Strategy

1. How to Thrive in a Recession
   This article presents ten strategies to thrive in a recession, based on lessons from what successful companies did in the last recession.  (read more)
   
   
2. Funds Management Industry Market Share: Which one to use?
   In performance driven organisations, the pursuit of market share can be a key driver of investment in future business plans. In the funds management industry there are many measures of funds under management and funds under administration published by various independent research houses—each with different definitions of what is included. BDP helps a fund manager determine the most accurate market share measure to use (read more)  (read more)
   
   
3. Making money (for customers and owners) out of a start-up strategy
   Start-ups are often exciting ventures where both organisations and individuals become emotionally committed to success. Energy is directed at buying more time and raising more capital in pursuit of the dream. However, often the more relevant (if difficult) challenge is making the decision to stop investing. BDP shows why this question should be addressed as part of the start-up strategy   (read more)
   
   
4. Rapid business re-design in global investment bank
   Most organisations are comfortable with making incremental improvements to their business plans and processes. But what if incremental change will be too little too late? When radical change is required in order to survive, BDP advocates a methodology which rapidly re-designs business processes. Here we describe how it was applied in a global investment bank  (read more)
   
   

Opportunity Capability

1. Including a Manager-Once-Removed (MOR) approach in Human Resource Management and Development
   This short paper examines the value of fostering strong relationships between Manager’s Once Removed with their Subordinates Once Removed. There are strong benefits both for the well-being of the current organisation and to building the foundation for further strength. (read more)
   
   
2. Achieving high performing cross functional teams!
   Many businesses have a strong sense that teams and teamwork contribute to organisational performance. A strong sense that any situation requiring the real-time combination of multiple skills, experiences and judgements must inevitably get better results than a collection of individuals operating within confined job roles and functions (read more)
   
   

Productivity

1. Assessing the profitability of complex, third-party dependent service relationships
   Many companies provide services to third party agents or client organisations who distribute their products. In doing so, they can expend resources investing in relationships that do not generate significant volumes of business. This poses a major question for those employing this business model: How can account managers ensure that an investment in a service relationship will be profitable? In situations where it is difficult to directly link service provision to business flows, a “sales qualification tool” that models the potential profitability of an account in advance will help. (read more)
   
   
2. Creating a One Piece Flow System in a Service Environment
   This paper sets out a roadmap for creating such a system, based on the Toyota Production System platform and draws on the experience of Business Development Partners project work with Australasian clients. (read more)
   
   
3. Rational Reporting Through Rationalising Reports: Getting More with Less
   When businesses want to track the effectiveness of initiatives to increase profits, contain costs, accelerate sales, improve customer service or reduce process time, they need information. To get that information, they usually rely on their MIS department to provide accurate, timely and useful reports. Some organisations find themselves in a viscous cycle where managers respond to reports that do not meet their needs by requesting more and more reports. This paper looks at how BDP worked with an organisation to adopt a “market-based” view of reporting (read more)
   
   
4. Effective Performance Management: Scorecards and Performance Reporting that Work
   When businesses wish to manage the performance of their staff and ensure they are meeting their KPIs, they need a good performance reporting system that enables them to accurately and objectively track their employee’s performance. BDP explains how (read more)
   
   

Change

1. Process Improvement Labs - Take Stress Out of Change
   Imagine running a process improvement exercise right in the middle of an operational environment out of service level. Should you start? If so, where? How do you get the right focus to improve things when all around you people are stressed, doing excessive overtime, and reacting to the next urgent request? The answer is in the establishment of a process improvement laboratory within your existing operations. This paper sets out the merits of such an approach, pitfalls to be avoided and how to make this work. (read more)
   
   
2. Changing a change program to make it deliver results
   Why is it that organisations struggle to get out of their own way? Our client had embarked on a major change program, part of which was a strict governance methodology. So strict in fact that it required a major investment in time and effort for a change initiative to meet it. Further the focus was on actions taken rather than quality of output. Why bother tracking achievement of milestones for a project that is destined to fail? BDP worked with the client to refocus the governance efforts on assessing the value and probability of future benefits (read more)
   
   

Featured Work

1. What's your boss for?
   Dilbert characterises a boss as someone who assigns meaningless tasks and passes down blame. BDP says getting your relationship with your boss right is the biggest single boost to enjoyment and productivity at work (read more)
   
   
2. Weighted Average Cycle Time: Why, What, and How?
   One of the key factors cited when customers rate organisations' service performance is responsiveness—how quickly their request is dealt with. Improving response time can also boost sales, as turnover is faster. So, how do you improve responsiveness? The focus should be on Cycle Time (read more)
   
   
3. Operations Triage: Part 1
   The variation in quality of input to operational processes is the biggest driver of performance in operating businesses. Learn how to get better value (e.g. higher customer satisfaction) out of your processes (read more)
   
   

Featured Reviews

1. Carbon pricing to cost SMEs dearly
   New data shows that small businesses will face higher costs from carbon pricing even if they do suffer from an apparent lack of understanding about this issue........Australian Financial Review article by Mark Fenton-Jones (read more)
   
   
2. The Toyota Way
   The Toyota Way, 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer is a “way of life” for operations management. Based on the Toyota Production System and Lean Production, the 14 principles cover all aspects of a world class operation. (read more)
   
   
3. In Praise of Hierarchy
   In Praise of Hierarchy is a Harvard Business Review classic article written by Elliott Jaques in 1990. (read more)
   
   
4. The 21st Century Organisation
   BDP reviews The 21st Century Organisation, by Bryan and Joyce from McKinsey & Company. (read more)
   
   
5. Vroom-Yetton Normative Decision Making Model
   BDP reviews the Vroom-Yetton Normative Decision Making Model. (read more)
   
   

Featured Links