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Performance and Maturity: Are You Measuring What You’re Trying to Manage?
Anyone who has spent any time in entry-level business classes knows the adage, “if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” It’s a pretty wise adage, and from a very systematic perspective, it’s right. Without knowledge of process performance, attempting to change is akin to rearranging…
Tools and Technology: They Sure Help Make the World Go Around
Think of the gamut of process management capabilities required to get real work done. Now imagine if you only had paper and pen, filing cabinets, the postal service (for normal communications) or a very expensive overnight delivery service for items needing rapid attention. More time would be spent…
Process Management—Another Solid Solution for Boosting HR Performance
In my last blog post I wrote about how HR shared service centers can be a powerful vehicle for perfecting HR operations—containing work force costs, speeding work force transactions, and delivering exceptional HR customer service. In this blog post, I want to talk about another strategy for…
Give the People What They Want
We’ve been getting a lot of feedback on the content in the Knowledge Base. So far the majority of the feedback has indicated that you are satisfied with our content. We’ve also gotten some requests for content on specific topics. Here are a few of these topics, along with content that may be just…
Reduce Compliance Risk with Strong Control of Debt Covenants
A recent survey of finance executives found that many companies overlook or minimize so-called debt covenant compliance risk. This is the risk that a company could default on a bank loan because it failed to keep promises spelled out in a loan agreement. A recent report, “Best Practices…
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Communities
When we surveyed our members about our Knowledge Base this summer, almost 10 percent of you said you wanted more content on communities of practice. I’m always publishing fresh content on communities and other knowledge sharing approaches, and I promise that APQC’s 2012 publishing plans will take…
Process Improvement: The Job that Never Ends
The goal of process management is to improve performance. Whether the emphasis is customer retention, cycle time, employee satisfaction, efficiency, business growth, productivity, or any other goal, organizations implement process management to improve something. Countless books have been written…
Perfecting HR Operations: The HR Shared Services Solution
At the start the year, I identified six priorities for HR. Among them was the imperative for HR to perfect its operations. In the article, Human Capital Management 2011, I wrote: HR will be expected to maintain the heightened levels of work force productivity and cost containment reached during…
Change Management: The Heart of Process Management
Without proper change management, you can forget about moving your organization to process management. There is a reason change management is located at the heart of APQC's Seven Tenets of Process Management—number four of seven. All the other tenets, in a way, revolve around change management. The…
U.S. Congress Passes Three FTAs
On October 12, the U.S. Congress passed free trade agreements (FTAs) with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia. Originally negotiated five years ago, the agreements must be signed by President Obama before they go into effect. The FTA with South Korea will make 95 percent of U.S. consumer and…