Business Efficiency For Dummies

Learn to: Run your business more effectively and efficiently Save time and money Audit your company's accounting procedures Employ proven time management, organizational, and motivational techniques Proven tools and techniques to improve your business efficiency In today's competitive environment, it's the businesses with the right set of tools and technologies that succeed, rather than get ahead, while others are left in the dust. Business Efficiency For Dummies provides you with practical, useful information on how to run a more effective business — while saving time and money in the process. Business Efficiency 101 — find out what sorts of returns business efficiency can have for your organization and get a detailed overview of popular efficiency-enhancing methodologies Your efficiency toolkit — measure where you are now, brainstorm and recognize inefficiencies in your organization, and understand how making a change in one corner can have huge effects on another An efficiency roadmap — get your creative juices flowing on process automation opportunities in multiple areas, complete with step-by-step instructions for many of the highest-yield improvements out there Effective change management — discover how to enhance personal efficiency — something every employee can benefit from — and get the tools to generate and execute efficient project plans in your everyday work lives Open the book and find: Ways inefficiency negatively impacts your business Information on Six Sigma, Lean, and Balanced Scorecard Strategy How to identify, address, and measure success The most common efficiency analyses Business efficiency checklists Example scenarios and what they tell you Means of enhancing customer service, human resources, sales, manufacturing, and more

Introduction 1 Part I: Business Efficiency Basics 7 Chapter 1: Business Efficiency 101 9 Chapter 2: Unfolding Your Efficiency Roadmap 23 Part II: Making Strides Toward Efficiency 33 Chapter 3: You Are Here: MeasuringWhere You Stand 35 Chapter 4: I Thought I Saw a Bad Habit: Hunting Down Inefficiencies and Their Solutions 55 Chapter 5: Efficiency on Impact: Understanding the Ripple Effect of Change 71 Chapter 6: To Efficiency . . . and Beyond: Getting Where You Want to Be 83 Chapter 7: Efficiently Executing Your Efficiency Plan 97 Part III: Increasing Operational Efficiency 113 Chapter 8: Channeling Henry Ford: Process Automation 115 Chapter 9: The Bottom Line: Financial Efficiency 129 Chapter 10: Effi ciency, at Your Service 145 Chapter 11: Ready, Aim, Hire: Human Resources Efficiency 175 Chapter 12: Streamlining Your Sales Process 199 Chapter 13: Up to My Gears in Effi ciency: Manufacturing Efficiency 223 Part IV: Increasing Employee Efficiency 237 Chapter 14: I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change: Change Management 239 Chapter 15: Before You Get Hit by a Bus: Knowledge Capture and Transfer 251 Chapter 16: Fine–Tuning Internal Communication 267 Chapter 17: Helping Employees BeMore Effi cient 287 Chapter 18: Holding Effective Meetings and Events 313 Chapter 19: Painless Project Management 339 Part V: The Part of Tens 359 Chapter 20: Ten Areas Ripe for Efficiency Improvement 361 Chapter 21: Ten Efficiency Best Practices 367 Chapter 22: Ten Hidden Hurdles to Overcome in Pursuit of Efficiency 373 Index 379

Marina Martin is the owner of The Type–A Way, a business efficiency consulting firm focusing on cost reduction and job satisfaction enhancement through innovation and automation. She regularly conducts one–on–one and small group trainings.