| p>If your business is distressed and you are | | | | without a sales force, but in these dire times, maybe |
| undergoing a turnaround process to save it, you will | | | | you can. In any case, those products and services |
| need to identify and streamline nonproductive | | | | that you identified as losers will lead you to the |
| processes. To accomplish this you will first analyze | | | | internal business processes that you need to |
| the products and services of the organization. These | | | | streamline or remove altogether. |
| will lead you to the unproductive business processes. | | | | You can almost certainly cut the entire catalog |
| If you have ever spent time analyzing an invoice | | | | department because the company can live without a |
| register to identify profitable revenue streams in a | | | | catalog for the next few months or until it can be |
| product-oriented business, a similar logic can be | | | | revisited. |
| applied to the service-oriented business. As you | | | | You may also consider outsourcing the customer |
| identified products that are unprofitable, you will need | | | | service function or having the technical support |
| to identify those services that are unprofitable. | | | | department pick up those additional calls by increasing |
| Business Processes | | | | the wait time on the incoming customer service lines. |
| After you have reviewed the various products and | | | | The information systems department will likely have |
| services and identified the losers and winners, you will | | | | to stay. But this will give you an idea of the process |
| need to look at the individual processes. For this | | | | you will need to undertake. First of all, make a list of |
| discussion, consider business processes to be the | | | | all of these processes. |
| different functions like Customer Service, Information | | | | Then, with your turnaround team, go down the list |
| Systems, Purchasing, Accounting, Sales, Human | | | | and identify those functions you can delete entirely |
| Resources, and so forth. | | | | and those that are core to the business. This process |
| You will need to look at each of these and determine | | | | may sound harsh, but your entire business may be at |
| which of them can be deleted from the business. At | | | | stake so in light of that, it has to be done. |
| first glance, you might think that you cannot live | | | | |