From pizza maker to chain: grow with a grip on your processes

The first branch in Apeldoorn ran like clockwork. The owner was in the kitchen himself, knew his customers by name and sensed exactly what was needed for a smooth evening. But when the chain quickly expanded to five branches, the first cracks started to show: slow delivery, different menus and varying customer satisfaction. What once ran naturally thanks to craftsmanship and short lines of communication was now increasingly stalling.

The owner engaged an external consultant with a clear question: help us understand where we are and what we need to continue performing well, even as we continue to grow. The approach taken? A scan that looks not only at current processes, but especially at the organisation's ability to be process-oriented. In this article, I take you through that analysis: how do you determine where you stand as an organisation in your process maturity? And what is needed to move from incidental success to structural steering?

Not just processes: three dimensions of process-oriented work

In the analysis, the consultant used a model based on Michael Hammer's thinking, which encourages organisations to take processes as the guiding principle rather than traditional departmental structures. The consultancy the consultant works for translated this into three dimensions for process-oriented working:

• Surroundings - The world around you that you need to respond to. Think of changing legislation, technology or customer expectations. You have little influence on this, but your processes must be able to respond to it.
• Organisation - How you yourself are structured and function in terms of leadership, strategy, control, knowledge and skills and culture. These factors determine whether your organisation is able to manage processes well and improve continuously.
• Processes - How the work is done in practice. Who does what, with what resources, data and systems. This is often managed directly, but without a solid foundation in the organisation, it remains symptom control.

In this analysis, the consultant focused in particular on the organisation's design, because that is precisely where the conditions arise for processes to function properly on a larger scale.

Organisational characteristics that enable process-oriented working

To gain insight into the degree of process maturity, the consultant looked at five underlying characteristics that together determine an organisation's ability to be process-oriented:

• Leadership - Do the owner and branch managers understand and encourage the importance of process-oriented working? Do they actively articulate what good work is, and provide a culture where processes are not left to chance?
• Strategy - Is improving processes a conscious choice in the growth strategy? Or is growth seen mainly as opening new branches, without attention to how the work in them is organised smartly and consistently?
• Controls - Are processes managed and secured with clear agreements, performance indicators and improvement cycles? Or is it just fire-fighting when things get busy or quality drops?
• Knowledge & skills - Do the teams have sufficient skills to oversee their work, identify problems and improve processes? And are they given guidance and space to learn in this?
• Culture - Is there room for collaboration and improvement in the kitchens and delivery teams, or does each branch work in its own way? A shared mindset is crucial for a consistent customer experience.

These five characteristics provide insight into how solid the foundation for process management is - and where the organisation can improve to sustainably support growth.

Working together on a closing day

On a Monday, when the ovens stay out and the doors are closed, the owner gathered his branch managers at the pizzeria in Apeldoorn for a workshop. No full case, no orders - but space to reflect on how they operate as a pizza chain. With coffee cups on the table and the smell of fresh oregano still in the air, conversations started about how the day-to-day work really goes. To make the process maturity scan accessible to this group of catering entrepreneurs, the consultant opted for a visual and accessible approach: for each organisational characteristic, one key statement was formulated for each maturity level. On a large brownpaper, participants collectively pasted the statements they identified with (Figure 1). The outcome was clear: as a pizza chain, they were still in the first maturity level. A phase in which processes are still mostly implicit, teams and branches operate from their own islands and improvements mainly occur when the pressure is high.

Figure 1: Workshop results

Targeted follow-up steps: building ownership and knowledge

The analysis showed that the pizza chain is in the early stages of process maturity. Based on this, the consultant recommended investing mainly in two organisational characteristics in the coming period: Control and Knowledge & Skills.

On the one hand, this means that the consultant will work with the organisation to clarify: what roles, tasks and responsibilities are needed to be process-oriented and who takes on what? This exploration takes shape in sessions on ownership within processes. For example, a process owner has been designated for determining the pizzeria's offer, who helps ensure coordination on and uniformity in the menus.

On the other hand, consultant and organisation are building a shared foundation: through knowledge sessions and training courses, employees and managers learn what process management is all about, how to manage and improve processes effectively and what is needed for this in daily practice. In this way, not only understanding grows, but also language and a shared perspective for action.

In conclusion

Process-oriented working does not start by writing out processes, but by building a solid foundation. By focusing on the organisational characteristics that make this possible, you can improve and grow in a more targeted way without losing grip. Are you curious to know how your organisation is doing, or would you like to exchange thoughts on process maturity? Feel free to contact us.

For more questions on this topic

+31 6 20 49 09 82 Andre van Hofwegen