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By: Kathy Kent Toney, Chief Advisor, AI & Advanced Systems at Kent Solutions  Image by Kathy Kent Toney There’s something a little bittersweet about writing a final blog post. When I started blogging in May 2019, I didn’t fully know where it would lead. I simply knew I had things I wanted to share — ideas about business, customer relationships, better systems, and practical improvements that help people work smarter and serve others well. Over time, this blog became a place for me to share what I was learning and what I was seeing in the real world. It became a place to talk about CRMs, automation, follow-up, AI, workflow improvements, and the very human side of running a business well. And for that, I’m deeply grateful. If you’ve spent time here reading what I’ve written over the years, thank you. Truly. I never take it lightly when someone gives their time and attention to something I’ve created. There are always a hundred other things competing for that attention, and I’ve always appreciated the people who chose to spend even a few minutes here. This blog has been an important part of my journey. It gave me a place to think out loud, test ideas, share what was working, and, hopefully, encourage business owners and leaders who were trying to build something meaningful without drowning in manual work, missed follow-ups, or disconnected systems. But sometimes growth means more than just adding new things. Sometimes it means getting clearer about where different kinds of content belong. That’s where I am now. My work has expanded, but one thing has not changed: I still care deeply about helping people simplify operations, improve follow-up, make better decisions, and use technology in ways that feel practical, thoughtful, and genuinely helpful. Going forward, I’ll be continuing that work through two distinct publications. If you’re looking for practical small business guidance — including automation, follow-up, CRM use, and ways to make your business run more smoothly without losing the human touch — the SMB Automation Brief is the best place to stay connected. If you’re more interested in broader leadership and technology topics — including emerging technology, execution, risk, and business value — the Enterprise Technology Leadership Brief will be the better fit. Both are designed to provide focused, useful content for different needs, and you can choose the one that fits you best using the buttons below. So while this blog is coming to a close, the work itself is not going away. It’s simply moving into clearer, more intentional homes. Thank you again for being part of this chapter. Thank you for reading. Thank you for supporting my work. Thank you for allowing my words a place to land. I’m grateful for the journey, and I hope you’ll stay connected for what comes next. Please choose your selection below to keep my content coming your way!
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By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions  Image by creativeart on Freepik Don't you love those conversations with friends that help create connections between nebulous thoughts that swirl around in your brain and succinctly summarize their meaning? Well, I had one of those conversations a while back. This friend of mine said one thing that has stuck with me. She put words to my life's mission into one sentence: Kathy, you're all about helping people become the best versions of themselves. Wow, she hit the nail on the head. I really couldn't say it better myself! As a certified life coach, I love to help people step into all the good life has in store. I'm also involved in prison ministry. As a worship leader, I can lead the inmate band at our monthly worship services. The men we work with appreciate what we do for them. Knowing I make a difference in people's lives makes my heart sing! So, why am I sharing this with you? Well, it translates well into my passion for work. I'm all about helping businesses become the best that they can be! The primary way I do that is through business transformation. Streamlining operations or undertaking projects to improve your business can result in a healthier bottom line. And that leads to the tagline for my business: I help organizations become profitable beyond their imagination! I do this through the following approaches:
The one service offering I'm most excited about is project management. I use my project management skills to run all kinds of initiatives: process improvement, IT, product development, and customer experience, to name a few. And I've experienced some great results! Scrum Project:
Voice of the Customer:
Sales Process:
For all these reasons listed above, I'm passionate about what I do—helping businesses become the best that they can be! So, that's enough about me. I'd love to find out more about what you do! Are you facing any challenges in your business? I'd love to hop on a Zoom or phone call to brainstorm some solutions with you—for free! If that sounds good, click the button below to schedule a time for us to talk. By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions  Image by Freepik As a business leader, have you ever experienced significant shortfalls with your customers that resulted in poor reviews or lost business? If this rings true for you, there is a solution that can prevent this from happening again—Voice of the Customer (VOC). It’s an invaluable tool for any business leader’s toolbox! Here's a great example of how one of my amazing clients turned a potentially harmful situation into a multi-million dollar outcome using VOC. The Problem This local manufacturer didn't have a standard process for gathering customer requirements to ensure proper incorporation before new product development efforts started nor to monitor them continually during the process. This problem became very evident when the following scenario happened. My client had recently established an innovation arm of their business for developing smart technology products. One day, they called upon an electrical contractor to install a prototype of their first new innovative product at a work site. Much to my client's chagrin, the contractor informed them that they had made a massive mistake in the housing of the product, making it non-functional in its current state. This mistake could have caused ALL kinds of serious issues, especially if they had to go back through a lengthy UL approval process. Thankfully, that wasn't the case! The Solution That's when the CEO decided to bring me in to develop a new approach they could integrate into their product development process. We got right to work! I teamed with them to create "how-to kits" for each different VOC type: surveys, focus groups, and customer visits, to name a few. Then we integrated the how-to kits into different phases of their product development process. That way, end users would know how to gather customer feedback at the correct times and places. Not only that, the process helped to ensure they incorporated that feedback into developing products. The Results The outcome was excellent! The first new product that used the VOC process experienced the following:
My client has been thrilled with the results! Another great thing about this process is that it's a drop-in system that can be easily adapted to other product development processes and even works for service delivery models. This aspect can benefit a company, allowing quicker and less costly implementations. And when it comes to process deployments, who doesn't want that? # # # As a "thank you" for reading my blog, here's a freebie I'd like to share with those of you who develop products—a Product Development Checklist. If you're new in this space, it can start you down the road of creating such a process or help you improve the one you already have. If you have a mature approach, feel free to adapt any new insights to improve your current process. Either way, I'd love to have you check it out! Just click the button below to download it. By: Kathy Kent Toney, President of Kent Business Solutions  Photo by Olga Guryanova on Unsplash In our post-pandemic business environment, how do manufacturers not just survive but thrive? With tight budgets, how do they also develop innovative products and get them to market more quickly? All manufacturing product managers need to know the one thing that's the answer to both questions! In a nutshell, it's Scrum. And I’m not talking about a rugby move. It's a whole different animal, so let's define it concerning product development: It's a process framework for developing products, all the way from envisioning the product to its completion. To put it simply, cross-functional team members come together to create products in an iterative flow that solves problems in real-time. Benefits of Scrum There are lots of reasons why manufacturers can reap benefits from Scrum. Here are a few worth mentioning:
Scrum for Hardware Scrum has historically been used for software development. To a lesser degree, it's been used on manufactured goods, such as cars, computer hardware, and aerospace products. However, it's not common for Scrum usage on manufactured goods, aka Scrum for Hardware. A genuine need exists (how many manufacturers don't want to accelerate the speed-to-market for their products?)! Case Study With the lack of established precedent, how does one go about implementing Scrum for manufactured goods? I had the same question and therefore began work on an answer. Background Schier Products in Edwardsville, KS, wanted to do what we're talking about: implement a Scrum strategy for product development purposes. Their existing stage-gate process was inefficient and ineffective; their last new product development effort required two to three years to complete! Schier’s goal was to speed up their development timelines. I partnered with them to do just that. Adapting Scrum to Hardware Although my knowledge of Scrum is extensive, I had never before applied Scrum principles to manufactured goods, so there was a short period of trial and error. Hardware is different from software in many ways, so it took some adaptation and ingenuity to make Scrum work for them. Results The result has been fantastic! It required two months to develop and implement the process, and it took only ten months to launch their newest product. Not only that, the flexible nature of Scrum allowed them to develop five additional modular subsystems that fit across their whole product line. If you include that accomplishment into the mix, that’s a +100% increase in speed-to-market! That is a whole lot better than two-to-three years! As evidenced by Schier's success, Scrum is a robust solution for increasing speed-to-market timelines for manufactured goods. They are so thrilled with Scrum; they plan to implement it enterprise-wide! # # # How is your product development process working for you? If it could use some sprucing up, then download my free Product Development Checklist. It will provide you some structure and potential improvements to your existing process. Click the button below to download this freebie! |
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