With all the buzz around operational maturity, you may have read our ebook. Hopefully you were left inspired and were eager to apply the information you learned. You want to put this theory into practice, but where do you start? But first, before we roll up our sleeves and dive into the fun stuff, a little bit about me. Prior to joining Cella, I’ve had the opportunity to launch and lead international teams for an in-house agency of a Fortune 500 global financial services firm.  Sharing my experiences (and lessons learned) so others can leverage and build on them gets me genuinely excited. In my role at Cella, I get to do just that! Through my daily work with Fortune 500 companies, I’ve found that when operational maturity theories are put into practice, you can gain support to deliver on your goals and move your business forward.

There are two very important things to understand right out of the gate.  First, it’s imperative to realize that operational maturity is a journey for organizations.  You can not and should not expect overnight change. Secondly, data is power.

• With data showing you are efficiently delivering, and workloads over capacity, you can demonstrate needs for staff.
• Data that illustrates alignment to shared corporate goals, can help you prioritize competing project deadlines and become a strategic partner with your clients and/or stakeholders.
• By using data, you can communicate within any organization and by doing so, you can build credibility with your clients and/or stakeholders and bring more strategic value to your organization.

Are you ready to take your first step toward achieving operational maturity?  Grab a cup of coffee, your favorite notebook and step away from the business to reflect on the following questions. Let’s get started!

Determine your operational maturity level to determine where you are on the spectrum

• Are your business operations reactive or proactive?
• How standardized are your processes? Are they Ad Hoc?
• Have you identified your existing operational metrics?
• Are you tracking progress towards organizational objectives?
• For processes in place, is there discipline around optimizing them for continual improvement?

Identify your operational metrics

• Do you have top-down alignment of objectives and goals?
• Are you establishing realistic, clear targets; then, tracking performance against targets?
• Have you identified gaps and then implemented corrective action?
• Can you Improve visibility and awareness of your metrics to ensure they are clear?
• Have you determined what data you have and how you’re using it?
• Are you using resources effectively?
  • Are you achieving max efficiency without sacrificing effectiveness?
  • Are you telling a story with the data?

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Take an objective look at your process

• Review your workflows:
  • What can be streamlined to eliminate redundancy?
  • What can be automated?
• Ensure creative quality metrics go beyond brand guidelines and visual appeal.
  • Is the creative output meeting client and/or stakeholder objectives?
  • Is it resonating with target audiences to effectively increase sales?
  • Does your process inform you up front of the project goals to deliver ROI?

Consider your organization’s perspective on measurement

• What is most important to your organization?
• Can you align data points with the corporate mission, vision and value proposition?

Define your goals and then take an honest look at your data readiness

• What are your key performance indicators?
  • What do you need to report on?
  • What data do you need to gather to report on it? (Remember: Not every performance indicator is a key performance indicator.)
• What data is required?
  • Does it exist?
  • Does it support reporting?
  • Will you have access to historical/backward looking data?
• Do you have the infrastructure to effectively measure and track?
  • Do you have technology that supports collection and output?
  • Who owns the data?
  • Where does data live?
  • Is it centralized in one location? (PM tool, DAM, Finance system)
  • Is there a delivery engine to share insights fast?
• How is data used?
  • Is data being used to track against goals?
  • Is data used to unlock continual improvement capabilities?
  • How is data presented and how will it be consumed?
    • What is the frequency of your reporting?
    • What level of detail is needed and can you “slice” the data to view it?
    • How “live” does the data need to be to make informed decisions?
    • Will data be used in feedback loops for optimizing creative and marketing ops?

Regardless of where you are along this journey, it’s important to continue to evaluate and grow based on your current state and future objectives.

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