Our Performance improvement and operations work is very closely related to business process reengineering; the difference between the two normally just being the level of process change involved in the performance improvement work. Some processes are so heavy with non-value adding activities that the only way to correct them is to completely overhaul them.

We believe that a control scenario can never exist in a vacuum. It is therefore very important to set up a performance management platform before embarking on a performance improvement journey.

The control scenario should have the following components:

• A target setting process that is SMART in order for targets to be realistic and not demoralising to the people who are meant to deliver them;
• A system in place that is designed to accurately measure the actual performance;
• First level variance analysis to measure how the actual performance is going with respect to the set targets;
• An evaluation process of the variances obtained in order to design proper and effective responses to the deviations; be they positive or negative;
• A review of the interventions to determine whether they have solved the problems that caused the variances in the first place and
• A second level variance analysis.

All these activities need to happen seamlessly and at very high speeds for the organisation to maintain a competitive advantage over its rivals.

We also design balanced scorecard tools for our clients and are very keen to be of help in the actual designing of robust processes that enhance causal ambiguity for the competition and are not easy to replicate and imitate.