“End to End” or “Start to Finish”? Purpose is the Answer . . .

I met friends old and new at this week’s Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Autumn conference in Amsterdam.

A little struggle to get flights home, due to a Northern European storm, but I hope everyone ended up in the right place today!

The conference had a major focus on “delivering business value”, “end to end” and, of course, Agentic AI (what else?).

My one comment (for today) on Agentic AI is this . . .

“The potential of AI ( Agentic or otherwise) will not be realised if we do not reimagine and redesign the end-to-end business processes across the enterprise” – not just the workflows in GBS for a few percent of internal productivity gain . . .

Steve Fox and I ran a workshop, both fun and thought-provoking,  on delivering business value through “end to end processes”.

Thanks to everyone that participated.

Once again, I was struck by the ambiguity of the English language.

Even the word “process”, for example, means different things to different people;

• a series of actions or steps
• the activities to produce any desired result
• a visual representation such as a flowchart or map
• a system workflow
• a job role
• a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to document the work entailed in a job role
• a series of cross functional activities that produces an outcome, service or product of value to an economic customer

And even “end to end” is ambiguous. Everything (except a circle 😉) has at least two ends.

Those for whom English is a second language often ask me why we use the term, ”end to end” rather than “start to finish”?

Fair point !

Whichever term you use, this “end to end” opportunity is key.

A GBS service that manages and executes invoice capture to supplier payment has two ends, therefore it is “end to end”.

But it is not what we describe as an “end to end business process”.

Why?

We have to “zoom out” and take a helicopter view of the core value of the business activities to our customers and shareholders/stakeholders.

The workshop stimulated some great discussion on this both during the session and in subsequent conversations.

We touched on “purpose”.

It got us thinking and talking.

Herman Weber reminded me about “Why?” and “purpose” quoting the famous conversation between JFK and the cleaner/janitor at NASA.

President John F. Kennedy, during a 1962 visit to NASA, reportedly asked an office cleaner what they did for a living. The cleaner replied, “I’m helping to put a man on the moon”.  

A still wonderful illustration of shared mission and the “broader purpose of our work”.

The example was about a job role. Why don’t we apply the same thinking to our business processes?

THAT leads us to the definition of “end to end business process”.  

Ask yourself, “what is the broader/bigger purpose of the core business process(es) that I participate in, lead or support?”

This seems like a powerful way to determine what the “start” and “end” of a truly “end to end business process” should be.

A powerful “end to end business process” has meaning and reflects business PURPOSE for the executives, shareholders, stakeholders, employees and business partners. These “end to end business processes” include the brand & product cycle, customer, revenue, supply chain, people and talent and so on.

This is nothing to do with “Ownership” but ALL about stimulating “Value Creation”.

Food for thought.

If this is a topic that resonates, you can request a copy of the materials from this week’s workshop here . . .

We also discussed the need for a high “Execution Quotient” or “XQ” (credit to Deborah Kops) to deliver on the business value opportunities from “end to end business processes” at speed.

“End to end business processes” are a GOLD MINE of VALUE, P&L and Working Capital impact.

Speed is key. Business value has a half-life. 100 Day Plans, as described in the workshop,  are the living embodiment of XQ.

As one example of genuine business value at speed, our benchmarks indicate that global businesses have a value equivalent to at least 0.07% of revenue ($7m for every $1bn of revenue) hidden in stale Balance Sheet liabilities that should be reversed into the P&L, both reducing costs and enhancing Working Capital in one stroke.

That is just one Quick Win for your 100 Day Plans.

You can also watch or listen to a 15 minute conversation with Michael van der Ploeg, who has a rare role as both VP of Global Business Services AND Corporate Controller at Amway, on the topic of “end to end business processes”, “Outside-In” and “Think like a CFO” here . . .  

“End to End” or “Start to Finish”? Purpose is the Answer . . .

Thanks for reading . . . .