Business Improvement Projects

During my time as an employee in different companies and as a consultant in my own company, I have been involved in and I have been managing many types of change and improvement projects, in business management, sales & marketing, project management, requirements analysis for purchasing processes of software for business management and various other areas. Below you will find some examples that I have been involved in as a consultant.

Problems in Project Management

A Swedish SME had problems with project management of customer projects and I was asked to analyse the causes and suggest improvements. After reviewing their workflows and working methods, the roles of the people involved and analysing the results, I concluded that there were major shortcomings in the commercial management of the projects and that management's involvement in project management was poor, the organisation was also poor at keeping time schedules as project managers were overloaded. I suggested a new type of organisation around the projects including regular meetings with a steering group of senior people in the company. The client implemented my changes.

Result
  • The profitability of the projects increased rapidly and significantly.
  • The ability to keep time plans increased dramatically. 
  • Customer satisfaction increased, leading to several new projects. 
  • The company's overall sales, profitability and cash flow were improved.

Interim assignment with a twist

A CEO of a SME contacted me with a request to take an interim assignment of 4-6 months as sales manager as they had dismissed the previous sales manager. In discussing the assignment, it became clear that the company did not have a good method for measuring profitability by sales item, customer and sales person. The previous sales manager had focused on a CRM system and measuring the number of visits per salesperson. I took the assignment with the requirement to implement a simple BI system to measure the business. I used a partner IT company and we set up a Power BI solution for the company. We found lots of potential for improvement in mispriced products, unprofitable customers, and mismanagement of the sales force as they were working blindly. I showed the flaws to the sales force and got them to work with me and we implemented a series of changes in pricing of products, bundling of products, and in the cooperation with customers.    

Result
  • A better managed business
  • Higher profitability on existing accounts and products
  • Higher motivation in the sales force through focus on the right things.
  • Increased sales through a motivated sales force.
  • The use of Power BI spread throughout the organisation and the BI tool is now also used by finance, production and purchasing.