Post C-19 operating model: a project to integrate the key learning experiences

Service companies have taken their part in the common effort of social sanitary protection, by enabling the possibilities of extended teleworking. Yet, the concerns about activity levels are not answered with digital ways of working only; business continuity carries with it the need for operations’ redesign, to prevent break points in processes and maintain value creation.

The aftermath of the crisis will bring all organizations to an intense questioning on its operations: sanitary confinement sheds a cruel light on the limits of our work systems. Yet solutions will emerge as we learn from the crisis and eventually will bring us to more decentralized, more digital, more automated, more robotized organisations.

Measuring the extent of the rollover

Most service activities have been maintained by dematerializing essential activities via digital solutions. In the other cases, the discontinuity can be explained by their nature of on-site activities, or the lack of digital/automation.

In all cases, the tasks necessary for the production have been undermined by the organization’s upheaval. The teams are confronted with procedural breaks, while looking for new reference points. This leads to a deterioration of performance in teleworking mode. On the other end of the spectrum, some on-site activities have self-reinvented with success: tele-diagnostics have allowed to adapt activities, particularly in the insurance, for repairers and in the medical sector, and have allowed dematerialization without harming significantly customer relations or the value of the activity.

The post-Covid era will bring its share of questions -and answers- to companies. Reviewing the performance in crisis mode is expected to bring concrete action points, which can be activated quickly. Indeed, projects initiated to palliate or solve performance issues will most likely be confirmed within a major transformation project, especially if they carry the long-term vision of dematerialization, automation, robotization and digital.

1.     Define the perimeter

In order to integrate the different dimensions of the project, based on the analysis of the impacts in crisis mode, it is necessary to break it down into project streams:

1. Identifying the losses in value, while in degraded mode vs. pre-existing operating model, in order to deploy the roadmap of processes, which generate business value.
2. Building variants of models integrating different degrees of digitization, automation, robotization, while evaluating the value creation, the risk reduction and the investment cost.
3. Reincarnating the corporate culture "off- ground" and reaffirming the place of the human beings in this mode of operation: the company’s purpose remains and its values can be declined to help each employee appropriate his new work context.

2.     Use appropriate governance

With impacts on all processes and all employees, the overall transformation is intended to become a major project. It goes beyond crisis management and has to be managed in line with the company's global strategy.

1. The board must therefore be involved in this project, in particular the heads of Operations, Innovation, Information Systems and Human Resources. Positioned as leaders, they will be able to contribute and monitor the progress.
2. Modern methods of agility and digitalization of project management are the natural methods considering the expectations of collaborators’ strong engagement and the necessary iterations for maximum value creation.
3. Operational teams will take responsibilities for their own processes. In small squads of 5 to 9 people, they are expected to bring along concrete improvement at each cycle of process improvement.

3. Redesigning project monitoring indicators (KPIs)

To carry this project in the right direction, the following aspects should be monitored by activity:

- Current break points: which steps of the activity were stopped because of tangled human interaction? At what steps have we noticed significant loss of performance?

- The current degree of dematerialization: how many steps are performed without physical interaction?

To be compared with:

- Potential for digitization and dematerialization: how many steps can be enriched by new technologies or changes in the ways of working?

- Potential for automation/robotization: how many steps can be performed without human interactions?

Will there ever be a way back to ‘business as usual'? Most of us doubt it. With this conviction carried through the entire organization, employers have to adapt their strategy, and launch impactful projects to support performance plans. On the other hand, employees will come back with legitimate claims on the redesign on their working conditions. These different streams of change will lead to a major company transformation, and it is already time to prepare it.