Operations strategy and implementation

An operations strategy should tell every manager what to do on Monday morning. We connect your organisation's goals to choices about capacity, locations, channels and sourcing, then help you put those choices into practice with measures your teams understand.

A framework for delivering results

Many organisations have a corporate strategy and an operations budget, with very little joining them. Decisions about where work is done, by whom and through which channels get made one at a time, often under pressure, and the operation slowly becomes a collection of exceptions. We help you put the joining piece back.

We start by understanding demand: how much arrives, through which channels, how predictable it is and how much of it you created yourselves through errors and delays. From there we look at capacity and cost, the balance of in-house and outsourced work, the role of each site, and how far self-service and automation can sensibly go. The output is a short strategy, usually no more than a dozen pages, with clear choices and the reasons for them.

Implementation is where most strategies stall, so we stay for it. Typical work includes:

  • planning and running a site consolidation or a move to hybrid working;
  • re-letting or bringing back in-house an outsourced service;
  • building workforce plans that match staffing to demand by the half hour;
  • setting a small number of operational measures that the board and the front line both recognise.

Clients typically see unit costs fall by 10 to 20 per cent within two years of implementation, alongside fewer handoffs and steadier service levels. The exact figures depend on where you start, and we will tell you plainly at the diagnostic stage what we think is achievable.

“We had a lot of good ideas and no way to choose between them. Halveron gave us a strategy short enough to remember and clear enough to act on.”

Operations Director, a national insurance provider

Our approach

  1. Understand the demand

    We measure what customers ask for, through which channels and how often they have to ask twice. Demand is the starting point for every later decision about capacity, sites and cost.

  2. Make the choices

    We set out the realistic options for sites, sourcing, channels and automation, with their costs, risks and effect on customers, and help your leadership team choose. A strategy without choices is a wish list.

  3. Plan the move

    Each choice becomes a costed plan with owners, milestones and the measures that will show whether it is working. We test the plan with the managers who will deliver it before it goes to the board.

  4. Make it stick

    We support implementation through the difficult middle months, adjusting the plan as evidence comes in, reporting progress to the board and building the routines your managers will use to keep the operation on course.