Businesses are constantly looking to improve, but there is another axis that makes a much bigger difference. It is present-focused versus future-focused.
Most business actions are primarily focused on the present moment. They tackle the problem at the forefront and survive on reactionary responses. Some may take it a step further and have pre-approved channels to quicken and/or limit potential alternatives.
Few programs shift their focus to the future to tackle larger, systemic problems. They use today as a stepping stone and change their attention to do what is best for the future.
We see this constantly regarding equipment replacement strategies. Check out these examples:
Mission critical forklift goes down and requires major repair.
Present-focused: Repair forklift ASAP, get rental if needed.
Future-focused: Review asset’s history of total cost of ownership and determine replace or repair.
Three (3) plants submit forklift replacement requests to corporate.
Present-focused: Glance at business cases and approve projects.
Future-focused: Perform annual review of all twelve (12) plants in organization to discuss asset lifecycles, business changes, and improvement opportunities.
Need to award lessor from current RFP.
Present-focused: Choose based on lease rates and subsequent lowest payment.
Future-focused: Create desired lease conditions and weighted criteria based on lease rate, lease end conditions, and market differentiators to decide winner.
Corporate initiative to create key performance indicator (KPI) scorecard.
Present-focused: Indicate KPIs to be reported, then send to plants to self-report/police.
Future-focused: Unite entire corporation onto uniform tracking and reporting platform.
All too often corporations take the established path without the curiosity that something better may exist or are content with their situation. Change is hard. Significant change is even harder. Our approach has always been simple to ease that transition.
- Proof of concept to establish value.
- Strategic implementation method for speed and consistency.
- Visible results to accentuate your success.
Understanding your organization’s mindset allows you to remove previous excuses and limitations. Contact us at for an introduction to our program.
