In 1995 Sir John Harvey-Jones wrote:

We talk continuously about the need to improve our productivity and God knows it is a dire need: yet we appear to accept with equanimity that in the world of work we are achieving less than half of our capacity.  Luckily for us few other countries do much better, but the potential for improvement is so vast that it is incomprehensible that we do not debate, study and struggle to do better.

(Source: John Harvey-Jones (1995) All Together Now, Mandarin)

What was true in 1995 is, sadly, still true today.  We still have a long way to go before we can say that our businesses run as efficiently as they might.