ReThink Productivity Podcast
In this exciting podcast, Simon Hedaux from ReThink Productivity shares his insights and strategies for improving productivity and efficiency in the retail and hospitality industries. With the help of clients, partners, and the ReThink team, Simon covers everything from measuring and tracking productivity to developing and implementing effective strategies.
Whether you're a business owner, manager, or employee, this podcast is a must-listen for anyone who wants to learn how to get more done and improve their bottom line.
Here's what you can expect to learn:
- How to measure and track productivity
- Proven strategies for improving efficiency and reducing waste
- How to create a culture of productivity and innovation
- Tips for motivating and engaging your team
- Real-world examples of how other businesses have used ReThink Productivity to achieve success
Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from the experts and get ahead of the curve with your own business.
ReThink Productivity Podcast
ReThink Revealed - Ep2. Productivity Quick Wins - Simon
Simon Hedaux, co-founder of Rethink Productivity, shares his expertise on implementing simple, actionable solutions to common workplace productivity challenges. Drawing from over 20 years of experience from the shop floor to productivity consultancy, Simon reveals how businesses can achieve quick wins through data-driven insights and practical process improvements.
- Understanding business operations through accurate, up-to-date data is fundamental to productivity improvement
- Small changes like optimising stock placement or redesigning store layouts can yield significant efficiency gains
- A retailer saved over £500,000 annually by simply redesigning till receipts
- Future productivity advances will focus on "intelligent stock" using video analytics and smart technologies
- The right work must be done by the right role at the right cost - expensive leaders shouldn't be performing basic tasks
- Productivity improvement is an ongoing process, not a one-time project
Listen to Episode 2 and Discover the People Powering Productivity.
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Welcome to Rethink.
Speaker 1:Revealed a brand new podcast series from Rethink Productivity that will delve into the minds of our productivity specialists to ask the deepest of productivity questions.
Speaker 2:And I'm your host.
Speaker 1:James Bradbury-Willis, head of Business Development at Rethink. I'm a marketing and sales professional and I'm keen to get the inside story from the people powering productivity. And I'm keen to get the inside story from the people powering productivity. After the incredibly successful global hit. That was episode one, welcome to episode two of Rethink Revealed. This episode is going to be a cracker. Let me introduce my guest. He is the co-founder of Rethink Productivity and, with well over 20 years experience within operations and productivity, he is recognized as one of, if not the authority within productivity. I should also say he's my boss, so I'll be on my best behaviour. It is, of course, simon Hedo. Simon, welcome to Rethink Revealed. And how does it feel to be on the other side of the Rethink mic?
Speaker 2:Yeah, very strange. Thanks for inviting me on and thanks for the intro. I didn't pay you, to say that clearly.
Speaker 1:Well, today we're going to discover simple, actionable solutions to common productivity challenges and learn how to achieve quick wins in any workplace. But before we do, simon, can you tell us a bit about your background and what led you to start Rethink?
Speaker 2:So I'll keep it brief because, as you said, said over 20 years experience, which makes me feel old, so I am a shopkeeper at heart. So started off as a 16 year old working on the tills in DIY For those of you that are old enough, and it's probably before your time, James remember Do it All that then moved into Focus Do it All and Focus DIY Moved up the ranks, managed stores, managed tech projects in head office. Diy moved up the ranks, managed stores, managed tech projects in head office, went to work for a tech vendor for a couple of years, then worked at Boots managing the labour productivity department for pharmacy and retail and then, 15 years ago this year, we set up Rethink.
Speaker 2:And the reason we set it up was because we used an agency and dealt with some agencies in my boots days and there was always that feeling of nice data. What do I do with it? Hence, Rethink was born.
Speaker 1:Brilliant, Well, obviously massively experienced when it comes to the world of productivity and with your background. But there must be a part of your role that you find the most rewarding.
Speaker 2:I think it's twofold for me. One is seeing the recommendations that the team may come to life. So when we're working with clients and you know we might recommend a tech solution or a certain way of doing a process or even stop doing a process, and then we see that the next time we go and work with them or they write to us and say come and have a look, that that's really rewarding. And I think that the second part is developing the next generation of productivity professionals. So, as you know, james, we've got our academy. We're acutely conscious it's an industry that that is, is aging and we're really, really proud that we can bring through the future talent brilliant.
Speaker 1:no, that's, that's great, and obviously I've taken part on that Retime Academy and it is a fantastic, fantastic thing you're trying to achieve there. Those questions lead us on to one of my favourite rounds, which is called the quickfire questions. So I'm just going to fire off some quickfire questions to you, simon. I want some really quick first things that come to your mind. So, quickfire questions what's the most unproductive habit you secretly enjoy? Eating chocolate.
Speaker 2:Not productive in any way, other than it makes me feel good, and it's certainly not good for my hips.
Speaker 1:And I think, if it means anything, I'm really good at that.
Speaker 2:So I'm properly good at eating chocolate. I'm good at it. I'm good at it. There's no, I'm not saying I'm not at that. So I'm properly good at eating chocolate, I'm good at it. I'm not saying I'm not, but I shouldn't be good at.
Speaker 1:It is the reality. There we go. If you had to sum up productivity in three words, what would they be?
Speaker 2:Probably, use data, insights and results.
Speaker 1:Okay, fab, would you rather have an extra hour in the day, or a superpower that eliminates distractions? Definitely the superpower Distractions all the way. Leading on to the main Q&A, then, simon, what's the most common productivity challenge businesses face today and what's the easiest way to tackle it?
Speaker 2:So there's again a number of things. So not having any Data of understanding how your business works is a real challenge for businesses or not up-to-date data, having done all the easy things? So in your productivity roadmap if it was that easy, you'd have done it already. And we're now at the point with kind of the economic climate and all other things that are coming in from a cost point of view. That means there's lots of unpalatable things that people are facing that they're having to deal with Turning task into digitized process as well. So lots of organizations facing the dilemma of do we just digitize things, do we review them before we do and stop doing some stuff? So yeah, for me it's all in the area of we're at the point where there's probably some or not probably there are some really unpalatable things that people need to start to consider to drive their productivity okay, fair enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good answer. Many businesses assume improving productivity requires massive change. Um, what are some small quick wins that make an immediate difference?
Speaker 2:so we've seen things as simple as where colleagues place the stock when they replenish the stock. So placing it at the end of an aisle means they walk more. So simple tweaks like that could be really really effective and increase your productivity and reduce your replan time through to layout in coffee shops. So again, as simple as where the syrups are placed so that people aren't moving and reaching. So it can get really complex, but those are just two really simple examples.
Speaker 1:Okay, great. What's one outdated productivity myth that needs to be retired.
Speaker 2:I'm probably guilty of saying it as well, and lots of other people say it so old-fashioned time and motion. So people say that a lot say it so old-fashioned time and motion. So, uh, people say that a lot. It's not old-fashioned. It is an up-to-date methodology that can drive loads of value. But for some reason there's this, this picture in people's minds of a person with a, a stopwatch and a pen and paper, and it's a. It's a million miles away from that now yeah, it is absolutely.
Speaker 1:Um, obviously you've worked with some big brands. I'm just just wondering can you share an example of a simple fix then? In that case, that had a huge impact.
Speaker 2:Yep, so I suppose a couple of simple ones. There's some retailers we work with and this sounds really obvious, as some of these things do, but it's a true story till receipt. So when you paid for something, you got a till receipt that was as long as your arm, big spaces, huge huge print, big logo at the top and again, just by simplifying that, removing some bits, saved kind of over half a million pound a year in in paper, which is incredible, good for the bank and good for the environment and yeah, other examples around. We've worked with organizations that used to turn on in their sports cafes 20, 30 tellies a day across so many locations every day of the year, and we pointed that out and kind of quantified the cost and quite quickly they found an IT solution that does it automatically for them for, you know, a tenth of the cost they were putting into it. So therefore, a big saving. How?
Speaker 1:do you then convince leaders to prioritise productivity improvements instead of just you know, a lot of the time, just instead of putting up the price?
Speaker 2:I think price is easy. It's an easy answer, isn't it, to all the challenges that we're facing.
Speaker 2:We'll just keep putting the price up, but customers will only tolerate so much and they'll. We all want value as consumers, so if you're just increasing the price, potentially people will go elsewhere. I mean back to some of the early conversation. There's some easy stuff. When you've got the data you can do. Also, it's a long-term process. This isn't a one and done. This is something that continues to live. So actually it can be really beneficial to your bottom line but maybe even free up time for you to help serve more customers or drive more average transaction value. So yeah, it's not easy easy but actually if you buy into it the benefits are ongoing, incrementally.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's a really good point and I suppose, with tools like new AI tools and automation on the rise, what's the next big thing in the workplace of productivity?
Speaker 2:So I think it'll be around. Intelligent stock so We've all been into shops now where there's few checkouts, there's lots of self-scan. That part of the operation has been done, the part where most of the money is spent now outside of kind of services stock. So I think you know. Intelligent use of video capture, video analytics, intelligent use of electronic shelf edge labels. There's cameras now that are looking for gaps and prompting smart replens, so you're not just taking all the stock back, shop stock out and trying to work at you really targeted. So there's there's lots in that, as well as date checking, mark downs, reductions, so that that's the big chunk of labor that's left in most retail operations. So that's, in my view, where it'll go okay, no, that's, that's great.
Speaker 1:Um, simon, that was the main discussion and I think you answered those questions very well and hopefully people listening into this will be able to take some chunks of your knowledge and be able to help implement them if they can. On that point of view, if you could summarise in a really well worded section called the top three tips, could you give us your top three tips for businesses to make them more productive, regardless of what sector they're in, in three understand your business through data.
Speaker 2:So where are you spending your time, on what, and for how long? In number two understand how much it really costs to run your business. So not the budget you give the stores, but the we'd call it workload, bottom-up budget. So, based on all the things you do, how long does it really take and how much budget you need, because there's normally a big difference.
Speaker 1:And number one tip.
Speaker 2:Make sure you're getting the right work done by the right role at the right cost. And what I mean by that is if you've got lots of expensive leaders, because typically they're paid more than colleagues filling shelves doing things. In the current climate, that's a very expensive way to to fill your shop.
Speaker 1:Simon, that was really insightful. Thank you ever so much. Well, I hope you enjoyed being on Rethink Revealed and that's it for today. So hopefully everyone can find some useful information from that. But thanks, simon, for being involved. You're welcome, no problem. Yeah, hopefully catch up with you soon, take care, bye-bye. Well, that's it for Rethink Revealed.
Speaker 2:I hope you found it insightful and like me, you learned something new.
Speaker 1:You can find great podcasts from Rethink Productivity on our website, which I'll link in the show description along with the music we used today. I'll hopefully catch you again soon for the next episode of Rethink Revealed. Until then, bye, bye.
