Emergency room (ER) physicians constantly make critical decisions with limited information and under extreme time pressure. What separates best-in-class ER physicians from the pack is that they not only “do the right things,” but also “do things right.”
Similar to ER physicians, senior executives often find themselves pressured to drive savings under a tight timeline. Specific challenges might involve delivering against an aggressive post-merger target; bracing for a worse-than-expected economic downturn; or enabling a rapid enterprise-wide transformation where early wins become the critical change catalyst. Companies often leverage an enterprise wide procurement transformation to seek efficiency and cut cost. However, a systematic procurement initiative can often take well over a year to fully execute and deliver P&L impact.
Executives seeking to achieve rapid and high-impact benefits through their procurement initiatives should embrace three key takeaways from best-in-class ER physicians who both “do the right thing” and “do things right” in a hectic, time-pressured environment.
Expressed as business imperatives, these takeaways are:
- Adapt your sourcing strategy to account for time pressure complexity.
- Leverage benefit-acceleration tactics.
- “Shock” and mobilize the internal organization to drive sustainable transformation.
Michael Hu | BCG 