Optimize Now (or Else!)

Book excerpt: Companies are often their own worst enemies. We work in disconnected functional and geographic silos, making it impossible to achieve end-to-end effectiveness. We struggle to make optimal decisions due to our overwhelming lack of quality information. In Optimize Now (or else!), David Fisher identifies the source of many of these problems and attacks them at their core. He explores the critical importance of processes and information that represent both the root of our problems and our greatest opportunity for dramatic improvement. He introduces new leadership in the Chief Process and Information Officer and the Process and Information Department, and specifies how to position these roles for enterprise-wide success. He further introduces the Enterprise Optimization Framework, an innovative, metric-driven decision-making framework, to ensure decisions are no longer based on "gut feel" but rather on quantitative expected outcomes. Finally, he explores the do's and don'ts of outsourcing and information technology with specific guidance on how these resources can be utilized to advance end-to-end optimization. It's time to put an end to our own misery. It's time to follow the path toward Enterprise Optimization, and avoid the downward spiral to Enterprise Extinction. Survival is at stake. We must Optimize Now (or else!).