Stephanie Pretorius is a Senior Consultant with business transformation specialists, Intent Group.

My emphasis is on enhancing performance and alignment through continuous improvement and innovation.

I am also Intent’s Service Quality Manager and develop our internal systems for engagement management. Our goal is to ensure our clients are 100% satisfied and receive the highest quality service.

As were many businesses, Intent was affected to a large degree in the short-term by Covid-19. The ability to be alongside and work closely with our clients at all levels is a core part of what we do. So some of our consulting activities were restricted during the lock-down period.

However, with levels easing we are now back onsite at clients and working with them to make a difference.

In the recent turmoil I believe many companies have come to appreciate they need to better understand their core business and be more efficient at what they do. Their long-term sustainability depends on it.

One way we help clients achieve that is by improving productivity. Opportunities we see going forward include Circular Lean for cradle to grave sustainability, and Lean Construction.

The construction industry took a significant hit from Covid-19 and has had low productivity which is still an ongoing issue.

I am a passionate proponent of continuous improvement. I believe in core Lean principles over tools; a focus on process (which is how businesses generate outcomes); robust problem solving to resolve at root cause; and a holistic approach from strategy deployment to daily management systems.

I am a trained Toyota Kata practitioner which is a methodology for creating and experimenting towards a targeted outcome. This approach came from Mike Rother’s ground-breaking study of Toyota’s underlying management practices as to how they create the improvements they do, rather than what improvements they have created to address their own specific problems.

Many businesses that have implemented Lean have tried ‘see and do’ transference of tools, rather than understanding how to create their own internal continuous improvement capability to deliver their own specific business goals.

Intent works with clients from many industries, spanning manufacturing, agriculture, dairy to construction. Our clients range from large to small. Regardless of size, all our clients have a desire to be better in ways that are important to their business.

We help clients achieve their performance goals through methodologies such as process improvement, loss and waste analysis, strategy deployment, problem solving, Daily Management Systems (DMS) and supply chain management.

We support the right solutions being created for the right problems.

Our point of difference at Intent is that we are hands-on working directly with our client’s teams . We know lasting change happens when you work with real people, beside them doing what they do every day.

We enable clients to transform by working closely with their people, coaching and transferring knowledge, rather than just issuing a report of recommendations. We partner directly with clients to build capability and make the changes needed to achieve and sustain results.

Client ownership of improvements is a critically important outcome to us because our goal is to ensure our clients are set up for continued success.

We assist companies to design and create a desired future state. Clarity of direction is key to transformational change. We help clients identify any obstacles to getting to the future state, and put plans in place to take action towards achieving their goals.

Enhanced productivity, better processes, engaged people and increased alignment are some of the benefits of the work we do. We offer a ‘Peak Performance’ programme to fast track our client’s transformation journey which incorporates the best methods in a structured framework.

Technology is increasingly an enabler and provider of data, that helps businesses to transform their processes, develop people and enhance customer engagement models.

A great example of a technology application Intent has developed to fill client needs is the Workflow app, EfficiencyWorks. Managers use this app to create ‘live’ checklists for standard procedures, which are used by staff.

It provides clarity on what is required, raises issues with processes in real time and has the ability to track evidence and record task completion by person and date/time. This app makes process documentation live and useable – which has long been a challenge for many businesses struggling with documented procedures that become inaccessible and separated from the people actually doing the work.