Introduction
Growth requires a change in the way things are done to perform better. In other words, growth requires raising Performance. The need for performance is ever-growing as expectations for pace grow. The next logical step is continuously raising Performance, or… Performance as a Service.
The Phases of Growth – What’s changed in the last 50 years?
Most companies reach a plateau in their growth at some stage. They are over the ‘we’re trying to survive’ phase and are trying to maintain success and grow. There is a lot of research business growth and the phases haven’t changed a lot in the last 50 years. What has changed is the pace companies are going through those phases and, accordingly, expectations as to the pace. It was interesting to read this 40-year old Harvard Business Review research. To me, it shows how little has changed in the way businesses evolve.
Fueling Growth – What Are The Options?
The question those companies typically face is how to maintain growth. There are several typical answers, let’s look at a few of the most common ones:
- Acquisition – a company can use free cash to acquire other companies and integrate them into the operating model
- Transformation – a company can hire a consulting firm and start an internal transformation project
- Organic change – a company can inspire change and support its internal staff in achieving more
This article is about our approach to combine organic change with external transformation. It is about how using Performance as a Service solves those problems. I will cover acquisitions in a separate discussion.
Internal Transformation – Getting Different Results from the Same People
When companies consider transforming a part of their operations or the entire company they would either try to inspire this internally using the existing staff or would hire an external consulting firm to help drive that.
Internally inspired transformation has an obvious drawback. The company is trying to get different results from the same people who were doing the job before. The existing staff’s knowledge, tools and processes need a step change. Otherwise, it is very unlikely that the same staff ever generates different results.
Traditional Transformation – an Expensive, Open Ended Project
When companies hire a consulting firm, they would typically have to pay the cost of the consultants with some massive upfront costs that has nothing to do with the actual results the consultants can propose.
As the name suggests, consultants can only provide ideas and recommendations. They are not accountable for implementing their ideas or if their recommendations are ignored or misinterpreted. They get paid in any case. The worst case for them is that they lose a customer (which happens very often).
The Ideal Transformation
The ideal transformation should have the following components:
- External expertise that can bring in thought leadership on performance, processes, tools and innovative optimization
- Coach the existing staff, inspire them and engage them.
- Record the best practices used by the existing staff and optimize it.
- The external experts stay engaged with your team until actual results are delivered.
- The external experts certify your existing team to generate those results on their own.
- You pay only when actual savings start showing up on your balance sheet. The company basically pays only a part of its actual savings. Looking at your P&L, you’ll only see the overall costs go down
- This engagement is sustainable. If your team deviates from the results they need to deliver, your external partners are stepping in to correct that.
Introducing Performance as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS answer all the components of the ideal transformation by design. It is a subscription-based service that delivers lean transformation raising Performance in a way never envisioned before.
The FlowNow certified experts join your business operations. They take on the role of the day to day front line management alongside the existing staff. They start deploying standard lean tools and processes, documenting the internal knowledge, formalizing it and optimizing it. Your existing staff starts performing at the level of your top performer in a matter of days.
The FlowNow experts are engaged throughout, and coach your leadership chain on sustaining those results.
In a matter of a few short weeks you’ll witness significant changes in the performance of the teams. You’ll be able to free up capacity to re-invest in the business.
We deliver actual savings to your monthly P&L. That is when you share a portion of those with the FlowNow team.
We are confident we can deliver sustainable, repeatable results. We will literally work at no cost if we fail to deliver.
The FlowNow service is a subscription and will typically be for at least 24 months. During this time, you will have free access to the FlowNow experts. They will ensure the results delivered are sustainable. By the end of each month there will be a formal review of the actual results delivered.
If we fail to achieve results, which is very unlikely, your won’t pay for the monthly subscription. In other words, the service pays for itself.
Read more about the FlowNow methodology here: FlowNow Methodology
Want to know more about PaaS?
Read our service offering here: FlowNow Services
Please visit our FlowNow Website or reach out via contact@flownow.work
Thanks for reading and please leave your thoughts
One thought on “Performance as a Service (PaaS) – Simplifying Growth”