Leadership and Innovation are essential competencies for organisations to compete successfully in the new business environment. They require different skills and approaches from the past. ACIG can assist you make the move and become an innovative and competitive organisation.
Leadership and Innovation go hand in hand. They do not occur naturally in organisations but ACIG can help you develop an innovation culture and the leadership skills necessary to sustain it.

Vision, values and culture

• We can help you define your vision of what a culture of innovation really means in your organisation.
• We can characterise your current culture and leadership style so that people understand what they have to change.
• We can work with your senior management team to develop an implementation plan to move you to the new culture.
• We can help you develop an environment that will encourage innovation.

Processes that promote innovation

• We can help you develop a system to capture and manage your organisation’s knowledge.
• We can help your organisation become more flexible and respond quickly to new ideas.

Training & development

• We can help your managers develop their leadership skills.
• We can train your management and staff in the techniques of creative thinking and paradigm shifts so that old paradigms are broken and new innovative ideas generated.

Performance measurement

• We can establish a measurement system to track changes in the culture, leadership and innovation and provide feedback on how the organization is progressing.

Organisations, both public and private, recognise the desirability of a sound strategy and business plan. That doesn't mean that all organisations have such plans.  Often, actual strategies and plans are not robustly developed, lack realism, do not dovetail together and lack commitment by the executives.
We provide a reliable, innovative and participatory planning process that can give your organisation a workable blueprint to achieve its objectives and benefits from building the management commitment to make it happen.

Assess current organisational performance

• We can help you obtain a common understanding of where you are now, as a prelude to planning.
• We can conduct a systematic diagnostic of company performance using tools such as ABEF, Baldrige, Sector diagnostic toolkits or Business Victoria diagnostic service scope.
• We can report on the outcome of diagnostics and ensure a common understanding through the use of management workshops and written reports.

Set a clear direction for the company or division

• We can help you set a clear direction so that there is greater focus by personnel on the key things that will produce superior results.
• We can facilitate the development of a business plan including the provision of a customised planning process, short duration timetable, templates for easy use of participating managers and workshops with progressive report back of the plan under development.
• We can facilitate robust debate to achieve practical action plans and simple documentation to assist in communicating key issues and targets to all staff.

Resolve key issues in your business plan

• We can conduct special investigations into specific problem areas and make recommendations which can be input into the corporate business plan.

Financial modelling

• We can build, or help you build, a financial model of the organisation that allows objectives to be quantified and reconciled between one another and with available resources.
• We can identify various planning options and evaluate their outcomes so that the best choice is made.

Win commitment from key personnel

• We can use bottom up-top down planning techniques that allow for contributions by personnel at various levels within the organisation. This may include the facilitation of workshops and focus groups.
• We can ensure that key performance indicators used in planning foster the desired goal achievement behaviour.
• We can advise on recognition and reward issues that will encourage goal achievement.

Certification of your management system by an accredited body can provide an essential competitive edge. An increasing number of customers are nominating management system certification as a mandatory requirement for their suppliers.
We provide a coordinated group of activities designed to support and improve your core operational management functions in the fields of quality, environment, and occupational health and safety. 

Achieve certification

• We can develop and implement management systems that comply with international or industry standards.
• We work with your staff to ensure the system is relevant to the activities of the organisation, cost-effective as a basis for control and performance improvement and owned by all users.

Specialist advice and support

• We provide specialist advice and support to assist you in achieving management system certification efficiently and cost-effectively.
• We assist your staff throughout the entire process using personnel who are well qualified through their national and international activities.

Identify, analyse and resolve quality, environment and OHS problems.

• Our specialist personnel work with your staff, or independently if you prefer, to resolve current problems and to implement preventive and continuous improvement initiatives.
• We bring to your organisation the benefits of our experience in the fields of quality, environment and occupational health and safety.

Operation of your management system

• We can provide specialist personnel to operate quality, environmental or OHS systems within your organisation or as an outsourced function, allowing you to increase your focus on core business activities.

Develop and implement management systems in your supplier base.

• We work with you to develop a core group of suppliers as partners who share your values, performance standards and business objectives.

Assess your systems against recognised standards.

• We can conduct audits and assessments independently or in conjunction with your staff.
• We can assess your system against recognised standards, including self-assessment against the Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF).
• We can provide information on your levels of compliance with the relevant standard, the issues that must be addressed and the opportunities for improvement that will improve your competitive edge.

How well are your people integrated into the improvement process?
There are many areas of improvement that focus on People and which impact the overall performance of an organisation, yet many organisations forget to focus on the key enabling factor of People. 
ACIG can help you maximise the returns you get from your improvement efforts by focusing on your people. 

Strategy & Planning

• We can conduct a People focused diagnostic to identify areas for improvement. The results of the diagnostic can be compared to best practice to identify areas for improvement.
• We can assess the core competencies of your people to ensure they are being effectively used to support the organisational strategy.

Structure

• We can review your organisational structure to ensure that it supports your strategy.
• We can review specific jobs or clusters of jobs and improve the structure for efficiency and effectiveness.
• We can develop systems to involve people and increase levels of ownership.
• We can review the management and supervision of people.

Cultural change

• We can assess the culture of your organisation and determine whether it supports or works against the goals of your organisation.
• We can work with you to develop and implement a cultural change programme.
• Performance management
• We can work with you to develop an action plan to address your people issues.
• We can design and implement systems to help monitor performance of people and put in place a measurement system to measure the success of your improvement actions.
• We can assess people's individual working styles and offer improvements in personal management.

Reward and recognition

• We can help you develop and implement a reward and recognition system.

Training & development

• We can assess the skill needs of the organisation and determine what staff development is needed.
• We can review your professional development system to determine whether people are being professionally developed.
• We can train your managers and other staff in people skills. We can provide specific training to staff in areas such as problem solving and team skills.

Developing and using Key Performance Measures to improve Business Results.
 
Performance measures facilitate better communication of what the business aims to achieve and how it is progressing. When staff have a clear vision of their goals and know how well they are progressing towards them, they are more motivated to achieve their business results. Experience has clearly shown that when performance is quantified, measured and reported, staff achieve higher results.
ACIG provides a comprehensive service for implementing KPMs to improve Business Results. 
 
Define measures consistent with business strategy and imperatives

•  We can define measures that relate to the imperatives of the business. This includes specific business strategies and core "values" as well as the traditional imperatives of profitability, timeliness, quality and customer service. Other emerging imperatives include the environment, risk, innovation and integrity 

Measures are built up in a structure that mirrors the structure of the business. This may be a product structure, or a geographic structure or a structure based upon a process flow.

Collect source data

• We can design the source data collection process so that measures are reported in a reliable, consistent and honest manner. For measures to be effective, they must be trusted. 
• We can define the source data so there is no confusion on what items make up the measure.

Design the reporting style

• We encourage visual graphic reporting, that is targeted to all staff in the business. We have used Microsoft Office products to record actual measurement results, then show the results compared to target in a graphical format that is then distributed to all staff via the business intranet. Special software is not required in a medium size business. 
• We recommend commentary be appended to the KPM explaining the cause of the performance gap, and the action planned to close the gap.

Forecast trends to show the performance gap

• We use "leading" measures to extrapolate current trends and can forecast what might be the results in the future and the significance of the performance gap that needs to be addressed.

Analyse results and determine the best action

• We will train your staff in problem analysis techniques and change management skills. Just because we report a KPM failing, is no assurance that the causal problem will be accurately and quickly identified, nor management action decided upon be actually put in place. Management and staff need the skills of problem analysis, the ability to identify the major causes of poor performance and then take decisive action.

Externalise results to customers, suppliers and investors

• We can develop good measures which have the ability to "bring everyone along on the same path". This means that all stakeholders will have a consistent view of the business goals and the key drivers to achieve those goals.
• Achieving good results for "the boss" is one thing, achieving good results for the customer, suppliers and investor will add a greater dimension to the challenge. Reporting business performance to customers, suppliers and the investment community is becoming "best practice" in line with public accountability, customer relationship management and investor support.

To improve your performance, productivity or profitability the first step is to understand what results you are getting now and why you are getting those results. Do that right and the path to improvement will be a lot clearer.
We can assist you in assessing what happens now, how you compare to others, training your teams to develop an improvement culture and implementing change in your organisation.

Business process re-engineering (BPR)

• We can train your teams to map and analyse processes.
• We can work with you to identify process gaps, non value activities and waste in your business.
• We can assess the impact of alternative processes and recommend appropriate changes.
• We can help you implement changes processes in your organisation.

Benchmark as a prelude to continuous improvement

• We use proven methods to provide guaranteed results.
• We can train your staff in benchmarking, performance measurement and continuous improvement. The skills transfer means that your staff have a greater commitment to change and better opportunities for improvement can be identified.
• We can help you create lasting relationships with benchmarking partners to allow for continuing service improvements.
• We can create a change implementation plan to help you achieve cheaper, faster and better quality products and services and improved customer satisfaction.

Continuous improvement programs

• We can conduct a diagnostic of your business to identify opportunities for improvement and then tailor your program for success.
• We focus on skills transfer resulting in sustainable and repeatable results, committed and capable staff and the retention of capability within the organisation.
• We cascade ‘just in time’ training to ensure that training matches the capacity of the client to absorb. This results in quicker skill base development, lower costs and enhanced commitment by your teams.
• We help you establish a structure and reporting system to ensure successful projects are the norm through well defined goals, roles, accountabilities and timetables.
• We provide concentrated support early in the program to ensure early successes, transfer of skills to staff and effective use of resources.

Survey development

• We can conduct or train you to conduct employee attitude, customer and supplier surveys tailored to your requirements.
• We will use the method most appropriate to your needs. Including interviews, focus groups, web or paper based surveys.
• We can provide expertise in research methods and analysis ensuring that questionnaire content is appropriate and results are statistically valid and reliable.
• We can collect both quantitative and qualitative data and use both to provide information on issues behind the ratings.

Statistical Process Control (SPC)

• We can provide statistics training using your data and industry case studies allowing immediate application of techniques and providing continuing in-house capability.
• We will ensure that behavioural change aspects are considered alongside technical issues resulting in greater acceptance of change.
• We tailor the scope and depth of the technical program to your organisation’s needs.
• We can integrate SPC with quality, environment, OH&S, QS9000 and HACCP systems ensuring a consistency of approach and greater cost effectiveness.

Establishing and maintaining a customer and market focus in your organisation can be a complex process. To start with, customer needs change, the market can change, and your own priorities will change over time.
What about the market you operate in? Do you know enough about what is now expected in that market and what your competitors are up to? Are your customers staying with you, or moving on?
To establish and maintain customer and market focus, some of the tools or approaches we can use to meet your needs follow.

Define & meet your customers' needs

• We can develop and conduct customer surveys that will uncover your customers’ needs.
• We can conduct workshops with your teams to determine the best way to meet those needs.
• We work with you to review processes and manage change in your organisation.
• We can develop key performance indicators and a management reporting system to track your success.

Establish loyalty

• We can develop customer surveys and customer satisfaction measurement systems.
• We can work with you to review your customer contact processes and priorities. It may be appropriate to benchmark your processes with other organisations, in the same and other industries.
• We can work with you to re-establish the vision and values of your organisation with a customer focus.
• We can develop a cultural change programme to drive customer focused values throughout the organisation.

Improve market knowledge

• We can create surveys, analyse results and run workshops to improve your understanding of the market you operate in.
• We can benchmark your services and processes with other organisations in your market.

Offer superior customer service

• We can work with your teams to establish key performance measures that focus on customer contact.
• We can review you processes to ensure that they are consistent with your customer focused vision and values.
• We can benchmark your customer service processes with other organisations, in the same and other industries.
• We can train your teams in customer service skills.
• We can develop a reward and recognition programme that focuses on team and individual performance.

Manage compliments and complaints

• We can review your current processes for encouraging, receiving and responding to compliments and complaints.
• We can help you implement a communicative, resolution focused process to manage compliments and complaints.
• We can develop key performance measures and management reports that allow you to track your success.
• We can benchmark your processes with other organisations across diverse industry groups.

Integrate people, processes and technology

• We can work with you to develop your strategy and implementation plan for change in your organisation.
• We can conduct workshops across teams to take advantage of the knowledge and experience of your people.
• We can establish a continuous improvement programme which includes training teams in techniques to identify process issues and implement change.
• We can benchmark your processes with other organisations across diverse industry groups.
• We can develop a reward and recognition programme for your people that focuses on innovation, change and performance.

 

Government business is becoming more and more demanding with increased public interest and accountability and responsibility attached to all areas of work.  It is therefore vital that government bodies deliver value to the public.
ACIG works with local, state and federal governments to help them achieve best practice.  We can help in the following ways:

Strategy & planning

• We can coordinate your business planning process including conducting a preliminary diagnostic of performance.
• We can facilitate planning workshops to produce a robust plan based upon winning strategies.

Project & Program Performance Monitoring & Evaluation

• We apply results-based management principles and techniques to ensure your project and program designs are robust and logically based.
• We can train and facilitate your people in developing performance indicators for their monitoring and evaluation activities.
• We can perform an independent evaluation of your programs and projects, at any stage of the cycle: pre-, during-, and post-implementation.

Performance Measurement & Benchmarking

• We can help you benchmark your service processes against Best Practices, or with a group of like organizations, inside or outside the government sector.

Costing processes

• We can conduct an assessment of your current position and benchmark your processes and services against government and non-government organizations.
• We can use activity based costing techniques to provide more useful costs for outsourcing, competitive analyses, product pricing and cost reduction programs.
• We can use techniques such as activity based costing to help you implement a targeted cost reduction strategy.

Improve productivity

• We can identify opportunities and barriers to greater productivity.
• We can benchmark your processes and establish an action plan to reach agreed goals.

Create a customer-focused continuous improvement culture

• We can develop a customer focus program which includes setting customer service goals, training, monitoring performance and changing support processes to improve service levels.
• We can train your staff in improvement techniques, customer service and benchmarking.

Challenge business processes

• We can train your management and staff in how to analyze, benchmark and re-engineer processes.
• We can assist in implementing changed practices and maintaining quality of performance.

Solve people problems

• We can conduct employee attitude surveys to determine what is of concern to your people.
• We can work with you to put in place a program to address issues raised.

Team building

• We can assist your senior management group to work together as a team.
• We can facilitate workshops to build shared values, goals, accountability and cooperation within the senior team.

Improve Tender and Contract management process

• We can evaluate your existing tender and contract management processes and identify opportunities for improvement.
• We can develop improved processes and assist with implementation and staff training. 

Achieve Quality Certification

• We can facilitate the process of obtaining and retaining quality certification.