Upcoming Engagements

See All Events
divider

Newscenter

Newscenter

Thought Leadership Articles

Thought Leadership Archives
divider

Sign up for to recieve innovative Thought Leadership articles
Email:  
divider

Our Visitors :

Locations of visitors to this page

1

The Value of "Best Practices"

George B. Weathersby

Chairman & CEO, Genesys Solutions, LLC

Bar

In today's competitive business environment organizations are barraged by experts ready to rally the forces to solve every imaginable business challenge to improved performance by facilitating "best practices". Do you want to know how to organize the best marketing campaign for environmentally sustainable products, the best production inspection techniques for toys in China, or the best supervisory techniques for employee direction? "Best practices" can provide the solution. Over the past thirty years on a worldwide basis dozens of organizations have collected thousands of "best practices" on hundreds of functional topics. Most of the time "best" means that they follow a process that is transparent, replicable, and documented. Once in a while "best" means that a jury of professionals has opined that a specific process meets its personal understanding of important criteria. Once in a great while “best” means that the results achieved by a particular practice significantly and consistently exceed the results achieved through ordinary practices.

After many years of development, most leaders undoubtedly understand both the principle and the value of "best practices" to improve an organization by every important measure of performance. Scholars at INSEAD have shown that the results of an organization adopting best practices can increase the relevant measures of performance by factors of two to five and in rare occasions by as much as a factor of ten. Increasing profitability, reducing response time, or increasing customer retention by 100% to 400% in a short period of time can result in dramatic improvements in financial measures and market share increases. In my own experience I have led organizations that have reduced the manufacturing cycle time from order to ship by a factor of ten and increased operating cash flow by a multiple of ten--both in comparison to the previous year.

The content and value of "best practices" are widely known and carefully documented. There is highly visible and prestigious recognition for those who follow "Best practices" such as the Baldridge Awards and the International Standards Organizations certifications. There is a legion of consultants and trainers standing by to facilitate the adoption of "best practices". And yet "best practices" are rarely demonstrated by most organizations and the vast majority of all organizations do not practice procedures that are known to be best. Why?

We believe that the lack of ability to execute is a major reason why senior leaders do not seek to achieve the substantial benefits promised by proven "best practices". The single most important capability of an organization is its ability to execute its chosen initiatives. Once it can consistently execute its chosen initiatives with a high level of effectiveness, an organization can then achieve the benefits derived from adopting proven "best practices" and successfully implementing them quickly, efficiently and with reduced risk.

This is why Genesys has chosen to focus on improving the ability of our clients to execute their own key initiatives. We are often told, "Yes, it (whatever it is) is a good idea but we could never succeed in doing it in our organization." If an organization cannot execute well, its own initiatives will languish and each year will bring a new crop of ideas that predictably wither on the vine long before they are harvested. Our client engagements can substantiate that the core competence to achieving the benefits of "best practices" is the ability to execute leadership initiatives of all types within an organization—execution is the true north of "best practices". Equipped with the increased ability to execute their key initiatives, Genesys' clients have experienced a two–to-five times improvement in financial performance and employee capabilities.

In summary, our experience over the past five years has proven that what is missing in most organizations is the clearly demonstrated ability to execute whatever are the key initiatives of its leadership. We welcome learning more about your experiences with "best practices" and sharing our approach to improved execution with you.