Enterprise Wide Innovation

Organisational transformation is often only ever applied to the 'operational' part of a business, for example - in the factory for manufacturers or the delivery floor for call centres. However, true organisational transformation relies on making significant change to value streams and these cut across organisations. For example, to satisfy an order, a company will have a receipts function, an order fulfillment process, a despatch service and an invoice activity - which cuts right through the business. However, by applying improvement tools to only part of the organisation means that the improvement potential is never fully realised - meaning lost opportunity and aiding transformation 'burn out' (the process where a company becomes fed up with change because they feel that they have not achieved enough).

With over 85% of change programmes failing to achieve sustainable results, the failure of many can be squarely laid at the inability of the organisation to address the entire value stream. Don't let yours go that way!

Sustaining lean

Lean is not just about improvements in the factory but about improvements across the business and it is widely recognised now that organisations need to expand their improvements across the enterprise if they are to realise the full value of the improvements and to focus on the organisation's leadership style and culture if they want those improvements to be sustainable.

Look out for my "Sustaining Lean" handbook - details to follow soon!

Meet Mark Eaton

Mark Eaton MSc MBA CEng MIEE FIOM FRSA
Mark is an expert in rapidly transforming complex organisations in the Health Sector, as well as Manufacturing, Public Sector and Armed Forces.

Mark is a Chartered Engineer, having started his career designing highly complex electronic equipment, before taking up a number of senior operational roles in blue chip companies. Latterly, Mark was Director of a major UK trade association and Director of the DTI’s Advisory Service in London and the South East, delivering improvement programmes which have benefited clients and returned to them benefits valued in the hundreds of millions.

Mark’s expertise and commitment was recognised in 2004 when he was awarded the Viscount Nuffield Medal for his contribution to UK Industry. Mark is also an accomplished speaker and writer on topics related to leading and sustaining rapid change in complex environments.

Mark holds an MSc in Advanced Systems along with an MBA. Professionally, Mark is a Member of the IET and chairs the Manufacturing Network and a Fellow of both the IOM where he chairs their Operations Development Panel, as well as being a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.