Enhancing the Corporate Intelligence
By: Osmar Barbosa- Metrics Systems General Director, author from book: Sell, Control, Improve, a general view of cost and production management on printing industry (available in Cultura bookstore)
Intelligence as quality perceived in the behavior
The intelligence study is an extremely wide field, which has intrigue scientists in the search to understand what can be consider an "intelligent" behavior and how the process of developing this capacity occurs.
The psychologist Howard Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligences, identifying seven different intelligences: logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, musical, cinematic, intrapersonal and interpersonal. More recently, Gardner has expanded its concept by adding to the list naturalist intelligence and existential intelligence.
According to Gardner, we have to evaluate the intelligence in various fields of behavior: an individual can be a brilliant mathematician, but with communication difficulties. A sportsman has a cinematic high intelligence, but may have difficulties in their personal relationships. And so on. It should be noted of course that the human will be more complete as they develop intelligence in several fields.
Intelligence is directly linked to the ability to think, plan, organize, solve problems, learn from experience and learn fast. Last resort, the intelligence is judged by the results arising from the behavior manifested by the people, is a proof, either in life as a whole.
Corporative Intelligence
A company is a social organism, which also features behavior, acts and reacts to situations, adapts, evolves and seeks to gain a place of importance in the market and in society.
The quality of the results presented by the company is directly linked to Corporate Intelligence in your organization. And as human, the company also presents multiple intelligences: technological, financial, trade, production, organizational / managerial and social / environmental. When we talk about Corporate Intelligence, we are referring to the company's ability to generate good results in all these areas, learning from experience, adapting and evolving every day.
People are fundamentals to any organization, because in people live all the creative potential and energy to achieve results. However, the company is more than people; it's also a complex set of relationships, material and virtual resources, organization forms, action strategies and behaviors, which give it a unique personality.
Automation and Process Improvement
Who has had the experience of learning to drive a car must remember the initial difficulties: think before every move, slow to operate the controls, without considering the times when the vehicle appears to have "own life." With years and experience, the behavior is automated. We simply drive, at the same time we think about other things, talked, etc.. The automated behavior released our conscious mind to work on other issues, while allowing us to continue to drive, and even better. At this point we can say: I LEARNED TO DRIVE.
In companies occurs a similar process: there are many tasks that must be done frequently and consume time and resources. Initially the execution of the work requires a great management effort, so that the objectives are met, the quality is adequate, the customer is served and the costs are within acceptable standards. While managers are involved in controlling the execution, his mind has no room for the company's strategic issues. It's like learning to drive phase.
As time passes and experience accumulates, the company should prioritize the creation of stable processes, documented and automated. This is extremely important that the work has continued within defined standards, and managers can be devoted to optimize the results as a whole.
Is possible to say that the company has LEARNED, when a process reaches a level of maturity where operational activities are carried out almost automatically, while maintaining standards of quality and efficiency, without requiring much effort to manage.
Knowledge Management and Application of Expert Systems
The knowledge of "how to do well" is a great patrimony of the organization, and also a major challenge: how to register, maintain and distribute this knowledge to all who need it, so that this knowledge is owned by you?
To illustrate this point let's take an example from the printing world: the preparation of an estimate. This is a process that involves great technical knowledge of production processes, costs, and also to sales strategies. Obviously a person can prepare an estimate with a calculator or even "head".
However, what happens if two people do the same calculation? The values will be the same? If a professional is transferred, the work quality will be maintained? How to prepare new professionals?
A system expert in estimate can be a great tool for knowledge management. For this the system must be capable of storing and standardize the criteria used by the company in the definition of production routes, in the cost composition and in selling prices definition. An automated process and mature allows much more productivity to the person that do the estimate, agility, customer service and security for the company.
The same reasoning can be extended to all areas: digital technology and information systems open up great possibilities for companies to automate their processes, focusing on efficiency and cost reduction, but also for the preservation of knowledge and corporate learning.
Example: Metrics IQuote – estimate specialist system. The system creates automatically the best production script, based on rules previously defined by the company.
Managers Role
The essential function of the manager is "making decisions", setting goals and implementing corrective actions by evaluating the results.
As greater the maturity and automation of processes, more condition will have the manager to focus the attention in strategic decision for the business.
The implementation of automated systems for execution and operational process control also brings a great benefit to the management: the creation of a database that allows you to extract indicators the efficiency of different areas. This information organized and presented as graphs and summary reports, are increasingly important to improve the quality of managerial decisions.
Example: Metrics OEE – system with efficiency indicators of production in a period.
Conclusion
The Corporate Intelligence is a quality that is present in all organizations, through people and processes.
The awareness that there is intelligence that allows us to improve the way we understand and manage the company: we should give importance to corporate learning, stability and process automation, the preservation of knowledge. With this managers attention will be focused more on strategic issues and the organization future.
