^The APQC Blog

Yesterday, I hosted a Webinar all about the new “Business Excellence” content in the Knowledge Base. If you are at all curious about the latest and greatest that we have in process management, measurement, benchmarking, and innovation, check it out here:

Now in the Knowledge Base: Business Excellence

Amidst economic struggles and high unemployment levels, skills shortages endure. Particularly persistent and acute is the shortfall of scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) talent. Consider these findings from APQC’s recent Work force Capabilities survey. 

This morning, I gave a 30-minute presentation highlighting the best KM content APQC has published so far this year. If you want to find out what’s new and exciting in the Knowledge Base, I recommend listening to this recording of the presentation or downloading the slides. The slides are particularly useful because they provide direct links to all our latest content.

What practice in procurement is associated with shorter supplier lead times and faster PO
processing? Category Management. By clustering suppliers into categories, you can leverage similar market intelligence, sourcing strategies, and supplier relationship management programs. Here's an article with actual APQC data on this topic: Procurement Category Management: Faster Purchase Order Cycle Time

Effectively Managing Risk Across the Enterprise is a new and ground-breaking report from APQC on enterprise risk management (ERM). The pioneers featured have crafted mature ERM programs that not only protect them from major negative events, whether strategic, operational, or financial, but also help them to stretch their wings in pursuit of ambitious aims.

No one knows who first said it, but a popular saying asserts: "You don't know where you're going until you know where you've been." I'd like to offer an equally, if not more important, statement that can be applied to process management and improvement: "You don't know where you can go if you don't know where you are."

APQC research suggests that while many aspects of knowledge management (KM) relate to the work force, KM isn’t typically a top priority for HR. But at organizations where HR is involved in KM efforts, the benefits to business performance can be significant.

Luckily, you didn't have to actually be there this time. We wrote it all down in New Product Development: Embracing an Adaptable Process - EXFO Case Study.

What are the essential ingredients for work force planning success? What work force planning strategies, processes, and practices give your organization an advantage over competitors? In thinking about these questions, did any of the following approaches come to mind?

It might seem harsh to talk about killing potential new products before they launch. Killing them before they go to market means they never get a chance to be the next "big thing." But the reality is that organizations with the ability to make those tough decisions tend to have greater success in the market for those products that they do launch.