Operations
The bottleneck you fixed is now in a different department
Capacity was added where the pressure was loudest, lead times barely moved, and the constraint quietly relocated to the function least equipped to notice it.
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Leadership
Two weeks away is a test of the schedule, not the business
A fortnight without the owner tests the tasks that happen weekly. The things that actually make a business fragile happen…
Operations
Growth in your largest account is a funding request
When a big customer asks to double its volume, the cash leaves before the revenue arrives, and most of it…
Operations
The month was decided before the accounts arrived
Most management reporting is engineered for accuracy at a cadence that guarantees it can influence nothing. Closing faster is only…
Operations
The contract you renewed by doing nothing
Every supplier agreement has a short window where the price is negotiable and a long stretch where it isn't, and…
Technology
The integration you skipped became a job description
Connecting two systems has a price. Not connecting them has a price too. It just arrives as a hire rather…
Operations
The role that answers the phone won’t build the system
Six months on, the process improvement still doesn't exist, and the person you gave it to has never been busier.…
Pricing
The rebate that chose your product mix
A retrospective supplier rebate is not a discount. It is a step function, and once you are near the step,…
Growth strategy
The jobs your partner keeps
Referral revenue usually looks like the cheapest work you win. The reason it delivers worse than it sells is decided…
Operations
You paid for the junior in senior hours
Adding a person to relieve your most constrained employee usually makes them more constrained first, and the bill is paid…
Take it further
This is the general pattern. Your business is the specific case.
Everything here is free to read with an account, and always will be. What it cannot do is tell you which of these applies to your numbers, your market and your constraints. That is the work we do with clients.