| Refocus
Examples: Using Refocus to Improve a Small Business |
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Refocus
is a dynamic software template for developing new products and
markets, and improving your existing business and products.
- Shift
some of the time spent reacting to emergencies to solving
problems before they occur
- Enter
ideas when they are thought of and strategically develop them
into products and services that match customer needs and produce
the highest revenue
- Document
your business and business processes so they can be improved.
- Regularly
solve problems and enact improvements that save time and save
money
- Refocus
has the ‘Virtual Guide’ on-line help system that
includes hundreds of video clips that guide you through the
improvement and management methods
Specific
areas that can be improved:
- The sales
process used to sell your products and services
- Management
of collections
- Developing
new products or services
- Existing
products and services
- The order
fulfillment process
- Purchasing
decisions
- Customer
service
Benefits
of doing the Refocus process:
- Describes
business as starting point to build on
- Allows
consistent improvement activities even in the hectic business
environment
- Allows
the strategic improvement of important areas of the business
- Encourages
business owner/manager to be in the habit of improving the
business
- Creates
an interactive model of the business for continually improving
- Allows
periodic refocusing of the business products and services
on customer needs
- Gets
rid of problems so that increased business growth activities
can be accomplished
- Organizes
documents related to parts of the business to be readily accessible
- Allows
easy management of ‘dynamic’ documents (updated
weekly or monthly) so they are readily accessible
- Small
business moves very quickly. Refocus is a dynamic planning
and action system that allows change as fast as the business.
- Dynamic
adding of new product, market, or development ideas into development
pipeline
Improvement
Process
Build model
of business as it exists:
- Enter
general information, e.g. people, size of company, products,
services, market, sales methods
- Enter
processes performed by company:
- Sales
process for each product/service
- Order
fulfillment process, e.g. purchasing through final delivery
and install
- Execution
process for any services
- Financial
Processes; e.g. collections, taxes reporting and payment,
customer payment, bills payment, financial arrangements
- Manufacturing
process for all products
- Office
procedures processes; e.g. mailing, filing, computer vs.
hardcopy systems
- Customer
service processes; e.g. problem resolution, information
transfer
Identify
list of problems that the company is presently experiencing
- Rank
the problems in order of importance
- Describe
the problems in more detail, starting with the most important
- What
do the problems cost the company
Determine
solutions to the problems
- List
solutions for top problems and rank them
- Describe
the solutions further and choose best solutions to implement
- Make
implementation plan for putting the solutions in place
List problems
for each process area
- Determine
which process areas need the most help (have the highest cost
problems)
- Continue
the problems & solutions process for each process area
starting with the most important
- Determine
list of ‘best’ solutions to implement
Review the
list of all of the ‘ranked’ solutions entered so far
- Determine
the best of the best solutions and make a realistic plan to
implement the best solutions
New
Business Development
Refocus
allows new ideas for markets, products, services, or even concepts
to build on, to be added whenever they are thought of. Then
they are systematically developed to allow the best ideas (that
fit into the business strategy) to be implemented to expand
the business.
The development
process
- Quickly
enter ideas for new markets, products, services, or concepts
for development into the system when they are thought of
- Periodically
review the ideas at each stage of the development pipeline
to decide what actions need to be done to move the best ideas
forward
- Perform
financial scenarios on potential new products to see the effects
on profit
- Analyze
your product mix to determine the best mix of products and
services to meet customer needs and generate the highest profit
- Add new
products and services to grow the business
On-going
business management activities
- Set up
management documents for regular review (weekly, quarterly,
and yearly documents)
- Set up
performance benchmarks for checking progress to goals
- Identify
and solve problems as they occur so they are not repeated
- Have
procedures in place that streamline activities
Value Analysis
Value Analysis
matches the business, a product, or process more closely to
customer needs and eliminates unnecessary costs.
Value Analysis
can be performed on the business as a whole, the main products
or services, or individual processes, such as, customer service,
order fulfillment, purchasing, sales, etc.
The
Value Analysis Process:
- Identify
the product, service, or process to improve (we will use a
product for this example)
- Describe
the product in detail
- General
info: description, customer markets, selling methods, manufacturing
process, etc.
- Financial
info: costs, profit, break even info if it is a start up
product
List the
benefits or ‘Value Elements’ that your customer receives
from the product
- ‘Value
Elements’ are what the product does for the customer,
not how it does it.
- Perform
an internal or customer survey to rank the benefits ‘value
elements’ in importance to the customer.
Determine
how much of the product cost is used to deliver each ‘Value
Element’
- Allocate
a percent of each cost out to each ‘value element’.
- You will
now have a list of value elements with their associated ‘cost’
to the company to deliver
Identify
cost to value mismatches
- Compare
the costs of each value element to the ranking of how important
each value element is to the customer
- A ‘high
cost’ value element that is ranked ‘low’ in
customer importance means that too much is being spent to
provide that ‘benefit’ or ‘value element’.
- A ‘low
cost’ value element that is ranked high in customer importance
means that not enough is being done to satisfy the customer
for that ‘value element’ or benefit.
Determine
‘solutions’ for each cost-value mismatch that will
better match the cost to the value the customer receives from
the value element
- List
the possible solutions and rank them
- Determine
which solutions are best and make an implementation plan for
the best of the best solutions.
- Implement
the best solutions.
