Changing a business
It does not really make a difference if you are changing an international multi-national with thousands of staff, a medium sized business that works in a more specific geographic location or a local trader.
Changing a business follows some simple rules. These may be seen as cliche´s, but in the end business is business and not an art.
- Have a plan
- Take little steps
- It’s all about hearts and minds
- Good leadership is non negotiable
- It may take longer than you think
- Be positive and trust in your abilities
Changing a business is normally a reaction to poor financial performance over a period of time. As such, business change is normally reactionary and based around saving money. You will hear words such as re-structure, re-organise, downsize and core business however the best way to reorganise a business is pro-actively.
Your strategy must be to keep a tight control of costs and to drive turnover. This is how to define business change.
Technology is always the go to tool for business change, however empowering your people and demanding good leadership are just as fundamental.
When keeping a tight control over costs you need to be clear in your mind what costs are, what investment is and whether your business has a tendency towards false economy. Your people are increasingly important to your business.
Sales minded people believe that business change is about selling a proposition to implement it, whereas getting people on board is more about their hearts and minds for me. Good leadership is hard to come by, and should a business be in need of change, this is the starting point. Is the business well managed?
Change for change’s sake is pointless. The latest tools appearing through Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning are game changers. Any fear associated with these tools will ultimately put a business in an adverse market position unless the benefits are regularly assessed and integrated into business plans. Your people are human, and as such are hearing much of the negative fearmongering which is swamping the implementation of potential benefits.
Sectors such as education, training, marketing and any form of content creation will be first to see massive change as the most innovative businesses benefit from being first in uptake. Your suppliers will already be using AI tools which asks the question, are you benefiting from their lower costs?
Back in the day there was an excellent book written about 'keeping things simple (stupid)'. The KISS methodology still stands today and never so more obvious with the noise around AI.
The implementation of this is, however, likely to fail unless you are empowering your people to enable the benefits and they they themselves are under good management.
