Achieving best practice in your business
The Department of Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform's (BERR) approach to business support provides ideas and insights into how to improve performance across a business.
By showing what works in other businesses, the BERR Achieving best practice in your business theme helps businesses to see which approaches can help and then support companies in their implementation.
This overall programme aims to encourage businesses to seek to achieve best practice, by which BERR means the adoption and integration of approaches and ideas across an organisation that other businesses have shown help improve performance and productivity.
Businesses testify that learning from other business is one of the most powerful means any organisation can adopt to achieve immediate, measurable and sustainable productivity improvements.
The Achieving best practice in your business theme provides support and guidance centrally and regionally through Business Link and an extensive network of industry-wide and trade-specific partners and channels from the public and private sectors. Support will also be provided in the form of a range of innovative and effective publications and business tools available free online and offline, alongside a programme of events.
Key focus areas
Achieving
best practice in your business provides advice and guidance in seven key focus
areas:
1. General management
By implementing management ideas and initiatives that work successfully in other businesses, companies can become more competitive through more effective leadership, improved strategy and better planning both financially and operationally.
2. Operations
Learning from how others deal with the factors that affect a business operation can help improve productivity. These may include working in new and innovative ways with partners and suppliers, introducing new and more cost-effective ways of working internally and creating a more effective means of managing information.
3. Sales and marketing
Businesses can increase sales and exploit new markets through implementing more effective ways of developing new and existing business. The improved approach to sales and marketing can be developed by learning from how similar businesses have incorporated innovative techniques and ideas into their own activities.
Successful sales and marketing strategies from other companies show that a flexible approach as markets and customers' needs change can show other businesses ways in which to improve their own activities.
4. People
By increasing the contribution employees make to a business companies can improve productivity. Having a positive approach to issues such as recruitment, staff retention and flexible working can help you create a positive, more motivated and higher performing workplace.
Companies can benefit from learning how similar businesses have dealt with the challenges of managing employees effectively in order to implement successful strategies in their own business.
5. Communications
Effective communications both internally and with your customers and supplies will have a positive effect on productivity.
Through learning how other companies have maximised the use of new technologies from simple email to Voice over Internet Products (VoIP) to improve communications, businesses can see ways in which they could develop competitiveness.
6. InnovationThe successful exploitation of new ideas - incorporating new technologies, design and best practice is a key business process that enables UK businesses to compete effectively in the global environment.
Innovation in a business is also about using the latest thinking to improve your products, processes or service, business can learn from others who showcase ways in which they have changed the way they run their business.
7. Technology
Organisations can improve efficiency, productivity and competitiveness through more effective use of IT, as part of their overall business strategy.
To realise the benefits of investing in IT, businesses must also focus on cultural and organisational issues as real success can only be found when people, processes and technology are addressed in a truly integrated approach. This can be demonstrated by looking at how other businesses have achieved success.
Investing in IT, as part of a strategy that looks at all aspects of a business including people and process, will enable companies to gain sustained business benefits and not get left behind by local and international competitors.
More information can be found at the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
This page was last updated on 20 October 2008
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