Successes in Customer Engagement
Litania was interested in zero based budgeting, which the CEO had proposed to the management team in August 2016. The idea around this was that it would address the company’s desire for aggressive growth in untapped markets. Having done previous work with IMEC, Litania trusted the experts to deliver the training they needed to implement true zero based budgeting which they hoped would result in cost reduction by the end of their fiscal year, September 30, 2017.
IMEC SolutionAfter reflecting on the quality of work IMEC provided in August of 2016 on 80/20 Business Optimization Process training (also referred to as the Pareto Principle), it was a no brainer for Litania leadership to reach out to IMEC a second time. In August 2017 Litania enlisted IMEC to fine tune what they had learned and strengthen its deployment of the 80/20 Business Optimization Process. The training proved to be a success for Litania in 2017, as it was in 2016. For zero based budgeting to be successful, the employees needed to be on board and have a full grasp of zero based budgeting, the 80/20 principle and how it applies. This would allow them to focus more on high profitability projects and not so much on one-off projects. Mary McGrew, VP of Human Resources noted “Once you learn 80/20, it’s kind of hard to go back. You have a new mindset. It’s best to focus on things that are more profitable and don’t spend time on the non-profitable.” The Litania team wanted to keep its focus on the Pareto Principle, customer satisfaction and profitability.
As a result of the 80/20 training for two consecutive years, Litania saw favorable outcomes. They were able to eliminate an entire division because it did not bring value to customers and was therefore not profitable. This allowed leadership to free up resources and make room for more profitable items in other divisions. In addition, the employees responded well to the training. They learned how to work with challenging customers, and as a result are less frustrated.
Results- $54,000,000 anticipated in new and retained sales
- $1,010,000 in new investments in equipment, workforce development and information systems
- Improved customer engagement
- Improved employee engagement