The first time I heard the expression “Best Practices”, my first thought was that if you implement best practices, the best you can be is second best.
Most organisations are willing to become leaders in their respective markets. Few have what it takes to lead. It requires a vision, being innovative and walk the unknown.
Of course, it is not about doing everything differently, but neither is always following what others have already done. If you follow what others have done before you, they are the leaders, and the best that you can be is second best.
To take the lead, you need to build your Next Practices.
The next practices magic triangle is built by tried-and-true practices that can hardly improve, desired practices that you have already envisioned and new ones you thought were impossible. People are key to transforming an organisation, and a leading company is to bring pioneers to their ranks to succeed. Technology, the right one, is fundamental to enable the optimal combination of next practices.
Every organisation recruits the people that fit with its personality at any stage. What used to work for a previous organisational stage might not be helpful for a new stage. It is key to constantly analyse our team and identify if any members are not a great fit anymore. Some can be reconverted for their attitude is the correct one. Others, with the wrong attitude, will have to leave the organisation.
Technology behaves similarly. Models that worked in the past might not be the right ones for the future. As painful as it is to let someone very valuable go, it is to change the technology the company has relied on. Prolonging the inevitable damages the company, those who should leave and those who should remain.
The 2016 Global Industry 4.0 Survey by PwC, a global consultancy firm, already states this fact: “Existing ERP systems do not have full capabilities to handle the more advanced business intelligence and foresight that needed in the Industry 4.0 era.”
The solution, as researchers from the University of Bordeaux said “The EOS is the alternative to ERP and precondition for Enterprise 4.0” which is a fully configurable enterprise software that enables integrated beginning-to-end business processes capable of supporting all the tried-and-true, long-desired and now-possible variants that the organisations need today and tomorrow to fulfil their mission and thrive.
Gartner, an IT market analysis firm, envisions the “Composable ERP” as the solution to this problem in five to ten years. Albeit, the EOS is available now and is much more than configurable and extensible.
Stop being second best. Take the lead and build your optimal combination of Next Practices today, the answer is in you
Rafael Funes
Chairman of LOVIS
