Cracking the Code: Systems, Not Processes in Operations

A couple of years ago, in a fast-growing convenience retail company, I took on a new responsibility – operations. As a newly-appointed Operations Director, I was overwhelmed with the details of how individual processes work, urgent high-risk escalations, and...

Trustfulness and professionalism

Last week, I took part in two events at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) concerned with the future of the accounting profession and its firms. This followed on from the work we did with the Institute on the Future Firms report, which...

Procurement as an interface

I had a very interesting session last week with procurement leads responsible for sourcing legal and consulting work for major organisations. I came to the session wanting to talk about service-oriented, not product- or project-oriented strategic sourcing, and to lay...

The Mandated Revolution

Much has been written – both in our blog and elsewhere – about the many barriers to achieving the meaningful and sustainable digital transformation needed for businesses to operate in the challenging business conditions prevailing in the early 21st...

Digital transformation in insurance: beyond CX

Do insurers get FinTech? Coming at a time when, according to Gartner, “half of CEOs expect their industries to be substantially or unrecognizably transformed by digital”, the apparent lack of engagement with FinTech displayed by insurers in a recent...