Eliminating Waste in Business [electronic resource] :  Run Lean, Boost Profitability /
Orr, Linda M.author.
Orr, Dave J.author.
Redundant employees. Storerooms full of extra stock "in case we need it." Marketing money sprayed in all directions in the vain hope it will create customers. Duplicate IT systems. HR policies that fatten the corporate waistline rather than keeping it trim. Budgeting exercises that result in "more of the same, plus 2%." Nearly every corner of most established businesses harbors waste—wasted money, time, effort, or all three. As any runner can tell you, a lean body runs faster and wins races. The same goes when it comes to the competitive race all businesses engage in. Lean companies innovate faster, market more effectively, operate more smoothly, and achieve greater profitability. Eliminating Waste in Business: Run Lean, Boost Profitability highlights common ways that businesses across all industries waste money without realizing it. Taking an analytical, hands-on view, this book challenges universally accepted business practices—some even taught in business schools—by pointing out how these practices drive waste, and then showing how to eliminate it and reap the benefits. In eight meaty chapters, operations expert Dave J. Orr, and sales and marketing authority Linda M. Orr, tackle some of the obvious and easy-to-get-rid-of organizational fat and time wasters (meetings, anyone?) that for whatever reason many managers are blind to. They'll also show you how to employ lean six sigma and other methods to improve operational processes, inventory management, and more. But this book goes beyond these things and covers such areas as marketing and advertising spending, headcount and personnel administration, finance, and the many categories that make up what is in many companies a bloated monster: overhead. With an emphasis on employing technology and smart management to drive down costs, this book will take a comprehensive view of the broad spectrum of money and time wasters and show you how to get rid of them once and for all.
""Contents""; ""About the Authors""; ""Introduction""; ""Chapter 1: Areas of â€?Waste""; ""Where Do Businesses Spend Money?""; ""The Seven Areas of â€?Waste""; ""Management and Corporate Strategy""; ""Sales""; ""Human Resources""; ""Technology""; ""Finance and Accounting""; ""Business Operations""; ""Appendix""; ""Conclusion""; ""Chapter 2: Strategy of Waste""; ""Prime Areas of â€?Waste""; ""Waste from an Ever-Changing or Unattainable Strategic Plan""; ""What Is Strategy?""; ""Developing a Strategic Plan""; ""Understanding â€?What â€?Youâ€?re Good At""; ""Understanding Your Market""
""Developing the Strategy""""Executing the Strategy""; ""Waste from Strategy and Management Based on â€œFluffyâ€? Outcomes""; ""Waste from the Strategic Planning Process""; ""Waste from Too Much Leadership""; ""Waste from Commitment-Stuck Leaders""; ""Waste from Benchmarking""; ""Waste from Growth""; ""Waste from Mergers and Acquisitions""; ""Waste from R&D""; ""Process Mapping""; ""Spaghetti on the Wall""; ""Product or Service Cannibalization""; ""Donâ€?t Let Customers Design Your Products""; ""Waste from Silos""; ""Implementing Strategy Metrics""; ""Conclusion""; ""Waste Checklists""
""Chapter 3: Marketing""""Prime Areas of Waste""; ""Customer Needs and Market Research""; ""Wrong Market Research Techniques""; ""Weak Statistical and Analytical Capabilities""; ""Cognitive Biases and Other Irrational Consumer Behaviors""; ""Marketing Silos""; ""Outsourcing Market Research""; ""Market Research Done Right""; ""Waste from Product Decisions""; ""Brand Loyalty, Customer Service, and Word-of-Mouth""; ""Create and Maintain a Brand Personality""; ""Meet and Exceed Expectations""; ""Be Consistent""; ""Encourage Word-of-Mouth Referrals""; ""Overpaying for Branding""
""New Product Planning""""Killing Bad Products/Projects""; ""Inefficient Product/Project Development""; ""Cost Management""; ""Waste from Packaging""; ""Promotional Expenses and Advertising Effectiveness""; ""Waste from Price""; ""Low Cost""; ""Discounts""; ""Waste from Bad Place Decisions""; ""Marketing Metrics""; ""Customer Metrics""; ""Customer Satisfaction""; ""Customer Expectations""; ""Customer Value""; ""Brand Preference""; ""Repurchase and Recommend Intentions""; ""Product/Service Development""; ""Price Metrics""; ""Promotions Metrics""; ""Direct Marketing""; ""Advertising""
""Conclusion""""Waste Checklist""; ""Chapter 4: Sales""; ""Prime Areas of Waste""; ""Sales Productivity""; ""Bad Hiring and Firing""; ""Wasteful Hiring Practice #1: Building a Personality Typology of the Star Salesperson""; ""Wasteful Hiring Practice #2: Having No Strategy""; ""Wasteful Hiring Practice #3: Using Traditional Hiring Techniques""; ""Wasteful Hiring Practice #4: Recruiting/Promoting from Within or from the Same Industry""; ""No/Weak Training""; ""No Sales Process/Value-Stream Mapping""; ""Steps to Create Sales Processes""
""Not Treating Every Marketing Activity Like the Sales Process""
Includes index.
Redundant employees. Storerooms full of extra stock "in case we need it." Marketing money sprayed in all directions in the vain hope it will create customers. Duplicate IT systems. HR policies that fatten the corporate waistline rather than keeping it trim. Budgeting exercises that result in "more of the same, plus 2%." Nearly every corner of most established businesses harbors waste—wasted money, time, effort, or all three. As any runner can tell you, a lean body runs faster and wins races. The same goes when it comes to the competitive race all businesses engage in. Lean companies innovate faster, market more effectively, operate more smoothly, and achieve greater profitability. Eliminating Waste in Business: Run Lean, Boost Profitability highlights common ways that businesses across all industries waste money without realizing it. Taking an analytical, hands-on view, this book challenges universally accepted business practices—some even taught in business schools—by pointing out how these practices drive waste, and then showing how to eliminate it and reap the benefits. In eight meaty chapters, operations expert Dave J. Orr, and sales and marketing authority Linda M. Orr, tackle some of the obvious and easy-to-get-rid-of organizational fat and time wasters (meetings, anyone?) that for whatever reason many managers are blind to. They'll also show you how to employ lean six sigma and other methods to improve operational processes, inventory management, and more. But this book goes beyond these things and covers such areas as marketing and advertising spending, headcount and personnel administration, finance, and the many categories that make up what is in many companies a bloated monster: overhead. With an emphasis on employing technology and smart management to drive down costs, this book will take a comprehensive view of the broad spectrum of money and time wasters and show you how to get rid of them once and for all.
Business.
Management science.
Business and Management, general.