From Silos to Holistic Business Management

A new approach to business transformation and growth is being brought to the Middle East for the first time as The Holistic Enterprise launches its unique management framework to help companies move from ‘Covid to Co-Win’.

Aiming to help the region’s firms bounce back after the turmoil of 2020, the Holistic Business Excellence Framework is based on an established end-to-end management process that has been successfully implemented in companies across Northern Europe since 2012. Delivered by The Holistic Enterprise, a team of business transformation experts, it is specifically targeted at CEOs who want to re-design their organisation to operate more effectively with the same resources, while building resilience to address future threats.

Laura Gerrits-Gedvile, CEO of The Holistic Enterprise said, “The effects of the pandemic are still being felt as many businesses remain in survival or ‘wait and see’ mode, when they could actually be taking positive steps to recover more quickly and build their defences against future challenges.”

Speaking about the benefits of the system, Laura said, “Every business owner dreams of self-regulating teams, allowing them to focus their own time on strategic planning, yet in reality, they are frequently distracted by day-to-day firefighting because of a lack of cohesion across departments. Our holistic approach represents a game-changer for CEOs, by actively breaking down barriers between siloed departments, eliminating the traditional KPI-driven practices, and focussing on the end-to-end system of delivering promises to customers through a visualised and collaborative process.”

Explaining the Covid to Co-Win approach, Laura revealed, “We help companies set up what we call a holistic visual business discipline. This means mapping the end-to-end business process, understanding it from the customer’s perspective, streamlining information flow and decision making, and translating all of this into a visual representation that can be viewed by team members either online or on a physical board.”

She continued, “Visualising the process triggers critical thinking and creativity, which can instantly bring forward improvements in business practices. We then build in a daily management routine involving stand-up meetings that focus on this visual representation, particularly the organisational structure and interconnectedness of functions. This helps to eliminate silos and re-focus priorities to put the customer first, creating a more efficient, quality-driven process that builds long-term business resilience.”

The Holistic Enterprise is already working with organisations in the region, including the CEO Clubs Network UAE. Sarah Dong, the Network’s Executive Director, said, “The Holistic Business Excellence Framework has helped us to organise the team and set goals more effectively. The visual aspect ensures that we are all focussed and well-informed about the whole process and seeing results gives us energy to achieve our mission. As a result, we have improved our business excellence and increased sales, closing a new contract with more in the pipeline after just two months.”

The Holistic Business Excellence Framework is suitable for any sized organisation from any sector and can be delivered entirely through an online interface.