PREAMBLE

Various business aspects are considered, with a focus on people as the main and most sustainable source of competitive advantage. Additional aspects such as process improvement, business model, product and marketing mix are also considered.

Based on analysis of customer needs, culture and environement, we can utilize the traditional Waterfall approach or the Agile methodology for achieving Performance Improvement

The Waterfall model is a more traditional project management methodology that involves upfront investment in researching and analyzing all possible aspects of the issue, comparing various solutions, selecting what is deemed the optimum course of action and then implementing the final solution. This approach may be a straightforward sequential process, or a more sophisticated manifestation like Shell Oil Company Opportunity Realization Process, with decision gates and feedback loops. The main feature of this approach is presenting a final solution at the end of the process.

The Agile methodology is a more modern approach spearheaded by tech startups with roots in software development, which entails gathering a rapid, best possible understanding of the customer needs, making a series of assumptions, and rapidly producing a prototype solution that is pushed to the customer for trying out. It is expected that the prototype will have shortcomings, and the cycle is then repeated to refine the solution, either incrementally or through pivoting the strategy, depending on the fit to customer needs and requirements. A larger scale and more generic manifestation of this approach is the GE Fastworks methodology.

Read Less