Session Information:

Ownership & Accountability - The Functional Linkages to your Enterprise Operating System

Session Transcript:

Asked is, is an outstanding speaker and thought leader in the area of ownership, and accountability, and the functional linkages to your enterprise operating system. So I would like to welcome Tom Qian, Tom is currently the founder and managing partner of Enterprise Kaizen, and newly formed company focused on Recovery, Turnarounds and Transformations. Prior to this, Tom held a variety of vice-president roles for Johnson Controls, Technical, and they can applied focused on operations, transformations and the full suite of operational excellence. He has been involved in many forms of Operational Excellence since 19 95, including leading, leading the Lean Office Initiatives for G between 2002 and 2005, which connected both the Lean manufacturing six Sigma initiatives, to form a holistic enterprise Lean six Sigma approach.

Tom has run several small and large scale implementations of recovery, turnarounds and transformations, and is passionate about enterprise architecture as he believes. it is a foundational component to business excellence. Ladies and gentlemen. Tonkin.

Great, thank you Josie, I appreciate it. Nice introduction and very well. Always to have someone in addition to what makes you feel good about what you've done. As Josie said, the thing that I that I tend to be very passionate about is looking at the enterprise architecture of what your business system or your operating system does for you. one of the most critical aspects of it that I experienced over the last you know many years: doing doing these, is, how you can link the different functions that are involved in your business system Together, and I kind of put it together as ownership and accountability. And, once you have the ownership, and accountability, it really keeps those functions together, and it connects them with measurements and processes that are, that are so important to have your business system always moving through the, through the maturity model that you've put in place.

So, to start with, you know, the, the, the way that I've always looked at it, kind of an enterprise approach, is that you're creating an enterprise plan for the company. So, that means you're most likely trying to grow. You're trying to add more time with capacity using strategy deployment to connect the strategic plan to the actual operating model. That you have how to keep yourself operationally excellent using operational excellence and lean methodologies, and all the continuous improvement and business process improvements. And then really having your employees engaged. They've got to understand, you know, first of all, why you're making the changes that you are, and then how you get them engaged, and help them move into the acceptance of what you're trying to do.

And very importantly, have a process to manage people through the transition state. So the opportunity to identify your current state and your future state, but that transition state to go from one to the other is very important. So the objectives that I always think about as I go through an enterprise operating system and the approach is really threefold. It's really looking at what you currently do. And enhancing it, And then extending it across the rest of the company.

Always consider building for your future. So what is it that you need to be 2, 3, 4, 5 years from now, depending on the pace of your products, and how they match to the pace of your customers, And then always making sure that you're managing to a cost effective culture. And I say those words very particularly because a cost reduction or a cost down can sometimes put you into a parallel position. So creating a cost effective culture is is, is is very important. So that threefold kind of approach very important.

Then thinking about how do we then take that and make it into a Lean enterprise, right? So that it, that enhancing extending the current capabilities, making sure that the people understand, first of all what your opportunities are, how you go and achieve those improvements. both in your products, your processes, but also adding into the services, and then the information that goes goes across your company.

Building for the future, that's the maximization of shareholder value, capitalizing on creating partnerships and loyalty with your customer base. So that, you know, you have a value driven solution that's end to end across and always maintaining that pace of your customer to keep them ahead of the competition. And then creating that cost effective culture. Always achieving business critical results at greater speed and lower cost. And, I talk a lot about optimum cost, because the way your cost structure works inside your company is very much like inventory, Worry too much is no good. Too little, is no good. So, the optimization of that is, is quite critical.

The strategic process that I look at it and I managed through, and developing any kind of enterprise architectural plan, first of all, starts with, you know, the strategic plan. So that your strategy, that you gotta make sure you have the vision, you have the right mission, and you have the right plan.

And plus of what you're trying to achieve three years, four years, five years from now.

Once you have that strategic plan, it's about looking at your organization in designing it, so that it is effectively able to, to execute the plan, based on the strategic plan. So, that organizational design and development is a very important part of it, because sometimes that changes how you actually have your organization's set out. And then, the operating model that your company works across. So, it's about the application and the governance of how things flow, from input to output, across every portion of your business. And then, of course, using Strategy deployment there hushing Connery ... Planning, you have the focus and alignment that is directly tied to that strategic plan.

So, it all tends the flow right back through, and then, of course, the visibility and transparency that you need to have to make sure everybody understands what they're working on, why they're working on it. And the whole enterprise plan is cohesive enough for everybody to understand. Remember that Y that I talked about earlier? And then, going right back into the strategic planning process as an update every year. So it's a refreshing cycle that goes through time and time again.

That operating model that we've talked about on the previous page, very important. So this is an operating model that I developed as what I call a concept, a cash value stream. So you have input from customers on the type of market, the product flow that you need to have. And that's what your sales and commercial operations are working on.

And then, once you have that product in mind, turning it into the product development, and launch value stream, So that you go from product launch, with the right execution, and you have the right. Technical, commercial, or customer requirements that are turned into the technical requirements, that then move into the next value stream of order to ship, and this is how the bill of materials then flows its way through, and then, of course, the ship to delivery back to the customers. So this closed loop process is really about creating the optimum speed and predictability for your operating model, with many of the other areas of the business, the rest of the business really supporting in every aspect that you do. So, creating that, right?

Operating model is very, very important, because it becomes the blueprint of how your enterprise architecture system really works. In regards for driving that growth with your customers.

So, to get to the fundamental part of it and understanding where that ownership and accountability is, that operating model for each one of those areas then has core competencies or processes that are the fundamentals that should be there in each one of your functional areas. So, if I go to the sales and commercial operations, these are the processes that should, that should be there, right: the sales management process, your customer relationship management, demand forecasting, and identifying for your company what those core competencies and processes are in each one of the areas of your operating model.

And then, using this, to then decide how do I connect functionally from one to the other is really so important because that's what binds the enterprise architecture or the enterprise approach together. So as you can read through many of these, you know, you can start to see where they apply to the others. If you think about design for manufacturing in the manufacturing operations segment, that directly ties to many of the product development and launch core competencies. And then, where that foundational and back office work, tends to happen with finance and human resources, and IT illegal, driven by the continuous improvement methods to constantly improve you as you go forward.

So, these core competencies, or, processes, of your, of your operating system are really critical to identify and put in place, and once you've identified what the ones are, you start to see the linkages. So, if I take just sales and commercial operations, I left in bold so that you can see the processes and the other areas or the other elements of that operating model of where they connect to.

So the sales and commercial operations, obviously for new technology introduction that you're trying to put into your, to your customer base are to have you ahead of your competition.

And then having that program management and launch system effectively take your new product introduction or your sustaining engineering.

Projects that you need to move the way through in manufacturing operations. You know, having a safe workplace for your environment is not just about the manufacturing organizations, but it's about, you know, where all of your employees are actually working. And that's, you know, whether they're a salesperson in the car, on the road, all the way to the office environment, into the manufacturing operations as well. Then to integrated supply chain, one of my favorite connections, as the sales and commercial operations as demand forecasting into the sales and operations planning that you see. And that's kinda the beginning of ownership and accountability. The sales and operations planning is owned by the integrated supply chain, and sometimes the manufacturing operations. But where it's held accountable is in the demand forecast that's generated into the sales and operations planning element.

Once you have those core competencies identified, you start to put the definitions that you need behind each one of them. So that as you develop them, each one of the other areas can see what that structural definition is of how we need to approach it. So, the sales management process as an example, a structured approach for commercial strategic planning, sales management, profitable growth, the sales management process also has a phase gate that it goes through, you know, firm discovery all the way through, quote, award, and and, and, and deliver.

So that's where we need to make sure we have the right definitions in place.

And then, of course, How do we then put the right measurements in place on those processes so that we know exactly how they're performing and what we need to do to get better? So?

A nice format, though, that I've used in the past is what does that competency, what's the operational definition, what's the metric that we're going to use to measure it? You know, one metric, it might have many variables inside of it, but what's that one metric we can count on to really be the signal that says, this is how we're performing?

What our target would be, and your target needs to be, you know, very analytical. It needs to look at, what's your current performance, what's the capability of the process, and then, what's the entitlement? And that entitlement is I did it once before. So that's the, that's essentially the stretch target that I could have. But target setting is an important part, because as you move through the maturity model of your core competencies, you need to make sure that you're setting achievable targets along the way as you go.

And then, of course, deciding, do I currently measure it or not yet? And I need to work on it, and I need to have it on.

The important thing, is to continue moving as an evolution, to have this delivered, how am I performing, and then, of course, what's the trend of the previous quarter, versus the current quarter, or week, or month, or half year, however you want to measure it.

Then, you want to take it and say, OK, now I'm going to put together a maturity model. How do I take it from where it currently exists and move my way through the different levels that says I can make it to the, to the right level. So, we then start to look at product development and launch. And we have, you know, the connections in there, and the one I talked about before, manufacturing operations was that design for manufacturing. You know, that that's such an important aspect that we need to look at, is that Design for Manufacturing Design, for serviceability designed for recycling. There's a lot of aspects in there that we need to take back into the development of the core competencies, or processes and other areas. But, again, you can see how there's connections across all of these from product development and launch. And, again, we decide what the definitions are across those core competencies.

And then moving into manufacturing operations at the exact same process that we go through. And this is the one where we tend to see things The most visible is in our manufacturing operations. That's where our product or service actually comes to shape, where we can see what it is that we're delivering to the customers.

And then, of course, as we go through the competencies and the definitions and get to that last one, which is the integrated supply chain, to say, OK, then this is where I'm actually delivering to my customers. So, how is it that I affect all the other core competencies across the system?

So, these key linkages are very important.

The, the step that you would go through was then to say, OK, now, for the operating model, how do I execute it? Well, we talked about the measurements of those processes and those core competencies. So, first of all, I want to think, what are those principles that I have, And what are the areas of focus? And those three that I referenced at the beginning, which is, how do we enhance and extend our current capabilities? You know, It's not. You know, it's, it's the rough. Sometimes when you're in there and you say, we gotta get better. That doesn't mean it's bad now, It means we're trying to enhance what's currently done. So don't ignore the work that was done before. That's very critical point. How do we know that? That's going to actually make us, have something that we're building on for our future, and for our growth? And then that creating the cost effective culture.

Now, from that, in that operating model, we had those four main areas of sales and commercial operations, the product development launch. So, how do I put together a transfer function? And the transfer function is simply defined as Y equals a function of X. So, if I look at operating profit as the Y, those 4 or 5 variables that I have are going to affect my operating profit.

And this is a great way to start to build your metric tree. that you can start to measure all of these different areas across your, across your system that you have going across the business.

And then, of course, those business transfer functions, or you're leading indicators of performance. So, this starts to become the predictability of how I take it through.

And this is where you can start to say, How do I start to bring in any kind of automation, any kind of system that I can manage because I can measure it accurately. So, I've got to define the process first, I've got to build the process first, and once I can measure it, then I can start talking about any kind of systematic approach, or, or any kind of automated system to do that.

And, then, from the top down to the business, we look at executing the business at the Y level, meaning, the big ones, that we have, the big measurements, that we use across the different functions to create those linkages. So, we think about customer loyalty, the the growth that we have, either by operating income margin, EBA, product development, lead time, at the customer's pace. So, are we moving at the same pace as our customers so that we can keep in tandem? With? how we work across with them? On time delivery, Quality, and then cash on hand, how do I keep all that visible, and then the next level down, if my customer loyalty is poor, It could be that my issue resolution cycle time is very bad.

And I might have, you know, 90% of my issue resolution happening within 24 to 48 hours, Or whatever your patient needs to be. But we really gotta make sure, we're looking at that tail, the 95th percentile and beyond of your data, to make sure that you're not ignoring customers on a regular basis, that are two weeks, three weeks out before their issues are being resolved.

So as we look through those X's, they definitely work into, How am I moving the, the, the big buys my of my operating model, Then, of course, thinking about the operational cadence of how you operate, so, whether your monthly, quarterly, or annually, you've got different metrics and you've got different measurement system for that type of cadence. So, the monthly is very important. We send, we tend to see that as an annual operating rhythm, but then are you looking at your quarterly performance, for your strategy, deployment, breakthrough objectives? And then annually, what are you doing to refresh your strategic plan and your strategy deployment, as you go through the business?

So, as an example, being able to connect them.

If we think about product development lead time in that product development and launch, Part of the value stream of the operating model, we think about, how well am I going through my phase gates of the new product introduction process or the program management process. So, we think about that first pass yield that we have going through, which is a wonderful quality metric because it lets you know how you're operating as a full on system.

What's the program cycle time that I have for each one of my products that I've put through the system?

The amount of time that I have in engineering that I've applied to those programs, Number of Changes, post designed for ease, and this is one of my favorites, because we think that we don't do very many of them. And then you start to measure them, and you find out that you do quite a bit. And if you think about how that affects into the manufacturing operations as late changes, drawings that need to be updated, or your, your engineering change orders that you have to push through, this is one that causes a lot of that waste inside your system. Those directly linked down to that manufacturing operations, big Y, of the order to ship lead time.

And, again, that first one is, how do I make sure that I'm keeping a safe workplace for my employees? How's the environmental management that I have in my, got my permits all in line to my operating, the way I'm meant to then your operational excellence says what are the month over month improvements that we're making using all this operational excellence and moving on through. So, if the product development lead time for the product development and launch value stream of the of the operating model, you can see where that would tie straight into design for manufacturing. That's the connection. So, the ownership on time launched arts that happens. The fall on manufacturing operations quite a bit.

The, the accountability on that is one step earlier, which is in that product development lead time, shown by those measurements that you have X one through X seven.

So, again, thinking about it, and I mentioned this one at the very beginning, when, I think when, I always think about where the, the easiest one to explain to people is, is that sales and operations planning, or your production sales and inventory. However, you have that process laid out.

That's where the ownership occurs, but you can see how I can link all the way back to the beginning of the presentation. Beginning of the operating model, I'm sorry on where the demand forecasting has, and that is where the accountability is. And when you set those metrics up, like we used on the previous page, as an example, that's what brings the teams together. And that's what shows, you know, a lot more and plans. If my sales and Operations planning, I'm at a 17% forecasting error, what is the demand forecast that we had in there that fed that, that caused that type of variation that I have.

So once you can start to operate very predictably, through all of these, then you can start to really, really refine what your enterprise architecture looks like, and you can start to apply a lot of the tools. Or systems that are really helpful out there for us right now. To manage these these as much quicker pace more effectively. And, the visibility and the transparency across the company becomes, you know, much broader and much more visible for the rest of the employees.

So, going back to it, thinking about what an enterprise architecture is meant to do, Again, I'm gonna repeat it, It's that really looking at what you currently do, how do I, and hence it, how do I extended across the rest of the company?

And then how do I make sure that all of those processes and all those measurements and the measurement systems that I have in there, are, are solid enough? and structured enough that I can start to either put it into any kind of system. Or I can put it into any kind of automation where I can feel comfortable enough that it's going to perform as designed. Making sure that the future of what our company is moving towards.

And we're building, you know, for that, for that growth, along with our customer base, to stay ahead of the, of our competition. And then making sure we're able to continue and survive our way through it by creating a cost effective culture as we go through.

So I appreciate all the time, I went through that, probably a little quicker than that I went through when you don't have that live audience asking you questions along the way. You tend to go a little bit faster. But I'm looking forward to the Q&A, and I'm going to go back to Josie and see if we can answer some of the questions that have come through.

Very well, Tom, very well. Thank you there. There are questions that came in as you're speaking. So, So, there is a commentary here that you cover, kind of, like, the back to basics, from strategic planning, operational planning, which was, which is helpful to a lot of organizations, Because there's so much talk about, you know, technology, and architecture. And, it's easy to lose sight of the fundamentals. Right. And the fundamentals are, are very important that the question is specifically on an Android enterprise architecture. And, the end and a bit more focus on technological implementations in the organization. How do you get the system that you just described?

And you match that against an environment where there is a lot of technological change going on and how do organizations Screen triage, you know, and bring in those new technologies that align with a strategic planning process like the one you just mentioned.

Yeah, it's, it's a really important part, fully analyze before you do a Joe. say. The one thing that I remember finding in, in, in previous work, assignments was We were automating a lot of our processes that currently existed. And we're putting them such that, once we have them automated, we have invisible, then, we can work to fix them.

The issue was there was a lot of re-engineering that needed to happen to those processes. So, you have to be just so careful that you're not using a system to try and fix the process. The system is there to manage the process for you. And to make it visible and manipulate further, but the system is not meant to force your process into something that it's currently not.

So one of the, the common mistakes I've seen is really saying, if we can just put it into the system and automate it, it'll get so much better when, in fact, you have to actually do a lot of the hands-on re-engineering work of those processes to make sure they're structured properly and they're effectively managing what you want them to manage before you start putting them into systems or other or other architecture automations.

Very good.

Very good, the next question here has to do with current affairs, how, you know, how have you how has the impact of the pandemic Kenyan though and everything that's going on in 20 20. Affected the way that organizations are doing in their strategic planning process and the way they're executing on that. And the, you know, it's the there is a joke going on right now that it's like an old quote from John Lennon that I had plans but life happens becomes now I had plans but a pandemic happens. So there are some amazing strategic plans and operating plans that were in place. And, somewhere, in the first quarter of 2020, kind of, they are tossed away, and the new reality sets in. What are you seeing in the marketplace with organizations that are having to redo a lot of a lot of that work in a very short period of time.

Yeah, you know? it's, it's funny you mentioned that. Just because I found one of my slides from like 1999 and 1 of the things to try to get, people going into this You know, new journey that we had for Lean, another one to us if you don't have a crisis. Create one.

And that'll help you move through it. So obviously, we've got a crisis You, know that we don't want that is forcing us to really do things in a different way. And, it's not so much differently. But, it's really in a different way. So, obviously, the, you know, the, the the way to use things like Zoom and Microsoft Teams in a more effective way has been powerful. So, you have to kind of pare down. The number of, you know, people that you might have on it. But we have been in previous work, we have been able to, you know, put together the strategic planning sessions. You know, through Microsoft Teams, let's just use as an example, but, you've gotta be very specific, and the amount of time, and what you're going to have accomplished. And you have to do it in smaller pieces, but more frequently.

Whereas we used to have, you know, larger meetings for three days, at a time, this month, next month, and then our strategic plan is done. So now, it's probably more like 15 sessions of 2 to 3 hours with fewer people.

And then, you know, incorporating other people as you go. So as you move through this type of crisis with the type of technology that we gotta move down to do it, I would say, more events, more frequently, is really the successful approach, to get it done.

And the kudos to our audience here, because as we're talking, there are more questions coming in. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna pick a few of them. Keep, keep your questions going. For Tom, here, we have some time, so let's use that time effectively. So the question comes from, and then some path, and then wants to know, what are your suggestions to create a cost effective culture?

Yeah, the, the first one is to not be afraid to put out there what your current cost metrics are, that that's it, and you know, creating more of a culture of red meaning, red means help. It does not mean you're doing poorly. It means I am off target, and I need help to do it. So, a cost effective culture is looking at everything. You do, it's so easy to look at, product cost, or people cost. But, if you look into the line item in your financials of, you know, SG&A as a percent of sales, you can start to see where you have a lot of opportunities with indirect costs. You know, external, you know, resources. professional, services, utilities, this is the time to really look at it, from, What do I truly need to operate?

And then you have to say, OK, to do that, I must have this amount that I used to spend to run this company. And you have to operate around that. And then once you get that variation around that reduced, you can control it by moving it around, just like you with any kind of variation reduction around the mean, But identifying where all the costs are that you can't control, And then the cost that you can control helps you to really look at it a little bit more effectively and understand, what are the real variables that I can start to play with.

one of the things I remember looking at for, for, for s.g.m.a. is the first two line items are no employee, salary and benefits, and then, you know, the compensation plan. Right below that, those are eliminated. I'm not doing anything about that. I wanna look at the other 19 items that are below there. And some of those ones further down the Pareto, actually have a bigger effect on things higher up the grader.

So you have to do it a little bit more methodically as you go through. And, that's really, my recommendation, is to not just focus on the visible, you also have to focus on the, what's not, so visible to you as you look at it.

Know, Tom, that, that's, that's, that's easy to miss your commentary. It's easy to miss the depth of the commentary unless you have lived through a lot of organizations are very deep, much deeper level. I'll just illustrate that I work in a very large infrastructure company before, where, again, it's a really nice play between technology and this discussion about creating a cost effective culture. They are, in one side, you know, the folks on enterprise architecture, I'm talking about all these new technologies that the engineers could use to do their projects, which is true, which is good.

And some of these technologies are about becoming more cost efficient, wonderful. But a fundamental issue underneath built much deeper than the technological issue was the fact that the engineers, when they designed this billion dollar infrastructure projects, they had no access to cost data as they were doing the design.

Yeah, so, I think, front naive standpoint, and I will say this to our enterprise architecture heavy, folks. There is this perception sometimes from that group that that the business has access to this information and they should be thinking about what's next in terms of AI, in terms of, you know, robotics process automation. But the reality is that you get close to the grid, to the troops, and you realize that they don't have the fundamentals in place. And they don't have access to cost information. And you should just open the books and allow them to see how much some of their designs cost. They would significantly changed their designs. Again, this seems like such a fundamental common sense things, but that leaders like you, who have been deep in the trenches. You know, that common sense is the least common of the senses. In large organizations, and this thing sometimes are not happen. So, I think, back to your comment on creating this cost effective culture, and creating this transparency.

For the, for the folks in the audience right now. Do not take that transparency for granted, because it's not there in most organizations.

Yeah, I think one of the best things that happened to me from this cost effective culture approach was when I first started my career with GE in 19 93. As an engineer, I needed to know the cost of every part that I was putting into these appliances, because the appliances business is not a high margin business. So as an engineer, I knew all the cost of my parts. I will say that that is not a common thing defined across many other businesses. And just having that as the structure that I had to go through, made me look at everything from how are we doing it and accounts payables.

What is what is the cost that it is, The process, each invoice through the accounts payable process, figure out what that is.

If it's 17% per invoice, then how can I make it $16, how can I make it 15% without damaging the ability or the capability to do the process? So, it's a, it's a, you gotta be very careful as you do this, and this is what, you know, I refer to as, when you have a cost down initiative, Sometimes that can really impact and hurt your business. So, you know, I think Seth Godin is one of the ones that talked about the Race to the bottom, when it comes to costing your way out of business. So it's very important to understand what capabilities you need to operate, and then figure out, how do I then look at my total costs across the enterprise, and manage them more effectively? And it's everywhere. It's not just in the visible part, That's what I mentioned before. It's in the parts that you don't typically see. Or you don't think, it's something you should look at. And I started looking at accounts payables back in 2002. And there was quite a lot of cost opportunity in there as well.

Our next question here comes from rule out all day. And ... asks, How do you get input and buy in to your metric tree? Trunk treme from teams across your organization? How do you, how do you get that input to settle on those match?

Yeah. That's a tough one, OK? That is not one of the easier ones to do, because if you haven't been measuring something, people don't always like for it to be measured. So, the creation of a balanced scorecard is really important, because by creating the balanced scorecard, you're connecting all the functions together, and they start to understand how those measurements affect their measurements as well. So if we just started at the very beginning with sales and commercial operations, and your first metric is the quality of the orders that I take, meaning, How many orders do I have to rework? Obviously, that starts to cut the amount of planning time as you go through the whole value stream. And when you start to see it affect, how much time I have an engineering to get my work done, how much work I have a manufacturing to plan, and get the machines and actually make the product to ship, it really is a huge help.

So lot of times, when I've found resistance on that, it's about working more one-on-one with the functional leaders, to understand, hey, this is how the whole thing works. If we put your data in there right now, look at the trailing effect across, but when you get a balanced scorecard on one page, and you can see red or green, and you see red at the top and you do nothing about it, that red will flow all the way through to the very end, which is where you hit your customer. So, really, you need to be that advocate for that customer across that balanced scorecard, and make sure you're able to do things about it mitigated at the very beginning of the process. But working one-on-one first, so people understand how the full balanced scorecard works, is very important.

The next next question is about the roadblocks to implementing ownership and accountability. As as you are doing the implementation, what have you experienced to be the major roadblocks To creating this ownership and accountability.

I think one of the roadblocks is, is when someone is exempt from being part of the enterprise, So, of course, you always find a part of the business where, you know, the performance is going really well, right? And don't bother that person, they're there. They're making money for us right now, you know, they're doing just fine.

That can be a significant roadblock because it means you don't have the enterprise, the wholistic view connected and those roadblocks are very important to expose them to do something about. So, that that's one of the first ones. one of the, one of the other roadblocks is where you find a lot of processes that are not documented, that they just happened to operate on their own. And it's very important to put them down on paper. You know, one of the good methodologies to follow is the ... or the ... method in those middle three things, which is input to the processes and understanding your expected output.

If you can make that clear and start getting the core processes is defined in the PSYPACT, that also really helps reduce a lot of roadblocks.

Because people can start to see what it is that they're working on, and once people can see what it is that they're working on, the acceptance of making any kind of changes is much higher.

There's a, there's excellent point you have just made on those core processes and the competencies, and that's a segue for the next question here. How did you come up with those core processes that you discussed in the presentation, in particular, How did those come about as core processes?

So, those were developed over the past, about 10 to 12 years as the processes that I saw on each one of the functions. You can, you can get, depending on the type of business you have, and the type of product at the type of industry, sometimes those core processes change, but not significantly. If you think about engineering in the product development and launch, there's always a program management process that you're going through. Whether it's, you know, a very rigid, structured, you know, phase gate process all the way through, or you're just working through different stages as you go. And, those are the ones that I found that really need to be there in order for a business to operate very effectively. OK, so, what I'll do is I take that, and I, if I go into another business, or I go to a joint venture or another company, I kinda lay that on top and find out, where are the gaps that we have inside of there, that need to be structured up invisible.

So, that's just, over the past, you know, 10 to 12 years of really seeing what the processes are that need to be in place for that operating model to flow as a value stream, from concept to cash.

Very good. Tom, it's a real pleasure to listen to your expertise and the, and have you, your insights on the, on the implementation of systems like this. So very grateful to have you with us. Thank you for for allowing us to to listen and learn with you.

Great. Thanks very much, Josie. I appreciate the opportunity.

Very well.

Ladies and gentlemen, this wraps up day two of Enterprise Architecture Alive. As you know, you can provide feedback as you close the session window and that we look forward to meeting you again tomorrow.

We have a tremendous sessions with global leaders of enterprise architecture and real practitioners. We have MetLife, Lego and others tomorrow. That will add their perspectives to our Enterprise Architecture Journey and the Indian side so we all can benefit from. So as you know, you can follow up on that later on today and post your comments on LinkedIn. The discussion goes on, and we will answer to as many of those as possible. And we hope you have a great rest of your day, and we will see you back here tomorrow.

Have a great day.