Process Consulting for Industrial B2B Organisations
Better processes. Clearer decisions. More effective collaboration.
Effective processes help organisations make better decisions, steer performance and turn priorities into action. Yet even well-documented processes do not always deliver the intended results.
In complex B2B organisations, challenges frequently arise where functions, responsibilities and management routines interact. Information is available but not used effectively. Decisions take too long. Reporting creates effort without sufficient insight. Collaboration across functions becomes difficult.
Mind your business helps organisations improve management-related processes where they have a direct impact on business performance.
Our approach combines analytical structure, practical corporate experience and close collaboration with the people who work within these processes.
When Process Consulting makes sense
Process Consulting is particularly relevant when your organisation faces one or more of these situations:
Important decisions take too long, are repeatedly revisited or lack effective follow-through,
Planning, forecasting or reporting processes require considerable effort but provide limited steering value,
KPIs and performance reviews do not lead to sufficiently clear actions,
Responsibilities and interfaces between functions create friction or conflicting priorities,
Strategies and improvement initiatives are not consistently translated into everyday processes and routines.
The objective is not to redesign processes for their own sake. It is to improve how your organisation makes decisions, collaborates and delivers results.
Making management processes work in practice
Effective processes are more than workflows, responsibilities and documentation.
They connect business objectives with information, decisions, people and actions. Their quality becomes visible in everyday management: how quickly issues are resolved, whether priorities are understood and how consistently decisions are implemented.
Mind your business approaches process improvement from a business perspective.
We start by understanding what a process is intended to achieve, where friction occurs and which changes would make a meaningful difference. We then work with the people involved to develop improvements that fit the organisation and can be put into practice.
The focus is not on introducing a standard methodology. It is on finding a better way of working.
Key areas of Process Consulting
The right starting point depends on your business context and the challenges you want to address.
Our work focuses on management-related processes that influence business decisions, performance and collaboration.
Three areas are particularly relevant.
Decision-Making & Governance Processes
Improve how decisions are prepared, discussed, taken and implemented.
Decisions are at the centre of business performance. Yet even experienced management teams can struggle with unclear criteria, incomplete perspectives, slow processes or inconsistent follow-through.
Process Consulting helps establish more effective approaches to making and implementing important decisions.
Typical areas of improvement:
Clarifying decision rights, responsibilities and escalation paths,
Improving decision preparation and the quality of supporting information,
Making management and decision meetings more effective,
Addressing conflicting objectives, assumptions and decision biases,
Strengthening decision follow-up and implementation reviews.
Explore Decision Excellence
Business Steering & Performance Processes
Connect planning, business information and management action more effectively via integrated processes.
Planning, forecasting, reporting and performance management should help organisations understand their position, assess options and steer future performance.
In practice, these processes can become disconnected from real management needs or create unnecessary complexity.
Typical areas of improvement:
Making planning and forecasting more business-relevant and efficient,
Strengthening business-case and investment evaluation processes,
Improving KPI frameworks and performance review routines,
Connecting management reporting with decisions and actions,
Clarifying the role of finance in business steering and collaboration.
Explore Controlling & Finance
Cross-Functional & Commercial Processes
Many business challenges arise at interfaces rather than within individual functions.
Marketing, sales, customer service, finance and operations may pursue related objectives while working with different information, priorities or processes.
Process Consulting helps clarify how functions interact, make decisions and contribute to common business outcomes.
Typical areas of improvement:
Clarifying responsibilities and handovers between functions,
Aligning commercial processes with customer and business priorities,
Improving the use of market, customer and performance information,
Strengthening coordination between marketing, sales and customer service,
Translating cross-functional initiatives into effective working routines.
Further areas of application
Depending on your organisation, Process Consulting may also address:
Strategy implementation and recurring management routines,
Governance structures and management processes,
Performance reviews and continuous improvement approaches,
Coordination between central functions and business units,
Process-related capability building and change support.
These topics can form part of a focused improvement project or complement ongoing Management Advisory.
How Process Consulting works
We do not start with a standard solution or a predefined transformation programme.
Our starting point is the specific process, its intended business contribution and the challenges experienced by the people involved.
1. Understand the process and identify friction:
We clarify the objectives, stakeholders, current process and relevant business context. This involves reviewing available information, discussing experiences with the people involved and identifying where decisions, interfaces or management routines are not working as intended.
The result is a shared understanding of the most relevant improvement opportunities.
2. Develop practical improvements together:
We work with your teams to develop, assess and prioritise options. The focus may be on decision criteria, responsibilities, process steps, information requirements, meeting formats, governance or performance indicators.
Solutions are designed to fit your organisation rather than applying a standard model.
3. Implement, review and embed improvements:
Process improvement creates value when the new approach works in daily business. We support the implementation of agreed measures, clarify responsibilities and establish suitable ways of reviewing progress.
Where necessary, adjustments are made based on practical experience and feedback.
The objective is a process that your organisation can operate and continuously improve.
Processes are about people, too
A process may look convincing on paper and still fail to produce the desired outcomes.
This often happens because people interpret objectives differently, work with conflicting incentives or follow established routines that are difficult to change.
Our approach therefore considers both the formal and behavioural sides of process effectiveness.
De-biasing adds a valuable perspective. Assumptions, thinking patterns and group dynamics can influence how information is interpreted, decisions are made and processes are followed.
By addressing these factors alongside structures and responsibilities, process improvements become more relevant to everyday business.
What Process Consulting should deliver
The outcome depends on your starting point and the process concerned.
Our work aims to create improvements that are visible in everyday management:
Clearer responsibilities, decision rights and process ownership,
More relevant information and better preparation of management decisions,
More effective planning, reporting and performance review routines,
Stronger collaboration across functions and organisational boundaries,
Practical improvements that can be sustained internally.
The ultimate objective is not a more elaborate process description. It is a better-functioning organisation.
Experience across functions and management processes
Process Consulting with Mind your business is grounded in practical experience from international industrial organisations.
Markus Eckhart brings more than 25 years of corporate and leadership experience across finance, business planning, performance management, strategy and B2B marketing.
His professional background includes developing and improving processes, leading cross-functional initiatives and working with management teams on complex business challenges.
This experience helps identify issues that may not be visible from a purely functional or methodological perspective.
Possible formats of collaboration
The scope of Process Consulting depends on the specific challenge, its complexity and the improvement potential. Three formats provide useful starting points.
- Process Friction Review:
Identify where a management process is losing effectiveness. A focused assessment of a selected management process. We examine where delays, unnecessary complexity, unclear responsibilities or weak connections to business decisions may occur.
Suitable when: You want an independent perspective and a clearer understanding of improvement opportunities before starting a larger initiative. - Focused Process Improvement Project:
Develop and implement improvements in a defined process. A structured project to improve a decision-making, steering or cross-functional process. The work combines analysis, solution development, stakeholder involvement and implementation preparation or support.
Suitable when: A process has been identified as a relevant performance issue and practical improvements are needed. - Management & Cross-Functional Workshops:
Create clarity and alignment across functions. Facilitated working sessions with the managers and functions involved in a process. We clarify objectives, different perspectives, responsibilities and improvement options, and develop a shared understanding of the next steps.
Suitable when: The main challenge lies in cross-functional alignment, conflicting priorities or unclear ways of working.
Additional support
Depending on your needs, the collaboration can also include:
Reviews of existing process improvement initiatives,
Business-case and KPI reviews,
Implementation support and progress reviews,
Training linked to new management processes,
Ongoing advisory support for related management challenges.
Explore Management Advisory
Getting started
1. Clarify the challenge
We discuss the process, its business relevance, the current difficulties and the desired outcomes.
2. Define the scope
We identify the relevant stakeholders, available information, potential improvement opportunities and a suitable working approach.
3. Agree on the next steps
We establish the scope, responsibilities, timeline and initial activities for a review, workshop or focused improvement project.
Questions we typically clarify
Which process or interface needs attention,
What is not working as intended,
What are the consequences for decisions, performance or collaboration,
Who needs to be involved,
What would a successful improvement look like?
Who benefits from Process Consulting?
Process Consulting is particularly relevant for:
Executive management and business unit leaders,
Finance, controlling and performance management teams,
Transformation, process excellence and improvement leaders,
Marketing, commercial and sales management,
Cross-functional project and implementation teams.
Our primary focus is on industrial, process-driven and internationally active B2B organisations.
When an assignment requires additional expertise or broader implementation capacity, Mind your business can involve selected experienced partners from its professional network.
This is particularly useful for larger initiatives, interdisciplinary challenges or assignments requiring specialist knowledge beyond our core areas.
What others say about our collaboration on processes
I had the pleasure to work together with Markus in the area of Commercial Excellence where he provided expert guidance and proved great work ethic as well as commitment to detail.
With his broad experience and “down-to-earth” leadership style, he enriched the project with his highly strategic, insightful, and actionable recommendations while never losing sight of the big picture.
Martina Janssen, Commercial Excellence Manager
Review a process that should work better
Are decisions taking too long, are steering processes creating unnecessary effort, or are functional interfaces limiting performance?
Let's discuss which process would benefit most from improvement and how Mind your business could support your organisation.
For broader, ongoing management support, explore Management Advisory.