
If your business is doing well and you’re looking to expand, that can be a sign of success. However, moving to the next stage of business development can be a risky endeavour. The transition can cause instability and the decisions made can impact the way a business operates, for better or worse. So, there is greater demand for your business, but how do you solve it? Do you decide to invest a substantial amount of money into new equipment? Do you hire new people for the job, or do you ask your staff to take on more hours and work overtime? How you approach questions like these can make or break a business. Fortunately, that’s where “lean” comes into play.
What is a lean business?
Initially practiced by Japanese industrial giants such as Toyota, it has come to be widely adopted by British and European startups in industries as diverse as manufacturing and software development. The concept of lean is a business philosophy and framework that focuses on delivering value from a customer’s point of view, eliminating waste and continuously and actively improving a company’s processes. It prompts businesses to think about what they need to do to be an effective organisation. In turn, lean can drastically change how a company does business. The lean business model is made up of five elements. These elements help you understand what you are trying to achieve in terms of making a successful and sustainable change in a business.Specify value from the customer’s perspective
The customer identifies values, so initially you need to revisit who the target customer is for your business. Customers know what adds values to their experience during their interaction with a business and it’s important to find out how we create value for our customers.