Improvement of Commercial Processes

We develop and/or improve commercial processes in industrial companies.

In other sectors, this was called Business Process Re-engineering, but rather fell from favour as a result of the enormous, often unworkable complexity designed into processes by so-called BPR specialists.

Cerebra however emphasizes simplicity, minimizing bureaucracy and ensuring that the staff who will use the process in question understand and accept it, and are committed to making it work.

For more explanation of commercial processes, see: Commercial Processes

Typical Processes We Develop

In industrial and B-2-B companies the most important commercial processes typically include:

•  The new product development process (often critical in specialty chemical companies)
• The strategic planning process (important in large, heavily matrixed organisations)
• The sales process or “customer interface process” (often linked to a CRM system – but not the same thing)
• The key account (management) process (where there are both major globally-integrated accounts and many local, single-site customers)
• The “customer service process” (especially where technical/applications support is central to the product offer)
• The order fulfillment process (the “supply chain” process)

How We Work

If there are problems with an existing process, we identify where and what the problems are, and establish the root causes; then we re-design the process as necessary to eliminate the problems

If parts of the existing process are working well, they should be retained; we endeavour to avoid unnecessary change.

Sometimes a complete process redesign is required, e.g. when a significant acquisition is to be integrated operationally; or where a process has completely failed and been abandoned.

In such cases, we work with management to precisely define the objectives and scope of the process, then, as before, review how the activity is currently undertaken (to retain the best of what already exists, and to understand what has not worked in the past), and develop a new process.

In both cases, some redefining of individuals’ responsibilities may be necessary.

We then install the new or improved process. This means educating people in how to use the new or modified process; but this inevitably entails changing the way people do things, so it must include a strong element of ‘selling’ the need for the changes, and demonstrating the advantages of the new process

Finally, we install appropriate metrics and management mechanisms.