By Peter Egwuatu
Operational excellence has always been a defining objective for organisations that want to remain competitive. However, according to Omotoso Olumide, a digital operations and organisational performance specialist, the definition of that excellence is changing in ways that many business leaders have not fully understood.
Efficiency is no longer based on automated processes or cost reduction, but it is more determined by how organisations integrate technology into systems that support daily activities and the intentionality of such integration.
Olumide is direct about where most organisations go wrong. “Technology does not in itself bring about operational excellence,” he claims. “It is more about how organisations make better decisions with the help of digital tools, eliminate friction in the processes, and respond faster to change.” For Olumide, digital transformation is only meaningful when it generates measurable changes in how operations are performed and not when it simply adds new tools to the existing workflows.
Among the most evident changes that Olumide points out is how organisations manage information. Traditionally, operational decisions were often made using delayed reports and fragmented data, leaving managers with limited information on what was happening in various areas of the business. Inefficiencies were often identified once they had already impacted business performance. Olumide states that digital platforms are slowly eliminating this problem by allowing real-time tracking of operational activity, which provides leaders with a more accurate and timely view of the current state of the business.
It is that visibility, he argues, that directly transforms the quality of decision-making. When operational data is grouped and analysed properly, it enables organisations to identify patterns and anticipate disruptions and resource optimisation before issues escalate. “The shift from reactive to proactive management is one of the most valuable things data-driven systems make possible,” Olumide explains. “This is where organisations start to gain actual competitive advantage.”
In addition, Olumide identifies supply chain management as one of the most obvious real-life examples of the combination of these principles. Most major retailers now rely on predictive analytics technology that is powered by historical sales data, seasonal demand patterns and real-time inventory levels to automatically suggest stock changes at distribution hubs and retail outlets.
The outcome is a system that minimises shortages and does not have to overstock at high costs; it is more responsive, more efficient, and much less reliant on manual control. For Olumide, this kind of data, automation, and operational decision-making integration represents the direction where all industries would eventually move.
More so, even with the availability of the right technology, Olumide emphasises that digital initiatives often fail when organisations underestimate the human aspect of the equation. The introduction of new systems can be technically feasible; however, making teams actually embrace new workflows and decision-making processes can be much more difficult. In his view, that challenge makes leadership the decisive variable. Robust and aligned leadership can guarantee that digital investments are not present in parallel to operational priorities but are actually integrated into them.
Hence, Olumide recommends that organisations looking forward to embark on that journey should find one high-impact operational process and redesign it to be digital-visible and data-driven, rather than attempting large-scale transformation. “Start from somewhere and prove it in one place,” he notes. “Measurable results will build the confidence and momentum needed to go further.”
Finally, what Olumide’s insights make clear is that operational excellence, in this digital age, cannot be reduced to merely efficiency in traditional processes but depends on the ability of organisations to integrate technology, data, and human knowledge to create faster, smarter and more adaptable systems that will not slow down to accommodate them.
Article Omotoso Olumide urges firms to rethink operational excellence in digital era Live On NgGossips.
