business transformation

Complexity as the enemy is a popular catch cry.

So what creates complexity in organisations and should strategies that generate complexity be avoided?

Here’s a quick summary of what is typically described as making organisations more complex.

People; more staff, more staff locations, multiple lines of accountability and responsibility, role duplication, diversity of workforce, more relationships with third parties / business partners / vendors.

You may have seen my interview last year with Henley Business School, talking about how to succeed with corporate change, and the need for organisations to invest enough time upfront to ensure that people are involved in co-developing the solution, and that they can see benefits of the change along the way. This will give you the best chance of the transformation being sustainable.

Whilst your organisation has been successfully growing the business, are the controls and processes that were originally implemented, still fit for purpose?

The news feeds and press are rife with companies suffering from major challenges, potentially serious enough to put the organisation out of business, along with many smaller firms in their supply chains. The most recent sad demise of Carillion, being a prime example.

People say that these challenges can be traced back to one or two badly contracted or managed deals, at an aggressively competitive moment in time.

On Tuesday 21 November 2017, Robert Gabriel Mugabe officially resigned as the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. After 37 years in power, the man who became his country’s first democratically elected leader in 1980, stepped down in the wake of a military takeover that has sent shockwaves around the world.

If you had to create a list of the companies you’d like to work for – how would you go about assessing which ones would be the best fit for you? 

The problem with things like the Best Place to Work surveys is that they tend to look at tick box criteria: how well people are paid, their benefits, training budgets, if they comply with employment legislation etc. What they don’t capture are the more important things that are harder to measure, like whether someone’s work is intrinsically interesting or meaningful.

So, you are into e-commerce & struggle to keep up with Amazon (which boasts the #1 app among Millennials and Centennials and made over $ 43 billion in Q3 2017)? Don’t worry, your competitors face exactly the same problems – and turn to Artificial Intelligence to solve them. Discover how using e-commerce AI solutions can help you deliver the ultimate shopping experience, reduce operating and staffing costs and boost revenue.

Digital evolution is an ongoing journey for every business.

Gone are the days of saying that you have ‘done’ digital after a major technology overhaul. Instead, it is an evolution to transition and optimise your business continually. Even digitally native companies know that they have to innovate and stay ahead of the game because of growing disruption and rapid technological change.

Most digital transformation strategies are neither strategic nor transformational.

Michael Porter, the famous Harvard Strategy Professor said “If we’re satisfied with vague strengths and weakness lists, we’re not thinking very clearly about strategy”. “There’s a distinction between operational effectiveness and strategic positioning”.

“Should we be on the cloud or have our own servers? That’s an operational effectiveness question.  What we understand is that operational effectiveness is not strategy”.

Season's Greetings from The BTN!

Organisational culture has a clear impact on a business’s ability to meet financial goals and create an impact on their overall market influence. A system of shared values and beliefs will govern how team members behave within your organisation, from how they dress right through to how they perform in their roles.