The Real Cost of Inefficiency

Businesses typically sell a product or service that the end customer needs or wants. The profitability comes when the business is able to sell for more than what it costs to produce. This is of course an overly simplified view, but the basic premise remains the same regardless of company size, offering, industry or sector.


On paper (targets, plans and forecasts) it can all look pretty straightforward. In reality, there are endless variables, a dozen processes, several departments and anywhere from tens to hundreds of people involved to reach the end result.


So, what happens when:

The predictions aren’t right

The expected timelines are exceeded

The results are inadequate

The firefighting of any mistakes made eats up valuable time and resources

And when inefficiencies creep in?


The initial profit often quickly turns into operating cost to finish the project, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard of businesses finishing a project at a loss because they were contractually bound to the client.


The commitment to finishing is applaudable…finishing at a loss is anything but. Driving up efficiency in an organisation is essential to keeping it profitable. And, let’s face it: your involvement as a manager isn’t scalable or replicable. Your watchful eye may help run a smooth operation now, but what happens when the company grows to the point where you can’t keep an eye on everything? More importantly, what happens to the business when you want to set up a second business that demands your time, want to reduce your hours, or go on holiday (and answering emails and calls while on the beach is not a holiday!)?


The Kaizen system and strategies that we use with over 700 businesses in the UAE help business owners, c-level executives and senior management teams leverage their time and do “ever more with ever less”. Reducing the time and resource wasted in firefighting, overcoming obstacles to efficiency and creating systems and structure that are scalable are some of the goals we work towards.


If you’d like to see how this can work for you, get in touch and reserve an initial free business coaching session. Most business owners and team leaders haven’t been coached before, which is why the first session is always free: to give you value first, and then see if this is something you’d like to continue.