Locations & Services Archives | Page 6 of 7

Improve Your Workflow, Increase Your Productivity

June 6, 2012/in Articles, Locations & Services/by revel

Flow Chart, Lean Process Improvement, Improve Work Flow

By writing down your process, you are able to identify and remove inefficiencies.

There are a variety of strategies businesses can use to improve their workflow and increase their overall productivity. Perhaps you’ve considered Enterprise Resource Planning to align your computer systems and databases, or you’ve looked into strategic planning to get your company on a path to success. Lean Process Improvement is another tool businesses can employ to make their operation run as smoothly as possible.

What is Lean Process Improvement?
Essentially, to ‘Lean your process’ means to look at what is currently being done to bring a product or service to market and remove any inefficiencies in that process. Things like duplicating work, excessive wait times, or even extra, unnecessary packaging all slow down your ability to sell your product. Which also slows down your ability to earn profits.

It’s important to understand that Lean Process Improvement can help any business; it’s not just for manufacturing. For example, perhaps there is a duplication of work in gathering information from new clients. By eliminating those extra steps, you could deliver your service faster and perhaps bring on more clients.

How Does Lean Process Improvement Work?

Meet with key stakeholders to map out the current state of business. How do things run currently?
Identify wastes in the process such as excessive wait times or over production.
The last step is to determine how the process will run, and then implement the new plan.

Of course, product quality is key, and it’s important to ensure that quality isn’t compromised. A professional, trained in Lean Process Improvement, can help work key stakeholders through the mapping process, and ensure proper implementation and follow-up occur.

If you’re interested in learning more about Lean read, Save Time & Money with Lean Manufacturing. Or learn more about Lynda Nance in our December newsletter.

Lynda Nance
Business Development Strategist
616.884.7952
lyndan@hscompanies.com

Fraud Happens. Learn the Facts.

June 4, 2012/in Articles, Fraud and Forensic Investigation, Locations & Services/by revel

Even your most trusted employee could be tempted to commit fraud under the right circumstances. Make sure you know how to prevent that from happening.

We’ve written a lot about the fact that fraud happens in small businesses. Often times people think, “it could never happen to me”, but it does and recovering the money is no easy task.

According to the ACFE’s Report to the Nation, more than 3/4s of the frauds reported in their study were committed by employees who worked in one of the following six departments: accounting, operations, sales, executive/upper management, customer service, or purchasing. In 2012, employees were found to be the fraudsters 43% of the time, managers 34.3%, owners/executives 18.5%, and others 4.2%.

Ensuring that you have a system of checks and balances between departments and between position levels can help deter fraud. Just because someone is your most trusted employee doesn’t mean they couldn’t or wouldn’t commit fraud. According to the report, fraud by employees resulted in a median loss of $50,000; managers, $150,000; owners/executives, $373,000; and others, $86,000.

And remember, there could be more than one employee involved in the scheme. The study found that in 2012, 32.9% of US cases involved two or more perpetrators, which resulted in median losses of $175,000. Try to segregate duties as much as possible or rotate job duties to try to deter fraud schemes.

To learn more about ways to prevent fraud in your business contact Kit Powell, Certified Fraud Examiner.

Kit Powell
Certified Fraud Examiner
231.924.8035
kitp@hscompanies.com

Is Your Plan SMART?

May 25, 2012/in Locations & Services/by revel

Your goals need to be SMART. Make sure they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Framed and you’ll be well on your way to winning the race. (Photo Credit: Fotolia.com)

Defining goals is a great way to start on a path towards achieving a desired outcome, but many people define what they want and ignore defining how to get there.

Remember, a successful plan must be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Framed. Here’s a closer look at how to define SMART goals:

Specific: Be sure to make the goal as specific as possible. Don’t just say you want to “grow your business”, define it with a statement like, “I want to grow my business by targeting men ages 18-25”.

Measurable: It’s hard to gauge whether you’re successful if you can’t track your progress. Be sure your goals are measurable, and then take the time to track and analyze the analytics.

Achievable: Don’t make your goals so outrageous they’re not achievable.

Relevant: Make sure all the pieces of your plan are relevant to your over

all long-term objectives. It doesn’t do any good to work on something that doesn’t help the overall goal.

Time-Framed: Make sure your goal has a time frame. This will allow you to stay focused and assess your success at a predetermined time.

Interested in learning more? Check out Strategically Planning for Success by Lynda Nance, Business Development Strategist, in our April newsletter.

Strategically Planning for Success

May 14, 2012/in Articles, Locations & Services/by revel

A great plan requires input from the whole team. (Photo Credit: office.microsoft.com)

Strategy is defined as a plan of action designed to achieve a vision. Strategic planning is the process used by organizations of all shapes and sizes to define their long-term strategy or direction to help them “win”. When utilized correctly, a strategic plan will enable an organization to make decisions, and allocate resources appropriately so that the long-term strategy is achieved.

A comprehensive plan involves the following components: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis, vision/mission, long-term objectives, mid-term goals, short-term tactics, and metrics.

As with all processes, success requires the knowledge of the tools available and the ability to implement. The most successful planning sessions utilize a series of brainstorming exercises followed by clarifying questions, and a vote of the members to determine the most important ideas generated. During the brainstorming sessions, all ideas are recorded and nothing is dismissed. This is where the best “outside of the box” ideas are created. The brainstorming process is followed to create all of the components of the plan, with the exception of the short-term tactics and metrics.

Successful implementation occurs only when SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-framed) goals and tactics are set and metrics are in place. It is important when setting these goals to ensure that the achievement of the goals will lead to the stated long-term objectives and mission of the organization.

Strategic planning is like a GPS. Used correctly, it will guide an organization to the destination in the most efficient manner.

Want to learn more about strategically planning for your success? Contact Lynda Nance, Business Development Strategist.

616.884.7952
lyndan@hscompanies.com

Case Study: Ex-Marriott Worker gets 1 year, 1 day in jail for embezzlement

April 25, 2012/in Articles, Fraud and Forensic Investigation, Locations & Services/by revel

Internal Controls can help prevent fraud from happening in your organization. (Photo Credit: office.microsoft.com)

A former Marriott International employee was sentenced to one year and one day in jail on Friday for embezzling money from the company, according to a story by Erica W. Morrison posted on Washington Post’s The Crime Scene blog

The employee, Lorraine Wakefield, 51, was able to embezzle $400,000 to $1,000,000 through her position of maintaining corporate credit card expenses, travel expenses, and reimbursements requests for Marriott executives.

This case serves as a good reminder of the measures all businesses should take to protect themselves. Even the most trusted of employees can commit a crime. Remember to have system of checks and balances in place to help prevent fraud from happening in your organization.

If you don’t have a system, or if you feel that the system you have is weak, a simple fraud risk assessment — performed by Kit Powell, Certified Fraud Examiner — will give you a detailed report with recommendations on how to strengthen internal controls to prevent fraudulent activity.

Contact Kit today to schedule an appointment for your fraud risk assessment via phone at 231.924.8035 or email at kitp@hscompanies.com.

Ex-Marriott worker gets 1 year, 1 day in jail for embezzlement

Brewers Professional Alliance

March 30, 2012/in Locations & Services/by revel

There is no doubt about it, the Craft Brew Industry is booming. The professionals at H&S do not anticipate a slow down in this industry in 2012, as a matter of fact; we are excited to announce we have launched a new division called The Brewers Professional Alliance.

The professionals at H&S have teamed up with the professionals at Parmenter O’Toole to create the ultimate resource for Craft Brewers. The Brewers Professional Alliance is able to guide those in the industry through tax, legal, and business issues. Our team has expertise in Lean Manufacturing, strategic planning, tax, accounting, IT, legal, internal controls/fraud prevention, mergers & acquisitions, board governance, human resources, and business valuations.

Don’t Become a Victim of Employee Embezzlement

February 1, 2012/in Locations & Services/by revel

The professionals at H&S have found that when there is a downturn in the economy there is typically an upturn in white-collar crime. There are many things you can do to prevent fraud from happening in your organization, such as instituting a system of checks and balances.

A simple fraud risk assessment — performed by Kit Powell, Certified Fraud Examiner — will give you a detailed report with recommendations on how to strengthen internal controls to prevent fraudulent activity. Contact Kit today to schedule an appointment for your free fraud risk assessment via phone at 231.924.8035 or email at kitp@hscompanies.com.

Improve Your Workflow, Increase Your Productivity

Fraud Happens. Learn the Facts.

Is Your Plan SMART?

Strategically Planning for Success

Case Study: Ex-Marriott Worker gets 1 year, 1 day in jail for embezzlement

Ex-Marriott worker gets 1 year, 1 day in jail for embezzlement

Brewers Professional Alliance

Don’t Become a Victim of Employee Embezzlement

H&S Companies Expands List of Service Offerings

H&S Companies Expands List of Service Offerings

H&S Companies Expands List of Service Offerings

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