AH Anderson Consulting

Value Proposition:

Strategic

Within companies today, there is regular dialogue and debate about what is more important, strategy or execution? The reality is that if you want to be a high-performing organization you need both. Strategy is more than just a slogan but a series of choices you make on where to play, and how to win to maximize long-term value. Execution is producing results in the context of those choices. Former CEO of GE Jack Welch puts it this way, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”

At AH Anderson we walk you through a process that assesses the external marketplace (customer expectations, competitors, and disruption potential) and your internal performance (financials, productivity, growth trajectory, organizational constraints and talent), with the goal of establishing a clear and aligned strategy for your organization. Then we link that strategy to specific tactical initiatives to drive execution. So, when your business or company is not executing well, take a look at your strategy.

Productive

Every company desires more productivity from its employees, and it involves more than just driving them harder. Thomas Edison is credited with the quote, “… there is no substitute for hard work …”

This is true to a great extent but there has been an enhancement to that philosophy over the years from experts like Peter Drucker that, “nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” So, being more productive is about not just working harder, but smarter. At AH Anderson, we start with getting to know your business (if we don’t know it already), identify your strategic “pain points” that are causing productivity impacts and develop a plan that addresses them within your timetable. Most often the solution is not straightforward, otherwise you would do it yourself!

Efficient

Efficiency is often discussed together with Effectiveness, because effectiveness helps us focus on doing the right things, while efficiency focuses on doing the right things better.

‘Better’ typically is associated with working faster and leveraging automation, but often you should employ a few steps before automation, including:

Determine if you can eliminate or stop doing the task/process.
If not, streamline and simplify the task/process by using Lean Six Sigma and other tools and focusing on the ‘to be’ process.
Then, look at cost-effective and intelligent automation options.
The best solution often takes into account both the process or technology solution, as well as what integrates best with your company culture (Change Management).

Competitive

Every company desires to be a leader in their marketplace, and staying ahead of their competition. There are many variables that may/will affect one’s competitive position (i.e., pricing, innovation, agility and operational performance, just to name a few).

One critical item is how well you deliver products and services to your customers. Doing this well, in addition to being productive and efficient, will aid your competitive position. Optimizing your order fulfillment and more broadly the “order-to-cash” process, along with regularly monitoring changes in the customer’s experience are two areas that we may be able to enhance your competitiveness.