Kelvin Cross

Founder

Cross-Rhodes

http://cross-rhodes.com

Kelvin Cross is a founding partner at Cross-Rhodes Management Consulting, LLC., a 18-year-old operations improvement consulting firm.

After obtaining a degree in psychology, and a masters degree in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research, Kelvin has spent his career delivering results by rethinking and redesigning how work gets done.

In over 100 projects Kelvin has cut costs, cut cycle time, improved quality, delivery, and service performance – simultaneously; for organizations such as: Prudential, AT&T, Microsoft, PG&E, Zipcar, ACS-Xerox, CIBC, HSBC, GE Capital, TeleTech, State of Missouri, Denver Public Schools.

His project work has encompassed strategic planning, business and operations planning, customer experience design, and workflow improvements in all core business processes (new product development & launch, IT processes, customer acquisition, service and product order-to-delivery, customer service/support/care, etc.)

Kelvin has authored over 60 articles and 4 business books (with a fifth book, Deengineer the Corporation, in the works)

Thanks to the topsy-turvy economy, there is an ever-growing need to make more out of less by optimizing processes at the core of the business, especially where doing so enables agility and innovation. Beneath the surface of every organization is a burning desire to be the innovator of the future, but historically the reality for many is that this never happens because of the fear of the upheaval created by process optimization. Before the dot com era, a radical reinvention of business processes, known as business process reengineering (BPR), was the “in” trend, but the outcomes were poor. Subsequent advances in technology resulted in automation of processes regardless of the burdens placed on operators. Recent interest in business process management (BPM) may have resulted from reports by the Tech CEO Council referenced by Colin Johnson in an article in smarttechnology.com, “Business process waste in Fortune 500 companies topped $480 billion per year. The public sector lost even more, $1.3 trillion, according to the McKinsey & Company Government Reform Report.” Faisal Hoque noted in an article in cioupdate.com that there are three types of innovation: business model, business process and product; studies showed model innovation created best value for money. He also recommended four key steps to promote agility: “Translate business model requirements, assess the value of existing processes, analyze process gaps, and develop functional requirements.” Many analysts believe it is necessary to visualize processes in order to establish a “to-be” state before looking for ways to improve or refine the process model. According to the author of the Gartner Report referenced on ebizq.net, businesses that fail to prepare have no baseline from which to measure improvement and lack the communication channels necessary to monitor progress and appreciate the value of optimization. Process optimization is a work in progress that requires constant evaluation to create a competitive advantage. As for the future it is likely that business process management will be driven totally by technology. To turn this trend into an advantage for your company, consider the following. Being process driven allows for rapid growth. Bad processes, however, mean bad outcomes. Processes and optimization are not one size fits all. Finely tuned processes leave more time for innovation. Lastly, not every aspect of business should be process driven.