operational excellence: enabling sustained growth ... · in achieving growth through operational...

An Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by SAP

Operational excellence: Enabling sustained growthSpotlight on the Americas

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2008 1

Operational excellence: Enabling sustained growth Spotlight on the Americas

Operational excellence: Enabling sustained growth is an Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by SAP. The Economist Intelligence Unit bears sole responsibility for this report. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s editorial team conducted the interviews and wrote the report. The findings and views expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsor. Ken Waldie was the author of the report and Dan Armstrong was the editor. Mike Kenny was responsible for layout and design. Our thanks are due to all of the survey respondents and interviewees for their time and insights.

May 2008

Preface

2 © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2008


Operational excellence:Enabling sustained growth Spotlight on the Americas

he Americas should be a hotbed operational excellence activity. The scientists and businessmen who first applied statistics to process improvement—Deming, Taylor and others—hailed from the United States. In the 1980s, Royal Bank of Canada pioneered the use of customer relationship management (CRM) software, while Procter & Gamble rolled out an early business intelligence (BI) system. In the 1990s, Dell, Southwest, Amazon and Wal-Mart achieved dramatic growth by making their operations world-class. Companies in the Americas should lead the world in growing through operational excellence.

But they don’t—at least not among the universe of firms with US$20m through US$500m in revenues highlighted in this study. Mid-sized companies in the Americas are as focused on growth as those anywhere in the world, yet they lag their counterparts in achieving growth through operational excellence.

Less than half are promoting visibility into operations by investing in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software, while more than half are doing so in the rest of the world. Mid-sized companies in the Americas also lag Asia-Pacific firms in revenue growth, margin growth, customer satisfaction and new product launches. This is despite the fact that companies in the Americas are more likely to say they recognise operational excellence principles in their strategy and planning.

Of the 946 executives who participated in the 2008 Economist Intelligence Unit operational excellence survey sponsored by SAP, 264 (28%) were located in the Americas. Among the Americas respondents, 235 (89%) came from the US and Canada, while 29 (11%) came from Latin America. This paper—one of three regional papers—is based on their responses as well as follow-up interviews with senior executives in the region.

T

About the survey

In a survey completed in January 2008, the Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed operational, financial, IT, and sales and marketing executives around the world on the role of operational excellence in their business strategies. The survey yielded 946 responses from mid-sized companies with annual revenues of $20m-$500m. Nearly one-third of respondents were from the Asia-Pacific region, followed by 28% in Western Europe and 28% in the Americas. Approximately 34% of the respondents worked in finance, 24% in marketing and sales, 23% in operations and 19% in IT.

USA 74%

Canada 15%

Argentina 2%

Brazil 3%

Mexico 2%

OtherLatin America 4%

Source:Economist Intelligence Unit survey, January 2008.

Locations of the Americas respondents



How to build an infrastructure for growthMid-sized companies in the Americas are inclined to make bold statements about their commitments to operational excellence. But many executives admit that they have failed to back up these commitments with consistent action. As a result, their Asia-Pacific competitors have already left them behind, and now they risk being eclipsed by firms in Eastern Europe. Mid-sized Americas companies lag Asia-Pacific in actions taken on every one of 11 strategies for driving growth included in the survey. And the EMEA region is rapidly overtaking the Americas, which leads it by very slight margins in only two of the 11 strategies.

Regional rank of 11 overall strategies for driving growth

In interviews, executives of companies in the Americas described their operational excellence strategies as works in progress. Many said that while they recognised the value of end-to-end visibility, they had not yet fully achieved it. Others pointed to cultural factors as impediments to rapidly rolling out their strategies. They provided frank insights into the obstacles they face—and advice about how these hurdles might be overcome.

Taking an enterprise-wide approachOperational excellence works best as a growth driver when it is implemented across the enterprise. But less than two-thirds of Americas survey respondents said that their companies are taking an enterprise-wide approach to evaluating and improving business processes, compared with almost 80% in Asia-Pacific.

Recognising the unique role of IT and financeEnhancing visibility into the value chain often requires investments in building and integrating ERP, CRM other technologies. And establishing performance metrics requires expertise that often resides in the finance function. Yet functional specialists in IT and

The AmericasEMEAAsia-Pacific

Organic growth

Identifying core people assets that contribute to competitive advantage

Adding functionality to existing systems to support growth

Anticipating customer needs as they emerge

Supporting idea development to identify, assess and execute opportunities for innovation

Providing integrated, single-view data reporting for management decision making

Focusing on faster time-to-market when launching new products

Providing individual employees with role-based information that allows them to continuously innovate within their own space

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit survey, January 2008.

54%53%

68%

50%54%

58%

46%66%

62%

41%40%

50%

29%33%

46%

25%38%

35%

23%30%

42%


Acquisition-led growth

Identifying gaps in product/service offerings that can be filled by acquisitions

Developing more efficient processes for integration of systems of acquired companies

Developing more efficient processes for due diligence of proposed acquisitions

Implementing systems easily adapted to different currencies, regulatory regimes or business models


54%60%

59%

43%46%

52%

41%43%

52%

18%31%

27%



finance complain that organisational silos limit their scope, preventing them from pushing for innovations outside of their own turf.

Making continuous change the new status quoThe Americas ranks last among the three global regions in the use of operational excellence to drive growth. Yet senior corporate leaders say it is difficult to promote continuous improvement among employees that consider their processes to be quite successful. Some executives say that the problem lies in a general tendency to resist change and a failure to recognise that the status quo is not an option.

Promoting ownership and accountabilityOperations specialists say that empowering people to innovate is difficult in a setting where they see waste in their own processes but have not traditionally been expected to do anything about it. The solution lies in setting up appropriate incentives and giving employees necessary information and control to improve their own processes.

Embracing integration and scalabilityThe Americas ranks last of the three regions in terms of IT investments to support growth. As the chart at right shows, companies in the Americas lag Asia-Pacific in all six categories of operational excellence technology, and lag EMEA in five out of six. To remain competitive, greater focus is needed on the areas with the biggest deficits: aligning systems with business needs, working to ensure legacy systems can be easily integrated with those of acquisitions and partners, and building scalable systems from the ground up. About a quarter of Americas mid-sized companies say their operational systems are not sufficiently scalable, and the same proportion say that legacy systems represent a constraint on growth.

Operational excellence-related technology investments by region

Adopting common data standardsEnterprise-wide data standards are essential for breaking down silos, building linkages among departments and creating end-to-end visibility for senior management. However, some IT executives say that they cannot manage their exponentially-growing data holdings because data ownership—and therefore the right to set standards—is spread across the organisation. Often finance (which owns management reporting) sets standards for both financial and operational data. But regardless of who owns it, the standards should be publicised and enforced. Then people will accept the information—even come to rely on it—and use it to make decisions.


What technologies is your company investing in? (Choose as many as apply)

Integrated ERP systems

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems

Inventory management systems

Demand planning systems

Production planning systems

Business intelligence or analytics systems


43%41%

50%

42%54%

59%

37%48%

41%

36%44%

36%

23%35%

40%

20%27%

32%



How Latin America is differentLatin American firms have an aggressive, but so far underdeveloped, approach to operational excellence. While North American firms are nearly four times as likely to have a formal operational excellence strategy, Latin America is catching up quickly. More than 43% are in the process of developing a strategy, compared with 27% in North America.

North American companies have more experience with operational excellence than their southern counterparts. But Latin American firms report greater success in each of the four performance indicators: revenue growth, margin expansion, launches of new products and customer satisfaction. One explanation for this unexpected result is that Latin American firms operate mainly in developing markets where operational excellence pays off even more than in mature markets. Similar differences are seen between Western and Eastern Europe.

More specifically, Latin American mid-sized firms are aggressively investing in technology to support operational excellence:

● They report more investment than North American companies in integrated ERP systems, production planning systems and business intelligence or analytics systems. They are also much more likely to say they are improving tracking and analysis of customer purchase patterns.

● At a much higher rate than in North America, Latin American firms are refining systems to align more closely with business needs, reducing total cost of technology ownership, and improving IT training systems.

● Two-thirds say they are improving management visibility into operational functions and integrating processes in sales, marketing, manufacturing, product development, customer service and other functional areas. And half say they are establishing end-to-end visibility of processes throughout the organisation.

● Latin American companies are nearly twice as likely as their northern counterparts to cite integration with outside partners as a key to growth. And they say their marketing/sales teams are devoting more effort to building both external collaboration and internal integration of sales, production and delivery systems.



In its simplest terms, operational

excellence means consistently doing things

well across the value chain as a way of gain-

ing competitive advantage. In its broadest

terms, it is a discipline that drives corporate

strategy. In their book The Discipline of

Market Leadership, Michael Treacy and Fred

Wiersema suggest that operational excel-

lence is one of three “value disciplines” that

a successful organisation must chose from

as its underlying operational model.

In practice, operational excellence is a

means to achieving the other value disci-

plines: product leadership and customer

intimacy. Doing things well across the

organisation is fundamental, but most suc-

cessful companies do one thing exceedingly

well and identifying and reinforcing core

competitive strengths is part of operational

excellence.

The defi nition in this paper has three

elements:

● superior performance and visibility

across the value chain

● value-added delivered to customers

● effective integration with external

partners.

While the concept of operational excel-

lence is simple enough, execution is another

matter. A drive for effi ciency is implicit, but

this must be achieved in a coordinated way

by building links across the organisation so

that all functions share a harmonised set

of performance metrics. The ultimate goal

is a “single source of truth” where senior

executives have shared visibility into all

parts of the organisation, enabling manage-

ment by facts. The ideal result is a high-level

dashboard for senior executives with the

ability to drill down into different business

functions, including operations, fi nance, IT,

and sales and marketing. ■

What is operational excellence?



rowth is a priority among companies in the Americas, just as it is elsewhere in the world. And when asked about the impact of operational excellence initiatives, American executives admit that they do help to drive growth. Over 60% say, for instance, that investments in ERP, CRM or other software to streamline and expose business processes have been successful or very successful in driving growth in revenues, margins and customer satisfaction.

The problem is that mid-sized companies in the Americas are falling behind those in the rest of the world. This is particularly true for North America, which lags Asia-Pacific on nearly every indicator and manages to outperform EMEA on only a few more. Latin America does better, exceeding world averages on three of four performance indicators, while still

lagging Asia-Pacific. The key to better performance lies in more

consistent enterprise-wide execution of operational excellence. Companies in the Americas say they recognise operational principles, but in interviews executives point to myriad cultural and practical problems. These hurdles stand in the way of driving operational excellence principles into every corner of the value chain.

Companies in the region need to more aggressively attack these obstacles if they want to avoid being left behind as companies in the rest of the world—especially in the Asia-Pacific region—entrench operational excellence in their corporate cultures. More bluntly, corporate leaders need to drive the message through their organisations that doing one thing well isn’t good enough anymore.

Conclusion

G



Appendix: Survey results—Americas only Between November 2007 and January 2008, the Economist Intelligence Unit conducted a global online survey of 946 senior executives from various industries, of which 216 were from the operations function. Please note that not all answers add up to 100% because of rounding or because respondents were able to provide multiple answers to some questions.

In which region are you personally based? (% respondents)

89 North America 0

11 Latin America 0

0 Asia-Pacific 0

0 Eastern Europe 10

0 Western Europe 70

0 Middle East 20 and Africa

TheAmericas

Restof theworld

What is your primary industry? (% respondents)

IT and technology

Energy – oil & gas

Transportation and travel

Logistics service providers

Consumer products - durables

Financial services

Apparel and footwear

Automotive

Government/ Public sector

Industrial machinery and components

Pharmaceuticals

Consumer products – non-durables

Education

Healthcare

Mill products (including fabricated metals, packaging, paper)

Professional services

Wholesale distribution

Retail

Manufacturing

Construction, engineering, operations

Chemicals

Energy/ natural resources – non-oil & gas

Entertainment, media and publishing

Agriculture and agribusiness

Telecoms

Other

12 7

9 3

9 5

7 3

5 5

5 13

4 4

4 4

4 4

4 4

4 4

3 5

3 2

3 3

3 4

3 4

3 4

3 4

2 4

2 7

1 5

1 1

1 3

1

2

6 3

The Americas Rest of the world

What is your title? (% respondents)

SVP/VP/Director

Manager

CFO/Treasurer/Comptroller

CIO/Technology director

Head of Business Unit

Head of Department

CEO/President/Managing director

Board member

Other C-level executive

Other

29 8

24 39

9 11

9 5

7 7

7 11

6 8

4 3

1 5

4 6



Appendix: Survey results Operational excellence: Enabling sustained growth

Spotlight on the Americas

1. What is your principal functional role in your organisation?(% respondents)

30 Operations 20

29 Information 18technology

21 Marketing 23and sales

20 Finance 39

TheAmericas

Restof theworld

2. What are your company’s annual global revenues in US dollars?(% respondents)

16 $20m to $50m 21

31 $50m to $100m 29

31 $100m to $250m 35

22 $250m to $500m 15The

Americas

Restof theworld

3. Which of the following statements best describes your company’s approach to operational excellence?(% respondents)

We recognise the concept of operational excellence in our strategy or planning, but do not have a formal operational excellence strategy

We are in the process of developing a formal operational excellence strategy

We have implemented a formal operational excellence strategy

We do not include operational excellence in our strategy or planning

Don’t know

38 33

29 30

23 27

10 9

11


4. Which of the following do you consider the most important component of operational excellence? (% respondents)

The ability to have end-to-end visibility into financial performance, operational activities and customer relationships across all business units and geographies

The ability to add value for customers through the entire product lifecycle

The ability to integrate quickly with external systems and partners to facilitate collaboration and exchange

Other

Don’t know/Not applicable

44 46

41 40

12 13

11

11


5. Which of the following statements best describes your company’s view of the perceived benefits of operational excellence? Select up to three.(% respondents)

Greater efficiency

Reduced operating costs

Increased revenues

Improved customer service

Faster responses to changing demand

Improved regulatory compliance

Improved ability to expand into new markets

Improved customer insights to facilitate development of new products and services

Faster responses to the actions of competitors

Other

57 53

56 53

53 48

41 41

24 29

12 11

10 13

10 16

9 7

12



Appendix: Survey results Operational excellence: Enabling sustained growth Spotlight on the Americas

6. How does your company plan to grow during the next two to three years?(% respondents)

Organically (by entering new markets, by increasing capacity, by acquiring new customers or by selling more to existing customers)

Both organic growth and M&A

Growth is not a priority for our company

Through mergers and acquisitions

Don’t know

53 52

29 30

9 8

9 10

1 3


7. What are the biggest obstacles to your company in achieving operational excellence, in your view? Select up to three.(% respondents)

Lack of essential people skills in critical operational areas

Lack of end-to-end real-time visibility into operational processes for senior management

More complexity in products, manufacturing and/or service operations

Inadequate linkages among internal departmental systems

Inadequate integration/collaboration with external partners

Shortened product life cycle and time-to-market delays in launching new products or brands

Increased geographical dispersion of internal operations

Delays and/or inability in carrying out financial analysis to support new investments

Other

Don’t know

50 51

34 36

28 29

27 29

24 27

20 23

19 17

16 15

5 6

1 3


8. What are the biggest obstacles to your company’s ability to grow organically, in your view? Select up to two.(% respondents)

Inability to move quickly enough to exploit market opportunities and challenge competitors

Lack of scalability of operational systems

Time-to-market delays in launching new products and services

Difficulty in integrating and/or expanding legacy systems

Lack of capacity for product-line growth and expansion into new geographical areas

Other

Don’t know

39 46

26 26

26 28

26 27

24 26

11 8

1 4


9. How is your company enabling future organic growth? Select all that apply. (% respondents)

Identifying core people assets that contribute to competitive advantage

Adding functionality to existing systems to support growth

Anticipating customer needs as they emerge

Supporting idea development to identify, assess and execute opportunities for innovation

Providing integrated, single-view data reporting for management decision making

Focusing on faster time-to-market when launching new products

Providing individual employees with role-based information that allows them to continuously innovate within their own space

Other

Don’t know

54 61

50 56

46 64

41 45

29 40

25 37

23 37

4 3

1 1





11. How is your company enabling future growth through acquisitions? Select all that apply.(% respondents)

Identifying gaps in product/service offerings that can be filled by acquisitions

More efficient processes for integration of systems of acquired companies

More efficient processes for due diligence of proposed acquisitions

Implementing systems easily adapted to different currencies, regulatory regimes or business models

Other

Don’t know

54 59

43 49

41 48

18 29

5 4

3 7


10. What are the biggest obstacles to your company’s ability to grow through acquisitions, in your view? Select up to two.(% respondents)

Inability to quickly integrate acquisitions into existing operations

Inability to identify and assess acquisition opportunities before competitors

Inability to obtain sufficient value from acquisitions after they are assimilated

Inability to manage acquisitions in unfamiliar business lines or geographical areas

Other

Don’t know

36 42

31 29

29 32

26 33

12 8

5 6


Faster responses to evolving customer needs

Improved visibility into market demand and customer behaviors

Stronger collaboration with customers and partners

More effective integration of sales, production and delivery systems

Better customer care

Higher service standards

Other

Question for Sales and Marketing respondents only12. How are your marketing and sales departments aligning to support the organisation’s strategy for growth? Select up to two. (% respondents)

44 42

35 32

33 41

31 35

23 24

17 16

3 3


Enhancing Customer Relationship Management systems

Improving tracking and analysis of customer purchase patterns

Enabling remote access to customer information for sales teams

Streamlining order tracking systems

Expanding data sharing with customers and logistics providers

Improving visibility into order fulfillment processes

Increasing billing accuracy

Other

Don’t know

Question for Sales and Marketing respondents only13. What is your company doing to ensure that your marketing and sales systems can support your organisation’s growth strategy? Select all that apply.(% respondents)

58 70

47 44

42 34

26 35

25 35

23 35

20 29

3 5

1




Enhancing Customer Relationship Management systems

Improving tracking and analysis of customer purchase patterns

Expanding data sharing with customers and logistics providers

Enabling remote access to customer information for sales teams

Streamlining order tracking systems

Increasing billing accuracy

Improving visibility into order fulfillment processes

Other

Question for Sales and Marketing respondents only13a. In the previous question, you checked the following actions your organisation is taking to ensure that its sales and marketing systems can support its growth strategy. Which one of the actions you chose is the most important?(% respondents)

43 55

24 12

11 8

8 7

7 3

3 5

3 9

3 4


Promoting growth in revenues (Asia-Pacific)

Promoting growth in revenues (rest of the world)

Promoting growth in margins (Asia-Pacific)

Promoting growth in margins (rest of the world)

Increasing launches of new products and services (Asia-Pacific)

Increasing launches of new products and services (rest of the world)

Promoting higher customer satisfaction (Asia-Pacific)

Promoting higher customer satisfaction (rest of the world)

Question for Sales and Marketing respondents only13b. What was the effect of your first-ranked choice on the following areas?(% respondents)

14 58 22 4 1

20 54 20 3 4

8 47 38 4 3

10 46 34 4 6

8 36 43 4 3 7

16 48 30 4 4

28 50 20 3

26 54 15 2 4

Very Successful Neither Unsuccessful Very Don’tsuccessful successful nor unsuccessful know

unsuccessful

Tighter control of financial assets, liabilities and cash flow

Faster, more relevant and more accurate financial reporting

Improved due diligence to support mergers and acquisitions

Improved ability to integrate foreign regulatory regimes

Improved ability to handle (international) financial transactions

Other

Not applicable/Don’t know

Question for Finance respondents only12. How is your finance department aligning to support the organisation’s strategy for growth? Select all that apply.(% respondents)

69 71

58 71

13 15

6 12

6 14

2 5

22


Better integration of financial planning to all departmental and control systems

Improved transactional efficiency, visibility and security

More timely and accurate customer billing to reduce delayed receivables

More reliable systems for ensuring compliance and avoiding penalties

More appropriate levels of granularity in financial data

Improved access to financial information about acquisition targets

Other


Question for Finance respondents only13. What is your company doing to ensure that your financial systems can support your organisation’s growth strategy? Select all that apply.(% respondents)

65 74

58 74

40 51

33 44

31 42

21 32

4 3

1





Improving management visibility into operational functions

Increasing operational flexibility and agility

Integrating processes across the value chain

Creating organisational efficiencies to meet customer demand

Planning for additional operational resources needed to meet customer demand

Building new systems with scalability in mind

Ensuring that the growth strategy is supported throughout all company entities

Other

Question for Operations respondents only12. How is your operational function aligning to support the organisation’s strategy for growth? Select up to two.(% respondents)

41 40

32 37

30 28

27 30

24 27

23 19

10 11

2


Better integration of financial planning to all departmental and control systems

Improved transactional efficiency, visibility and security

More timely and accurate customer billing to reduce delayed receivables

More appropriate levels of granularity in financial data

More reliable systems for ensuring compliance and avoiding penalties

Improved access to financial information about acquisition targets

Other

Question for Finance respondents only13a. In the previous question, you checked the following actions your organisation is taking to ensure that its financial systems can support its growth strategy. Which one of the actions you chose is the most important?(% respondents)

44 43

27 28

10 13

8 6

4 6

4 5

2 2


Integrating processes in sales, marketing, manufacturing, product development, customer service and other functional areas

Improving visibility into customer demand, including what, where and why

Establishing end-to-end visibility of processes throughout the organisation

Improving visibility into the supply chain, including suppliers and partners

Other


Question for Operations respondents only13. What is your company doing to ensure that your operational systems can support your organisation’s growth strategy?(% respondents)

61 61

41 54

39 60

30 39

12

2










Question for Finance respondents only13b. What was the effect of your first-ranked choice on the following areas?(% respondents)

10 50 35 2 2

20 58 19 2

10 58 23 6 2

17 57 21 3 1

2 27 60 4 6

7 35 43 5 2 7

13 44 42 2

16 48 29 3 4


unsuccessful



Refining systems to align more closely with business needs

Enhancing end user support

Reducing total cost of ownership of technology

Expanding existing systems

Building in flexibility for future integration of legacy systems and systems of acquired companies and partners

Designing role-based interfaces to improve user efficiency and to control data access

Devising faster and more efficient deployment processes

Building new scalable systems from the ground up

Improving IT training systems

Other

Question for IT respondents only13. In the previous question, you checked the following actions your organisation is taking to ensure that its IT systems can support its growth strategy. Which one of the actions you chose is the most important? (% respondents)

43 41

13 10

13 5

11 10

6 6

6 2

4 14

2 7

2 8

4


Refining systems to align more closely with business needs

Expanding existing systems

Enhancing end user support

Reducing total cost of ownership of technology

Devising faster and more efficient deployment processes

Designing role-based interfaces to improve user efficiency and to control data access

Improving IT training systems

Building in flexibility for future integration of legacy systems and systems of acquired companies and partners

Building new scalable systems from the ground up

Other

Question for IT respondents only12. What is your IT department doing to support your organization’s strategy for growth? Select all that apply.(% respondents)

64 78

60 58

51 64

47 51

45 47

28 36

28 47

19 37

15 39

4










Question for Operations respondents only13b. What was the effect of your first-ranked choice on the following areas?(% respondents)

15 58 27

23 58 15 3 1

11 46 39 3 1

13 51 32 4

9 43 42 5

16 46 28 5 1 5

16 53 27 3 1

21 56 17 3 1 2


unsuccessful

Integrating processes in sales, marketing, manufacturing, product development, customer service and other functional areas

Establishing end-to-end visibility of processes throughout the organisation

Improving visibility into customer demand, including what, where and why

Improving visibility into the supply chain, including suppliers and partners

Question for Operations respondents only13a. In the previous question, you checked the following actions your organisation is taking to ensure that its operational systems can support its growth strategy. Which one of the actions you chose is the most important?(% respondents)

43 36

22 29

20 27

15 9





14. What is your company doing to improve efficiency? Select all that apply.(% respondents)

Evaluating and improving overall business processes (HR, Finance, Operations and IT)

Improving internal systems/processes so our employees can be more efficient in their daily activities

Transforming raw data into useful information

More effective alignment of people skills with emerging business needs

Improving systems to make it easier for customers to work with us

Improving agility to adapt to business cycles, shifting customer demand and the actions of competitors

Improving systems to make it easier for external partners to work with us

Other


65 74

58 68

45 50

44 57

40 45

39 44

30 37

22

11










Question for IT respondents only13a. What was the effect of your first-ranked choice on the following areas?(% respondents)

9 57 33 2

15 54 25 3 4

11 53 32 2 2

6 50 36 4 4

4 38 51 2 4

12 41 34 7 1 6

11 57 30 2

21 58 17 3 2


unsuccessful

15. In the previous question, you checked the following actions your organisation is taking to improve its efficiency. Which one of the actions you chose is the most important?(% respondents)

Evaluating and improving overall business processes (HR, Finance, Operations and IT)

Improving internal systems/processes so your employees can be more efficient in their daily activities

More effective alignment of people skills with emerging business needs

Improving agility to adapt to business cycles, shifting customer demand and the actions of competitors

Transforming raw data into useful information

Improving systems to make it easier for customers to work with you

Improving systems to make it easier for external partners to work with you

Other

31 33

18 19

16 14

12 13

9 11

8 9

6 3

11


16. What strategies has your company established to maintain profitability during periods of slow economic growth? Select all that apply.(% respondents)

Overall aggressive cost control

Expanding into different market areas

Reducing staff while retaining core competencies

Aggressive pursuit of market share from competitors

Innovating to create new products or services

Increasing customer share of wallet, up-selling/cross-selling to existing customers

Implementing scalable production processes

Other


61 71

38 41

36 34

36 37

35 51

31 34

25 35

22

2 4




Integrated ERP system (Finance & HR)


Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system




Other

19. In the previous question, you checked the following technologies in which your company has invested to achieve its operational excellence goals. Which one of the technologies you chose is the most important? (% respondents)

27 37

20 18

19 21

17 9

7 10

4 5

6 2


20. Does your company have initiatives underway to improve efficiency and drive down costs in your functional area? (% respondents)

64 Yes, we have 70initiatives underway to improve efficiency and drive down costs

31 No, we do not 23have any initiatives

for improving efficiency and driving

down costs

5 Don’t know 7

TheAmericas

Restof theworld

While every effort has been taken to verify the accuracy of this information, neither The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. nor the sponsor of this report can accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this report or any of the information, opinions or conclusions set out in the report.


Integrated ERP system (Finance & HR)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system




Other


18. Has your company invested in the following technologies to achieve its operational excellence goals? Select all that apply.(% respondents)

43 45

42 56

37 45

36 41

23 38

20 29

6 4

9 9


17. In the previous question, you checked the following strategies your company established to maintain profitability during periods of slow economic growth. Which one of the strategies you chose is the most important? (% respondents)

Overall aggressive cost control

Innovating to create new products or services

Expanding into different market areas

Implementing scalable production processes

Increasing customer share of wallet, up-selling/cross-selling to existing customers

Aggressive pursuit of market share from competitors

Reducing staff while retaining core competencies

Other

35 36

17 19

14 14

10 7

9 10

8 10

5 6

2 1


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