Business Efficiency For Dummies -- About the Author -- Contents at a Glance -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- About This Book -- (Not So) Foolish Assumptions -- How This Book Is Organized -- Icons Used in This Book -- Where to Go from Here -- Part I: Business Efficiency Basics -- Chapter 1: Business Efficiency 101 -- Understanding Business Efficiency -- Looking at Efficiency-Enhancing Methodologies -- Considering Other Ways to Be More Efficient -- Chapter 2: Unfolding Your Efficiency Roadmap -- Understanding the Steps to Efficiency -- Measuring Where You Are Now -- Identifying Inefficiencies -- Considering the Impact of Potential Solutions -- Setting Clear Efficiency Goals -- Executing Your New Efficiency Plan -- Part II: Making Strides Toward Efficiency -- Chapter 3: You Are Here: Measuring Where You Stand -- Why You Bother Measuring -- What to Measure and Why -- How You Measure -- You Can't Measure Without Data -- Decided Whether to Cut Losses or Invest in Archiving Data -- Chapter 4: I Thought I Saw a Bad Habit: Hunting Down Inefficiencies and Their Solutions -- Choosing the Right Methodology -- Balancing the score: Balanced Scorecard -- Going Lean -- Using Total Quality Management -- Shadowing Employees -- Being 99.99966 Percent Sure with Six Sigma -- Brainstorming Solutions -- Getting Started -- Looking at Tools -- Chapter 5: Efficiency on Impact: Understanding the Ripple Effect of Change -- Finding Out How Inefficiency Negatively Impacts You -- Discovering Inefficiency's Roots -- Preventing Inefficiencies in the Future -- Evaluating the Possible Impacts of Change -- Setting Up Feedback Channels -- Chapter 6: To Efficiency . . . and Beyond: Getting Where You Want to Be -- Setting Efficiency Goals -- Finding Different Types of Efficiency Goals -- Knowing Where to Start -- Discovering What Comes After You Set Goals.

Chapter 7: Efficiently Executing Your Efficiency Plan -- Architecting an Efficient Execution Plan -- Expanding Scope -- Trying again if at First You Don't Succeed -- Realizing When You're Efficient Enough -- Using Execution Tools -- Part III: Increasing Operational Efficiency -- Chapter 8: Channeling Henry Ford: Process Automation -- Discovering the Pros and Cons of Automation -- Automating: Step by Step -- Finding Automations You Can Implement Right Now -- Chapter 9: The Bottom Line: Financial Efficiency -- Examining Financial Efficiency -- Conducting an Expense Analysis -- Making Your Accounting More Efficient -- Chapter 10: Efficiency, at Your Service -- Discovering the elements of Efficient Customer Service -- Knowing the Criteria for Effective Service Standards -- Developing Service Standards in Four Simple Steps -- Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your Service -- Defining Your Customer Service Goals -- Measuring Customer Service Efficiency -- Surveying Staff and Customers -- Figuring Out What Type of Survey You Need to Do -- Communicating with Customers -- Handling Customer Service Issues with Grace -- Helping Your Customers Help Themselves -- Knowing When You've Succeeded -- Chapter 11: Ready, Aim, Hire: Human Resources Efficiency -- Knowing What HR Efficiency Looks Like -- Examining HR Goal Setting -- Measuring HR Efficiency -- Hiring and Firing -- Seeing Beyond 9-5: Alternative Scheduling -- Looking at HR Tools for Efficiency -- Chapter 12: Streamlining Your Sales Process -- Finding Out How Efficient Your Sales Process Is -- Setting Sales Goals -- Looking at Sales Commissions -- Measuring Sales Efficiency -- Discovering Tools and Technologies to Increase Sales Efficiency -- Selling via Call Centers -- Generating Sales Efficiently and Legally -- Chapter 13: Up to My Gears in Efficiency: Manufacturing Efficiency.

Discovering What Efficient Manufacturing Looks Like -- Manufacturing Goal Setting -- Manufacturing Efficiency Improvement Methods -- Evaluating Potential Manufacturing Improvements -- Part IV: Increasing Employee Efficiency -- Chapter 14: I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change: Change Management -- The Importance of Change Management -- Ways to Introduce Change -- Change Management Planning -- Change Management Best Practices -- Chapter 15: Before You Get Hit by a Bus: Knowledge Capture and Transfer -- Capturing Institutional Knowledge -- Transferring Knowledge -- Keeping Knowledge Fresh -- Getting Employee Buy-in -- Being Assured You Got It All -- Chapter 16: Fine-Tuning Internal Communication -- Finding Out What Efficient Internal Communication Looks Like -- Performing an Internal Communication Checkup -- Keeping Track of Internal Communication Efficiency -- Improving Cross-Departmental Communication -- Looking at Internal Communication Best Practices -- Looking at Different Communication Tools -- Chapter 17: Helping Employees Be More Efficient -- Figuring Out What an Efficient Employee Looks Like -- Measuring Individual Employee Efficiency -- Looking At Popular Productivity Systems -- Discovering Time Management Techniques -- Exploring Task Management Techniques -- Contemplating Individual Organization Best Practices -- Planning Individual Efficiency Improvements You Can Implement Immediately -- Finding Technology Resources -- Chapter 18: Holding Effective Meetings and Events -- Figuring Out What Efficient Meetings and Events Look Like -- Thinking About Meeting and Event Efficiency -- Measuring Meeting Efficiency -- Knowing When You Need a Meeting (And When You Don't) -- Improving Different Types of Meetings -- Discovering Alternatives to Meetings -- Holding Efficient Events and Conferences -- Collecting Event-Specific Data.

Using Best Practices for Meeting Management -- Chapter 19: Painless Project Management -- Discovering What Efficient Project Management Looks Like -- Performing an Internal Project Management Checkup -- Exploring Project Management Styles -- Reviewing Efficient Project Management Components -- Using Project Management Best Practices -- Finding Technology Resources -- Part V: The Part of Tens -- Chapter 20: Ten Areas Ripe for Efficiency Improvement -- Printing Practices -- Your Website -- Scheduling System -- Printed Forms -- Meetings -- Internal Messaging Use -- Customer Service -- Data Storage -- Voicemail -- Time-Off Policies -- Chapter 21: Ten Efficiency Best Practices -- Remember, It's Not All About the Benjamins -- Look for the Side Effects -- Document Efficiency Projects -- Involve Everyone -- Keep on Reading -- But Know When to Stop Reading -- Measure Objectively -- Know Your Limits -- Know What's Important -- Get Outside -- Chapter 22: Ten Hidden Hurdles to Overcome in Pursuit of Efficiency -- Overcoming Employee Resistance -- Accepting Monetary Costs -- Maintaining Staff -- Dealing with Frustration -- Managing Lots of Change: When It Rains, It Pours -- Finding the Time to be Efficient -- Staying the Course -- Setting Limits -- Being a Positive Role Model -- Keeping Everyone Motivated for Change -- Index.