Operational Excellence: NSP’s Take on SRM’s First 3 Pillars
AUGUST 10, 2021
Since the COVID-19 outbreak started over a year ago, credit union leaders have been re-evaluating the capabilities of their existing operations and planning for a post-COVID world. Strategic Resource Management’s Jesse McGannon discusses operational excellence in his article The Seven Pillars of Post-Pandemic Operational Excellence. In this posting, Next Stage Partners will consider the first three pillars in more depth:
The first pillar McGannon discusses, location strategy, highlights three key models: branch, work-from-home, and performance management. Because real estate is one of the largest annual expenses any business must face, especially many of our clients like credit unions, this work-from-home opportunity may remain a popular choice, potentially saving these companies large sums of money while offering significant flexibility to employees (McGannon, 2021). However, there are expenses that companies incur while implementing a work-from-home location strategy. Particularly in Financial Services, investments for secure and efficient technology must be made in order to ensure smooth operations while outside the office. In addition, employees face obstacles, both monetary and otherwise when working remotely that can, directly and indirectly, impact a business’s revenue. One trend that has been emerging as of late is group workspaces, giving remote workers a chance to experience a communal working environment. While the pandemic has created a challenging business dynamic, Next Stage Partners has seen our clients succeed with a virtual work environment and expects that model will continue well into 2022 and beyond in some cases. Regardless of the settled upon location strategy, companies will have to re-evaluate their previous practices employed both prior to and during the pandemic to determine what works best for their revenue trajectory, resources, goals, and employees in a post-pandemic world.
The second pillar that McGannon identifies is the operating model, where stakes are raised for member experience and brand differentiation. When COVID first emerged, companies had to employ new tactics to ensure safety measures were followed, without hindering the value of their product and service offerings, as well as the overall consumer experience. With a shift to online commerce as the new norm, each buyer’s experience became unique. Improvements in technology and access to new and improved algorithms made for a highly personalized shopping experience, which ensured agility and profitability, specifically for B2B companies (Racine, 2020). It became clear that companies with access to these improved and refined technologies had a leg-up in the pandemic, differentiating them from smaller-scale competitors that did not have access to these innovations. That being said, among these larger businesses, differentiation and member experience remained imperative -- how can these businesses create a completely online consumer experience unique from their competitors? Now, over a year into the pandemic, most businesses that have sustained have adopted some kind of unique online system to stay current. As these businesses have a hang on the changes that came with COVID and the start of reopening, brand differentiation and member experience will again need to be re-evaluated for continuous consumer satisfaction. Next Stage Partners sees our clients being nimble with their business models and finding opportunities to tap into new revenue streams that would not have been considered before the pandemic. In short, they are turning lemons into lemonade.
Organizational redesign, McGannon’s third pillar, and the final one we will be discussing in this post, involves empowering team members and restructuring work distribution, which can improve employee engagement and satisfaction. Along with the evolution of plans and service capabilities during the pandemic, employees and scenarios faced in the workplace, too, will evolve. It is vital that companies stay vigilant and proactive in determining how skills and positions are re-assessed as priorities and goals shift with the reopening of businesses. The pandemic forced some companies to consider the best way to align around a common business purpose. Sometimes that involves a redesign, and other times, like with Next Stage Partner clients, it requires reconfirming or tweaking roles so that the work gets done.
Jesse McGannon (2021). Strategic Resource Management. The Seven Pillars of Post-Pandemic Operational Excellence
Click here to read SRM's full article
Justin Racine (2020). Perficient. How to Differentiate Your B2B Products During COVID-19