Steven Hoisington has written an article on his interpretation of the Global State of Operational Excellence Survey Report - Critical Challenges & Future Trends - 2018/2019. Click here to read the full Survey Report 2018/19. 

The Most Comprehensive Study of Critical Challenges and Future Trends within Operational Excellence

With nearly 1000 respondents, 37 insightful questions, detailed analysis & insights from 40 industry thought leaders, and the BTOES Insights executive team, this 130 page report is recognised as the most comprehensive study of critical challenges and future trends within Operational Excellence, and is considered a key resource for the industry. Areas covered include:

• The Critical Operational Excellence Challenges faced by executives.

• The Current Scope of Operational Excellence.

• How is Operational Excellence success measured?

• Key Findings & Roadblocks.

• What are executives focusing on over the next 12-18 months?

• What have been the greatest developments?

• What are the key drivers pushing change in Operational Excellence?

• Industry Perspectives.

• Small, Medium & Large Corporation Perspectives.

• Detail Analysis & Insights from BTOES Insights Executive Team.

• Detailed Analysis & Insights from 40 Industry Thought Leaders.

• Analysis of key themes, including Cultural Transformation, Customer Delight, Sustaining an Operational Excellence program, Need for end-to-end Business Transformation, Keeping up with new technologies/impact of digitalization and Leadership Buy-in & Understanding.

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The Mainstay of Operational Excellence for Cultural Transformation

Continuous Improvement culture

Data from the 2018 BTOES Global State of Operational Excellence survey suggests that cultural transformation is the biggest challenge (and opportunity) that organizations face, regardless of industry, sector, size, or geography.  And the end-to-end, wholistic approach that principles of Operational Excellence provide is required for organizational improvement that is key for cultural transformation instead of attempting to sub-optimize certain areas or a few processes of the organization. Click here to read more Articles on The Global State of Operational Excellence: Critical Challenges & Future Trends - Research Report 2018/19.

In this case, the sum of the parts is less than the whole.  Therefore, the organization needs to develop Operational Excellence leaders that are skilled in organization-wide change management and cultural changing mindsets.  Project Managers, Continuous Improvement specialists, Operational Excellence experts, Six Sigma Black Belts, LEAN masters, and other traditional Continuous Improvement facilitators and leaders of the organization need to adjust, learn, and adopt new performance improvement and change management tools and techniques.  Not Continuous Improvement tools, leaders, and goals, but a Continuous Improvement culture.  Not performance sustainability, but constantly getting better – and better than the competition – globally.  Operational Excellence leaders need to transform to a mindset of performance excellence and leadership. 

Understanding and exceeding customer requirements

Operational Excellence has been the mainstay for performance excellence, industry leadership, and cultural transformation.  With Operational Excellence as the foundation, the organization needs to understand that a culture that embraces a customer-focused environment, that is, knowing and understanding customer requirements and expectations, developing key processes to deliver on these requirements, finding key metrics to monitor process performance ultimately leading to customer delight, and constantly validating progress against what is important to customers is what is required. 

Cultural transformation through constant high impact improvements and innovation – constantly evolving to address ever-changing customer requirements.   An organization whose culture, processes, metrics, personnel, incentives, rewards, compensation, etc. are all focused on understanding and exceeding customer requirements will be the global leaders of tomorrow.  The next Amazon.  The next Apple.  The next Google.  The next Toyota.  Becoming the best healthcare, or service, or education, or manufacturing, or not-for-profit organization in the world known for exceeding customer requirements and expectations.

Therefore, Operational Excellence as a wholistic approach to organization improvement will remain the foundation for cultural transformation and address key business challenges also identified by the survey of acquiring or developing skill talent, changing technologies, and evolving customer requirements and expectations.  Operational Excellence leaders will understand how to change the culture of the organization:  Developing and presenting the future state and vision, a wholistic and end-to-end solution, leadership support and buy-in, employee acceptance and buy-in, overcoming resistance and obstacles, engaging all processes and parts of the organization, tweaking and adjusting, evolving through small wins along the way, and the duration of the journey.  All these are presented as challenges or concerns by the survey participants.  Principles of Operational Excellence will remain the foundation for organizational excellence.   And the future role of Operational Excellence leaders has never been so important.