January - March 2016 •
The Lion King
• 43
#SUMMERCRUSH |
LIFESTYLE
BY OLAWALE HAMED
ACHIEVING GREATER
EFFICIENCY
to the barest minimum. For instance,
relationship managers can go on well
coordinated joint marketing calls to
see multiple clients within the same
location or axis using one pool car. We
can also make better use of phones
and make physical visitation on a pri-
ority basis. At home, we can switch off
light bulbs and air conditioners when
not required.
VALUE FOR MONEY:
Develop your negotiation skills! Try to
get more value for less money spent.
Instead of having a nanny come over
for cleaning and babysitting once
weekly, why not have her provide the
same service twice weekly for a mar-
ginally higher pay. We can also push
for higher discounts from vendors or
negotiate for free value added servic-
es in exchange for goods purchased.
Extended useful life: Instead of chang-
ing that car or mobile device sim-
ply because a new model has been
rolled-out, why not use it over its useful
life before replacement. Remember
that you could always channel the
replacement funds to other equally or
more important projects.
QUALITY IN RECRUITMENT:
You are seeking to hire a credit ana-
lyst, why not hire one that also has
finance and investment banking skills
and can give you better all-round
value in the long run instead of hiring
a plain analyst.
MULTI-TASK RESOURCES AVAIL-
ABLE TO YOU:
We can save domestic costs by rising
earlier than usual and have one driver
to convey us and our spouses to work
and also drop the kids off at school
rather than have two or three drivers
and cars on the roads at different
times.
A
ccording to the IMF, Nigeria’s
economy may expand 3.2 per-
cent in 2016 if infrastructure
investment is prioritized by the govern-
ment.
Given the foregoing fundamentals,
businesses must begin to look inwards
in order to sustain growth and contin-
ued existence. In looking inwards, the
magical word that will resonate across
boardrooms and strategy sessions is
“efficiency”and the reason is simple:
To remain competitive in an increas-
ingly competitive world and particu-
larly in times of scarcity of resources,
a business must efficiently manage
available resources or go bust.
Efficiency is a measurable concept
that involves determining the ratio of
useful output to total input. It minimizes
the waste of resources such as physi-
cal materials, energy and time, while
successfully achieving the desired
output. Efficiency is often confused
with effectiveness since both terms are
closely related.
However, the simple differentiation is
that while effectiveness looks at doing
the right thing, efficiency focuses on
doing things right.
Here are a few tips on how compa-
nies, businesses and individuals can
improve efficiency:
AUTOMATION:
Automation improves efficiency in so
many ways. It helps achieve results
speedily, minimizes errors, is cheaper
on the long run and improves quality
of output. We must seek to enhance
automation of our internal processes
as much as possible whilst we seek
to discontinue manual approach to
routine tasks.
AVOID WASTAGES:
Cost of operations must be brought
ACHIEVING GREATER EFFECI N Y |
PRODUCTIVITY
For Nigeria, and indeed
Africa, there is no gainsay-
ing that there are definitely
more headwinds than tail-
winds for businesses this
year. The reason for this is
not farfetched: crumbling
commodity prices amidst
increased investor aware-
ness.
