Timothy Ducat

In today's competitive economy, a couple of margin points can mean the difference between staying in the saddle or closing the doors. It's also true that serving our clients with faster response times and impeccable quality can turn the tide from losing to gaining market share! Let's begin with a few personal questions. Can you imagine cutting at least 20% of your company's costs, lead time, and errors? Are you unsure how to get the most out of your team; frustrated that they don't think and perform like you when dealing with various company or customer issues? Be honest. If this is your mindset, you're probably limiting your company's potential, since effective leadership involves building an elite team that performs better than we would by simply cloning ourselves- along with our limitations and blind spots. To be frank, 20% is a conservative prediction of the benefit available to nearly any company. When viewed from 40,000 feet, every company is a system comprised of several sub-systems; basically a group of related processes. Sometimes, we have an inherent ability to see and understand these 'value streams'​ coursing through our business. They combine to define most of the activities regularly done by our employees and suppliers as they interact to satisfy customer demand. In the best companies, these key processes exhibit an easily identifiable 'flow'​ and a clear sense of teamwork and execution focus. Unfortunately, most companies don't define their processes well enough for others to 'see'​ them and be on the same page. This lack of shared understanding is crippling. Moving that information require people, machines, and technology to be in sync. Organizations need to know their business model – the overall framework and key processes flowing through the company - to enable high-level performance and provide the necessary stable foundation for future progress. Smart Technologies'​ SmartSuite is your ticket to knowing and understanding how to work Smart.