Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.15 2011.10.01 Takahashi Minoru

The world's best-selling business system is Excel

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


“We haven’t really implemented any proper systems here. It’s a bit embarrassing,”
It’s often the presidents who say things like this who are the ones running their companies successfully.


This is because,
not to say,
but rather,
"It’s precisely those kinds of companies that are actually good at designing and operating systems."
.


A system is not just
just a "XX Management System" that you buy from a vendor who pitched it to you.


Even Excel, which is pre-installed (?) on everyone’s computers,
can serve as a perfectly good system if used effectively.


Excel is the world’s best-selling system.
Daily sales reports, price history, quotes and invoices, inventory lists, construction ledgers, and cost estimates—
payroll, sales statistics, and even financial statements—it’s entirely possible to handle all of these with Excel.


Unless a system is exceptionally high-level, advanced, specialized, or large-scale (involving a large number of users or a massive volume of data),
it rarely goes much beyond serving as a "replacement for ledgers and calculators."


There are likely more companies than you might expect that manage their operations using nothing but Excel.


・First and foremost, for what purpose
・When, by whom, and under whose responsibility
・Where and what values should be entered
・What to do next after entering data
(What values should be output, and in what format?)
・How is the usefulness of this system defined, and what are the evaluation criteria?
・Who is the person in charge of management?


…In this way, if you can define the rules and continuously implement the PDCA cycle,
the choice between “using a system” or “using Excel” becomes merely a difference in means.


Before considering the introduction of a new system or soliciting competitive bids,
“Why not try doing it in Excel first to see if it’s actually impossible?”
It might be worth verifying this.


Or rather, if you conclude that it’s absolutely impossible to do in Excel,
it’s highly likely that
is highly likely.


(Repost)
・What is the purpose of this in the first place?
・When, by whom, and under whose responsibility
・Where and what values should be entered
・What happens next after entering the data
(What values are output, and in what layout?)
・How do we define whether this system is useful, and what are the evaluation criteria?
・Who is the person in charge of management?
(End of reprint)


If you purchase a system without having established these rules at a minimum,
its operation is highly likely to fail.


That's all, Thank you for reading.

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