team needs to reexamine the time it spends on existing accounts and new accounts. What makes an account attractive? How could you get more of them? If you’re selling through distribution, how can you help them sell more of your profitable products and less of the unprofitable ones? Don’t settle for a general sales goal of a 10% increase without seeing the specific plan that will make it happen.

Strategy Should Be More Than a Low Price

Of course, all these ideas have some benefit in isolation, but just think what would happen if they all came together in a focused strategy to dramatically improve productivity and profitability. One client recently shared that despite economic conditions, their shop was sold out and they were examining whether there were any new more attractive pieces of business that were a better fit and could substitute for a less profitable account. It is time for senior management to finally confront some of the most serious yet ignored issues facing your company. What is the vision? Where should the company be in five years? What’s helping it move in that direction? What’s holding it back?

So What Should You Do Now?

Don’t panic – start building a sense of urgency and personally evaluating your company. Think about the priorities and how to get each department moving towards the final goal. If you are a senior manager, recognize that your personal leadership will have a tremendous impact on the success of your organization.

See if any of these items apply to you:

___ The time to do the work always expands when things get slower

___ Engineering can’t meet deadlines and puts pressure on the rest of the company

___ Poor supplier performance is tolerated (and therefore encouraged)

___ The sales group is stagnant and unable to grow the business meaningfully

___ Bad hiring decisions cause a host of problems

___ There is no succession plan for key positions – a real risk

___ Everyone is too comfortable even when things are going poorly

___ Management lacks a vision for the future, or has one but doesn’t tell anyone

___ ERP systems and technology promises productivity but never delivers it

___ Projects are poorly run, don’t deliver on time and cost far more than projected

___ Leaders are really super workers and can’t get the most out of their people

___ Nobody has time to plan, but lots of time to meet and fix the problem afterwards

___ Your product line is stale and at risk of decline

___ All of the above – no wonder you’re not sleeping well!

How Unique Training & Development Can Help

Several organizations have partnered with us to develop and deliver comprehensive solutions that deliver sustainable change. Others have looked to us and our partners to apply Lean concepts, run strategy sessions for senior management or get the sales force focused on turning around a declining sales picture. If you like the kind of practical ideas in this e-newsletter, than why not send us a note and see if one of our solutions may be just what the doctor ordered?

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