article thumbnail

Before Automating Your Company?s Processes, Find Ways to Improve Them

Harvard Business Review

For one recruitment-process-outsourcing client, consultants found that the existing process involved the same data being checked by several teams in different countries. Having started its Lean Six Sigma journey almost five years ago, ADP saw RPA as the obvious next step in its journey to drive efficiency.

Process 12
article thumbnail

How Big Companies Beat Local Competition in Emerging Markets

Harvard Business Review

A Unilever R&D team in India first developed and introduced the countertop product, which includes innovative four-stage germ kill technology, in Chennai, India in early 2005. PureIt became a grand market success in India, winning a Golden Peacock Innovative Product/Service Award and acclaim in UNESCO's Water Digest.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

What Government Should Relearn from Business (And It's Not Efficiency)

Harvard Business Review

Public variants of outsourcing were pushed as part of George W. American business remains the country's most vibrant source of innovation. Lean Six Sigma , which even made its way into a candidate pledge in the last presidential campaign , is one in a series of such business-to-government waves.

article thumbnail

GE’s Culture Challenge After Welch and Immelt

Harvard Business Review

Accordingly, Jack Welch’s drive to Six Sigma involved an intense focus on controlling costs, quality, and execution on both the infrastructure and behavioral sides (e.g., In the first part of this century, innovation became the priority. The context demanded operational excellence. In fact, we defined growth as a process.

Welch 8
article thumbnail

The 5 Requirements of a Truly Innovative Company

Harvard Business Review

Can you think of any business topic that’s been hotter for longer than innovation? In a McKinsey poll , 94% of the managers surveyed said they were dissatisfied with their company’s innovation performance. And yet when it comes to innovation, the gap between aspiration and accomplishment seems as big as ever.