In anticipation of her co-presentation at Building Business Capabilityin Vegas, Nov. 2 – 6, 2015, we asked Erika Cilengir, Senior Business Analyst at Beachbody, a few questions about pursuing business excellence. Check out her interview in relation to her BBC co-presentation entitled Moving Onto the Global Stage:  A Requirements Framework for International Expansion.

Q: How is your organization advancing the pursuit of business excellence and how does it impact your business units/departments?

A: Beachbody recently created a new business unit called Strategic Initiatives, the charter of which is to pursue and lead opportunities for international expansion of the company across all of its lines of business.  As a newly minted member of this business unit, I can already see that having a unit solely dedicated to international expansion will greatly facilitate that expansion by ensuring that the right questions are asked and that a repeatable process is established.

Q: Can you describe the challenges you face or have already overcome in establishing a more cohesive and productive company or organization?

A: When I worked as the lead business analyst on the first international expansion project that involved launching the Coach Network side of the business into Canada, one of our greatest challenges was securing staff whose primary focus was on the Canada project.  Most staff members involved were juggling many projects, of which Canada was only one.  Unfortunately, this resulted in delays and dropped balls.

Q: What are your near-term goals for creating a more agile organization at your business or company?

A: My initial focus since joining the Strategic Initiatives group has been on developing templates and processes that could be used for all future rollouts of the Coach Network side of the business.  Having templates and processes in place will make it much easier to hit the ground running once the next country is identified into which Beachbody wants to expand.

Q: What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned in 2015 thus far? What’s the most important goal/trend for [pick one or two: business analysts, business architects, business process managers and/or business rules managers] to keep in mind?

A: The most valuable thing I have learned this year is that if you identify something that can be improved and are willing to step up to offer a plan to improve it, people are often willing to support you and even jump on the bandwagon to help.  For example, I advocated and created a proposal for a Beachbody Internship Program that garnered the support of the C-Suite and our first three interns – one a “junior business analyst” intern – just completed the first summer internship.

Q: What’s the latest method/process/tool you have implemented to help your organization or business run more efficiently and effectively?

A: The Requirements Framework for International Expansion (RFIE), which is the focus of the talk that Yvonne Hull and I will be giving at the BBC Conference.  It will help ensure that the right questions are asked when expanding internationally and will make it possible to concentrate on the in-depth requirements for a new country rather than on the process of collecting those requirements.

Q: If you could give your five-years-ago self-insight and advice about this industry, what would you say?

A: I would have advised myself to learn more about Agile methodology, since it appears to be the wave of the future, and more about business intelligence and the importance of data and its manipulation using tools such as Excel.

Q: Sneak preview: Please tell us a take-away that you will provide during your talk at Building Business Capability.

A: One of the key take-aways from our talk is the importance of securing in-country experts (legal, tax, and regulatory, in particular, but also cultural) so that you don’t inadvertently bypass important requirements that could cost your company millions.

—————————–

Don’t miss Erika’s co-presentation, Moving Onto the Global Stage:  A Requirements Framework for International Expansion, at Building Business Capability on Wednesday, November 4, 2015 from 2:00 to 3:00 pm. Click here to register for attendance.