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December Tips for a Great New Year

December 4, 2024/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Jeff Schilling

As the calendar draws to a close it's a great time to look forward by looking back. What do I mean? You can use data from past performance to identify opportunities for future improvement. And none of this requires a lot of time, which probably sounds especially good during this holiday-infused, busy time of year. […]

Capital Part 5: Risk Assessment

September 24, 2024/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Jeff Schilling

The concept of a Risk Assessment is not new, however incorporating a few tools and concepts can strengthen the reliability of the assessment. With these tools, the assessment can be more thorough and consider circumstances that might otherwise be overlooked. The fourth criterion, Risk Assessment, is intentionally positioned last so useful data gained from examining […]

December Tips for a Great New Year

December 4, 2024/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Jeff Schilling

Capital Part 5: Risk Assessment

September 24, 2024/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Jeff Schilling

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December Tips for a Great New Year

December 4, 2024/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Jeff Schilling

As the calendar draws to a close it's a great time to look forward by looking back. What do I mean? You can use data from past performance to identify opportunities for future improvement. And none of this requires a lot of time, which probably sounds especially good during this holiday-infused, busy time of year. Let's take a closer look at several ways to “pay it forward” with your data.

FY Milestone Reviews: December is often the fiscal year midpoint or year-end for many organizations. We usually think of these milestones as a chance to look back and evaluate performance against targets, and check for trends, positive or negative. The data is definitely useful in that way, but the findings can be inspiration for new improvement initiatives. In this sense, we use the insights gained from analysis of past performance as the starting point to plan one or more process improvement efforts designed to deliver better results in future. An outside facilitator can ensure this work gets off to a great start with some careful planning, preparation, and unbiased facilitation.

Planning a Customer Knowledge Refresh: As the year draws to a close, give some thought to whether or not your customers’ needs and expectations may be changing. This may be the result of some new developments in your market or industry, but for many, the holidays are also a time to re-center and reflect. That alone may lead to changing expectations or rearranged priorities. This makes December a good time to consider, and begin planning for, a fresh round of customer research to take place early in the new year. The beginning steps include formulating research objectives, selecting the best listening post (survey, interview, focus group, etc.), and taking early steps to create a data collection plan, all of which can be done with relatively little time, even less with a little help from someone with research experience.

Strategic Initiatives Prep: While you're taking a little time to think about your customers and their needs it makes sense to step back and evaluate your strategic plan against measures. Are the tactics achieving the anticipated results, or might it be time to re-evaluate any of them? And how is it going with tactics implementation…are they on schedule? Lastly, if your Strategic Plan calls for initiating a new service or product, the start of the new year (after the holiday rush) will be a much easier time to focus attention and resources. Whether you need an expedited look at a new opportunity (Feasibility Study) or a more thorough and comprehensive path to follow (Business Plan), a little planning now will go a long way toward a strong start after the holidays.

These are just a few examples of how time spent in December can set you up for real progress in January, and beyond.

If I can be of any help in these closing weeks of the year don't hesitate to contact me.

Happy Holidays!

Jeff

Capital Part 5: Risk Assessment

September 24, 2024/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Jeff Schilling

Critical Risks and Countermeasures (PDPC) Borrowed from process / quality improvement, the Process Decision Program Chart (PDPC) is designed to identify potential failures and the countermeasures to prevent them or minimize their impact. Building a PDCP begins with listing all the consequential potential failures associated with a proposed capital investment (e.g. critical supply shortage, inability to recruit key personnel, failure to meet key implementation milestone, etc.). Then, one or more carefully designed countermeasures are developed for each failure. For each capital request, have key failure points been identified and have the appropriate countermeasures been developed? If not, the risk of failure and associated consequences may be higher. A PDPC is an effective way to either design plausible counter measures or reverse-engineer a better plan and avoid the problems all together.

Scenario Sensitivity Analysis While a PDPC examines each project’s inherent risks, a Scenario Sensitivity analysis shifts the focus to the impact of the external environment. Begin by identifying a handful of Scenarios (typically 5 – 7) the key stakeholders are most concerned about. Some scenarios may relate to major trends (e.g. workforce shortage), while others stem from unique circumstances related to one or more of the requests (e.g. a competitor planning a similar investment). Use these as column headers in a matrix, with the various capital proposals as the row headers. Then, use symbols to indicate negative (-) or positive (+) impact that each scenario (column header) would likely have on each capital request (row header), keeping in mind that an empty cell (no impact) is also possible for any scenario/project combination. The completed table (see example at right) gives evaluators another way to compare the risk of the proposals.

Risk of not proceeding (opportunity cost) The last risk assessment tool is a concept you may have used in the past. Essentially, consider what may happen if the capital investment is not approved. In some cases, the consequences may be clear (maintenance costs, inefficiency, or code violations in outdated facilities), while in others, they may be more elusive (revenue or market share lost to a competitor). Are there risks of not proceeding related to evolving customer expectations or changes in reimbursement that are setting-dependent? The best project proposals have a thorough consideration of the risks of not proceeding that can be quantified and weighed against the projected benefits if the project is approved.

Four Criteria Meta Analysis In selecting the “vital few” capital investments from many proposals, each of the four criteria reviewed in this series has value as a point of discernment. Even more valuable is the ability to consider all four together, revealing not only the strongest proposals across all the criteria, but shedding light on any tendencies across projects. Preparing a quick “meta-analysis” of how the proposals compare across all four criteria can lead to some interesting questions…and improvements. For example, are most of the projects attractive from a Financial Feasibility perspective, while some are lacking in Strategic Alignment? Are there “stand-out” proposals in terms of Risk Assessment or Organizational / System Impact? These are important learning opportunities, and if leveraged, could result in even better options in the next capital approval cycle.

The “Other” List And yet, were’ not quite finished. Stay tuned for the last two installments in this series where we discuss several other considerations that may be applicable to individual proposals.

Are you and your leadership team prepared to get the most out of your capital investments? Let us know if you have any additional thoughts as this series unfolds, or if we can be of any help applying these ideas in your capital project review, selection, and implementation processes.

Roberta Jelinek and Jeff Schilling

(This is the 5^th of 7 posts in the series. For the full article, contact either one of us.)

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

December Tips for a Great New Year

Capital Part 5: Risk Assessment

December Tips for a Great New Year

Capital Part 5: Risk Assessment

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

December Tips for a Great New Year

Capital Part 5: Risk Assessment

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