1. What is the focus of Southern Business Research Management Consultants?

The design and installation of management systems that result in increased productivity and reduced costs.

2. Isn't that concept rather out-of-date? Business process re-engineering, downsizing, right-sizing, customer relationship management, value chain analysis have all been touted by the management consultants...

True, BPR [business process re-engineering] and the others have all had their turn at being flavor-of-the-year. And they have been relevant - for some companies...at some times...

But, they all address issues from a senior management / executive management, even the Board level. [After all, the consultants who coin these approaches tend to look for BIG contracts - the size of contracts that executive management can authorize and perpetuate.]

When we first started in this arena, productivity was a big issue throughout America and the rest of the industrialized world. So was profitability... and when you can't improve profitability by increasing revenue [like it appears that you can do in inflationary cycles] then you have to earn it by controlling costs.

Through the 1990's, a sort of complacency set in about productivity...it appeared that productivity had improved. But guess what? That isn't necessarily the case. What happened was that technology was used more, and information systems did replace a lot of clerical and production workers, which did give us productivity increases  per person. 

But what about the productivity of the people who remain? Job skills are more technical and demanding; good people are hard to find, train, retain... and they want not only higher incomes but also other benefits like health care, child-care, life-style considerations...

Not surprisingly, doing more with fewer people means having even better systems in place to direct and coordinate tasks. Efficiency [doing things right] and effectiveness [doing the right things] are more important than ever.

So, to answer your question... No! Productivity - efficiency and effectiveness - is definitely not out of date! Our clients still run production departments that have to meet tighter delivery schedules...at lower per unit production cost...with higher quality standards than ever before. So we are still there, on the production floor, in the shipping department, throughout the CFO and administration functions - in "the trenches", wherever people have a need to develop a SYSTEM to organize how they do things.

3. You are affiliated with Family Business Experts?

Yes, we are! When we work on productivity improvement with family businesses, we often find that there are issues beyond just efficiency and effectiveness that stem from family relationships rather than business system problems. Usually, the family issues have to be addressed and resolved before we can deal with the productivity issues. Bringing Family Business Experts in lets you and SBR work on a truly effective solution - one that deals with the underlying family problem as well as the apparent business problem.

4. Do you have a privacy policy? 

Yes!. We will not share your information with anyone, for any reason. We are sensitive to our clients' desire for privacy and maintain the highest level of confidentiality.

5. You are based in Atlanta - is that where your clients are?

Far from it! 

In fact, we have served clients in 39 of the United States, and in Canada, Japan and Latin America.

Click on this link to contact sbrprofitbuilder@earthlink.net