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Process Management & Organisation

Sustainable processes and organizational structures are key elements of the operating model.

Process Management

Business operations can be transparently visualized through process mapping. Process thinking simplifies the analysis and optimization of internal procedures and the holistic illustration enables improved cross-functional collaboration and communication. Process management provides information about a variety of starting points for leveraging potentials, such as in terms of quality, cost and time. Process and related data analysis are, for example, a first step in identifying possibilities for cost reductions and process efficiencies. Process management thus supports businesses in realizing their business strategy.
Process transparency is particularly also essential for ensuring the consideration of sustainability aspects in companies’ business models. To derive sustainability measures, it is important to processually understand the value chain and to identify potential deficits compared to the strategic targets. The derived measures then are subject to be implemented through processual and structural amendments.

Organisation Management

Today’s organizations need to be able to quickly adjust to changing business environments and customer demand. Additionally, the intrinsic motivation of employees plays an increasingly important role for being a competitive employer. The organizational structures of many companies date back to the postindustrial age, and often don’t fit to the current requirements.
These requirements also need to be considered when anchoring sustainability in business structures. This includes, besides an active involvement of the management board, an amendment of the central governance structures, in order to ensure a cross-hierarchical and cross-functional realization of sustainability topics.
As part of organization management, appropriate structures, responsibilities, incentive systems, reporting and communication channels need to be defined and integrated. A review of the governance structures should thereby reach beyond the own company boundaries and consider impulses from interacting with external stakeholders such as customers and suppliers.
With regard to sustainability, dedicated committees, action teams and responsibilities can support the management board to realize its sustainability targets. To meet the requirements of today’s organizations, also innovative organizational concepts such as Holacracy and collective intelligence should be taken into consideration. Particularly for start-ups and young enterprises as well as for progressively thinking established companies, holacracy can be a useful concept for thinking through completely new structures.