Category: Strategic Improvement - The Institute for Strategic Improvement

Blue Ocean Strategies Course + The Business Model Canvas Combo Courses

10/6/2017

Blue Ocean Strategies Course + The Business Model Canvas Combo Courses

The Best of Both Worlds for Starting New Ventures and Expanding the Horizon $39.00 and $29.00 values you get both for $50.00 a savings of $18.00.

The Business Model Canvas (BMC) as a simple, structured, one page document for brainstorming the key ideas of a business plan.

It provides a template to list key concerns and of key business indicators for decision making. Like Key Business partners, Key Activities, Key Resources, Value Propositions, Customer Relationships, Customer Segments, Business Channels, Cost Structure and Revenue Streams.

You get the course PowerPoint, Business Model Canvas template, and certificate of course completion.

The Blue Ocean Strategy Course teaches you the relevance and importance of the concept of blue oceans as a business strategy. Learn about concepts behind Blue Ocean Strategy development, learn about open innovation and how to create your own net, and formulate ideas on how you might be able to apply these ideas to your own workplace or business.

You get the course PowerPoint, ERRC template, and the strategy canvas template.

Get it here
http://www.instituteforstrategicimprovement.com/store/p61/Blue_Ocean_Strategies_Course_______The_Business_Model_Canvas_Combo_Pack.html

Strategic Planning

9/25/2017

Where’s your trust? What's your plan - Strategic Planning
We are rounding the final corner of this calendar year as we enter into the last 3 months. Many businesses are developing their game plans for 2018 and making changes to long term plans (5 year). Research shows that strategic planning is strongly related to business financial performance. When we look at the reasons for failed businesses we find just under 50% have no written strategic plans. A business plan maybe, but strategic plans – no. How can you build a strategy without one? Even a greater percentage are found to have no mission statement. So what are their hindrances?

They say they don’t have time. As the adage goes “if you don’t have time to do it right when will you have tie to do it over?” You have to make time to get better. It doesn’t have to occupy huge amounts of your time. If you need to do it a piece at a time not a problem but do it.
They say they don’t know how. Some business leaders have never actually been through the strategic planning process so they avoid it. At a minimum you can do a simple SWOT or PEST analysis. There are a number of internet sources to get you started or you can pick up strategy guides at the library.
They feel there is a lack of trust. That if they share parts of their business operations with employees or outside individuals “their secrets will be stolen”. Often small companies are family owned but are stifled for growth because they lack an objective viewpoint.

So what’s holding you back?
Where’s your trust? …You need objective advice
Do you lack the time or the knowledge? Make the time and acquire the knowledge.
Trust + time+ knowledge= a solid plan.

How's Your Alignment?

8/29/2017

How's Your Alignment?

Many of us followed and were in awe of the once in a lifetime opportunity to see a full solar eclipse last week. In many ways this can be analogous to our own lives. We have to take opportunities as they present.

Have you thought about the improvements you want to make this upcoming fall? Now is the time to have key pieces of your operations fall into alignment. Over the next few weeks we will be discussion use of the Business Model Canvas (BMC) which provides you a simply structured one page document for brainstorming the key ideas of a business plan hence the name Canvas. It provides a template to list key concerns and ideas which is more formal that a napkin or piece of scratch paper and contains grouping of key business indicators for decision making.

We will also have discussion on the alignment of the Business Model Canvas (BMC) and Blue Ocean Thinking for new endeavors and use of Lean A3 management for existing processes. We will also have a combo special for all 3 courses so stay tuned and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Strategy Evaluation and Control

6/12/2017

Strategy Evaluation and Control includes the activities that you pursue to monitor your actual performance compared to your desired performance. Quite often this is used to combat the day to day problems and is a reflection of your actual outcomes of your strategic management process. Has your strategic management process evolved or are you doing the same thing every year expecting different results?

Many companies experience long periods of equilibrium with short bursts of change. But what if they had consistent short burst of change not just intermittent? Are you constantly re-tuning your existing strategy or are you looking for new ones? Many companies do not seek out a new strategy unless a triggering event occurs.

Common triggering events for Initiation of a New Strategy tend to be:

Entry of a new CEO - typically questions the status quo and existence of products
Existing performance gap - where measures drop or change in relation to the market
Change in strategic inflection - change in the environment, technology, or customer desires
External intervention - warranty work or competing issues with existing suppliers and/or customers.

Pursue change and now is the time use some Blue Ocean Thinking this summer.

Product cost optimization

4/12/2017

Product cost optimization involves optimizing the way you develop your products. Organizations have a number of ways that they optimize their product cost which include:

Value engineering - which includes optimizing material cost and balancing engineering aspects to reduce the overall material costs of product.

Standardization - which improves simplification during high-volume manufacturing, improvement of part ordering, and reduction in cost of maintenance.

Lean product development - which is used to optimize linear manufacturing processes improving how you develop products on the manufacturing floor.

Modularization-which includes separating each piece of a manufacturing system into corresponding subsystems then building the best value for each of the subparts including waste reduction and design continuity.

Product optimization is many times thought of as a cost reduction activity. Ultimately, businesses look at optimizing the concept in engineering design components, supply chain costs, the manufacturing process, and then optimizing service and support costs.

The most common opportunities include refinement of supplier communication gaps, implementation of project management skills, and culture changes.

Lean Product Development

4/4/2017

Lean product development
Evidence of lean product development and lean process development is growing each day. Lean process and product development is a way of achieving waste-free operations for your business. The process is simple - simplify all of your activities and continuously improve. Each process should respect employees and the environment.

Lean development values, process flow, simplicity, business partnerships, and visualization of your work.
Using lean development businesses are able to rely less on inventory and more so on just in time production.

The keys to lean development include:
Value stream mapping
Just in time inventory
Kaizen
Jidoka

These tools are used to identify value added and non-value added activities that best meet the customers’ requirements. Lean product development incorporates intellectual activity into the reiterative process of development which includes defining, analyzing, testing, comparing, choosing, specifying, and documenting.

This intellectual activity is applied by a full review of processes, tools, and employees. Here are some steps you can use in lean product development.

Establish customer value and determine value added activities as well as those that cause waste
Determine alternative solutions which maximize your space.
Establish a leveled product development process flow.
Reduce variation through standardization.
Adapt technology to fit your employees and your process.
Engage in organizational learning.
Develop cross functional expertise.
Build a culture of excellence and improvement.

To further improve on these there are a number of methodologies you can use in your product development including:

FMEA
TRIZ
Lifecycle analysis
Process capability
Robust design
Design of experiments
Quality function deployment

Most importantly, value your people and your process to continuously improve.

Strategy formulation

3/29/2017

Strategy formulation
Today’s blog is a brief discussion on strategy formulation and the key entrepreneurial characteristics of business entrepreneurs.

Strategy formulation varies widely between large and small entrepreneurial companies. This typically relates to the relationship between owners and managers. CEOs of large corporations must balance the needs of the company’s stakeholders, whereas small business owners are affected more by personal and family needs. We find quite often that small businesses rarely do competitor analysis. If they do it most often only looks locally without considering competition in nearby cities or within the state. Quite often the business entrepreneur’s success can be attributed to their strengths and their weaknesses can contribute to its failure. For most ventures there are two key points related to their success. This includes:
1) To differentiate their products and services from their competition in the areas of quality and service delivery and
2) They need to focus on acquiring a dominant share of their market. Sometimes this is a bit counterintuitive to business growth if you see our blue ocean strategies course.
We find key entrepreneurial characteristics that help with business success include:

Access to the network of outside help to supplement the business owners own skills and knowledge
An understanding of the keys to success within their specific business industry
A sense of urgency towards achievement and turning ideas into action
The continual focus on opportunity in terms of their strategic direction and not focusing on problems but more so focusing on learning from failure.
Continual research of innovation related to your business.

Quick Reference Sheet Collection

3/24/2017

The Institute for Strategic Improvement is offering an introductory price for our 1 page Quick Reference Sheet Collection.

When you make this purchase for only $24.99 you receive a new Quick Reference Sheet each week via email for 1 full year as a subscription service.

Each week we email you a new one.

These are process improvement, project management, Lean, Six Sigma, Quality Management, Personal efficiency and other Business Improvement Topics.

ttps://www.instituteforstrategicimprovement.com/store/p34/Quick_Reference_Sheet_Collection.html

Blue Ocean Strategies

3/20/2017

Why the Institute for Strategic Improvement is different.
We understand the changing landscape of quality improvement and always provide our students with current, relevant information, which facilitates the best learning experience, in the shortest timeframe, with the greatest quality and highest reliability.

Our company strives to provide you with the best value as a customer in terms of quality, content, and pricing.

This course is provided because the concept of blue oceans is very relevant and important as a business strategy whether you work for a company or at your own business as you develop ways to improve your position or stature in the marketplace. Blue ocean strategies are credited to two authors Professor Chan Kim and Professor Renee Mauborgne. They authored “Blue Ocean Strategy”.

As a business person, we are confident through this course you will see the value in using blue ocean strategies within your organization. Quality management professionals are cognizant of the complementary value of project management, Six Sigma, corporate sustainability, and Blue Ocean strategies.

Blue oceans are they unknown industries and ideas that do not currently exist in the marketplace.
Red oceans are all the known industries which are currently in existence. These are the known market spaces.

Our goal through this course is that we stimulate your own thinking about what type of blue ocean strategies exist in your business or organization.

Course Requirements:
25 question test passing score of 70.
1 to 2 page summary whitepaper of use of Blue Ocean Strategies and how you may use them in your organization.

Upon completion you receive a certificate of course completion

Visit us here https://www.instituteforstrategicimprovement.com/store/p49/Blue_Ocean_Strategies_Course.html

The course is $39.00. Email us below and we will give you $9 off the course cost.
https://www.instituteforstrategicimprovement.com/contact-us.html

Lean how Cirque du Soleil and Yellow Tail wines developed their strategies. The course comes complete with templates to draft your own strategy.

The value stream map (VSM)

3/15/2017

The value stream map (VSM) allows businesses to have clarity about the processes in their operations. This understanding comes from developing a visual representation of a process - the value stream.

The goal is to develop the best products and services for your customers by continually improving your processes and performing optimally.

Value stream maps show the “value stream” of a process and allow project teams to visualize a processes. Value stream mapping is used to identify major sources of non-value added time in a value stream, envision a less wasteful future state and develop an implementation plan for future activities.

This chart shows a value stream map for a factory making packages of pb and j sandwiches for use in cafeterias at 500 per day. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich build is a common process flow for six sigma exercises. We begin with the start symbol, we have decisions, and we have inputs and outputs. Our start symbol will begin with a loaf of bread, peanut butter, jelly, a knife, and a plate. We add the symbols for our decisions and each input and output. Peanut butter is an input, jelly is an input, and the other items are decisions you improve by adjusting your takt time an improving your process flow.

Need a quick reference sheet for your process or project improvement? Check us out here:
https://www.instituteforstrategicimprovement.com/store/c2/Quick_Reference_Sheets.html

or request a quick sheet here:
https://www.instituteforstrategicimprovement.com/contact-us.html