Business technology systems and innovation
Mark Sinclair

Tip for improving business results – Challenge the status quo!

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Interested in improving business results?  How does the saying go? If you continue to do what you have always done you will get the same result.  Well that may or may not be true in business. True, poor processes or poor service will no doubt lead to continued poor results. On the other hand, business results may have been very good but continuing to do the same thing may lead to future decreases in business performance and possibly even business failure. This could be due to factors like changing customer needs, habits or buying processes, new competitor offerings, competitor use of new technologies, new products or services displacing ours, supply chain factors, political changes, economic changes and more. Also, just because results are very good does not necessarily mean they could not be even better.

An essential skill for any small business owner is the ability to challenge the status quo with a view to improving business results, service, products, business processes, staying ahead of competitors, engaging staff or suppliers and ultimately ensuring ongoing success and more profit.

So, business owners and leaders should continually ask questions and seriously challenge the current ways of working. Who should they ask – themselves, their leaders, their staff, their customers, their suppliers and other experts. All of them! Questions for improving business results could include the following and many more.

  • Is there is there a better way to deliver our service or product?
  • How can we better serve our customers?
  • In what ways could we be more efficient?
  • Are we properly focused on market opportunities? How can we be better at maximising our market opportunities?
  • How could we better engage our staff?
  • What do we know about our competitors and what they are doing?
  • Do we understand available and potential new technologies and how they could benefit our business (or our competitors if not us)? Have we actually tried to experience these technologies.
  • How could we improve our processes to benefit customers, staff and management?
  • Have we identified critical risks and implemented mitigation plans? Are we truly prepared if they eventuate?

Here are a few suggestions:

  • Take a serious look at competitors and potential competitors. Look at their website. Call them. Visit their premises if they have one. Try buying something. Find their customers and ask them about their experience with the competitor.
  • Take a field trip. Go and spend time with customers, visit competitors, visit suppliers. Go to a different market or geographic region to see what they are doing.
  • Experiment. Try it. Experiential learning is critical. For example, if you don’t experience a new technology, service or product then how can you understand the potential uses, benefits and implications for your business or how it may be implemented?
  • Ask your customers.  Talk to them about their needs and their experience of your service or products. Conduct a survey (but make it brief and targeted – don’t bombard them).
  • Ask your staff. Engage them in the process. You might be surprised at the ideas and knowledge they have.
  • Talk to suppliers. They may have invaluable knowledge about opportunities. They are also likely supplying your competitors and have knowledge about them.
  • Look around. Look at other business and industries to see what you can learn from them.
  • Do some targeted research. Check out the web, YouTube, readings and other sources.

The capacity to challenge the status quo is a critical skill for business leaders in improving business results.  If you would like to find out more about how we can help, please contact Simulthink or click here for more information on our innovation management services.

Business coaching
Mark Sinclair

A tip for Small Business owners and leaders – Take time out from the operations to Think and Act strategically!

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Business owners and leaders constantly find themselves caught up in the operational and day to day. That is completely understandable.  Small business owners typically have to be a jack of all trades. Customers, marketing, sales, products, services, systems, processes, human resources, financial, technology, communications don’t wait. They all have to be managed by someone – and usually there is no department to do it. Just the owner or business leader and a hand full of staff.  No wonder one of the major pitfalls for business owners is failing to take the time out from operations to think and act strategically or do some business planning. Somehow, business leaders need to find the time to do both – the strategic planning and the operational.  So, here are a few simple steps and tips to get started and create the time for business planning and strategy.

In summary, the key steps are:

  1. Delegate
  2. Do something different
  3. Summarise the current business or AS-IS
  4. Define the Vision for the business or TO-BE
  5. Articulate a compelling Case for Action
  6. Develop and execute the plan

The first step for business owners and leaders is to DELEGATE as much of their operational and tactical workload as possible.  Leaders should review their role and separate out their operational workload from their strategic workload. Seriously ask – how much time do I spend on planning for the future.  Then get curious about the future and invest the right amount of time in planning for it.

The second step is to DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT from the normal day to day. Get out of the office.  Take key staff with you. Go on a field trip. Use the wealth of strategic planning processes and tools available – SWOT, Visioning, Values development, BCG Matrix, Portfolio Analysis, Competitor analysis, etc. There are many tools available to help business leaders think differently. In need, get a consultant to help.

The third step is to clearly articulate the current state of the business or the AS-IS and summarise it – finances, resources, operations, staff, structure, customers, services, products, systems, processes, technology, communications, etc.?  Understanding the starting point is fundamental to any journey.

The fourth step is to take the time to consider the possibilities and imagine the future or TO-BE for the business. Describe the vision for the business and time frame to achieve it. In other words, what will the business look like in the future and when? What markets will be served? What services or products will be offered?  What is happening in the industry elsewhere in the world? What will the customers look like? What will the staff look like and what skills will they have? What will the systems and processes look like?  What technology opportunities will be leveraged? What will competitors be doing and offering? If you cannot articulate the future then how will you know what needs to be achieved for success?

The fifth step is to create the CASE FOR ACTION. Consider both the AS-IS (current state of the business) and the TO-BE (or vision for the business) and make a list of the compelling reasons for change. The Vision needs to be inspiring but the Case for Action has to be the driving and motivating reasons for change. Maybe customers won’t need your current services.  Maybe new technologies will make your products or services obsolete. You may have to create new efficiencies to remain profitable or to be competitive. Staff may need completely new skill sets to achieve the vision. Create an explicit list.

Beyond these steps, the plan will need to be developed and executed.  But that will be another tip. In our experience, Execution matters more than the inspiration. Great strategies and business plans require great execution.  Without effective execution, plans are worthless.  That is why we created Simulthink – to help leaders, business owners and teams Think and Act Together!  Click here for more information about business planning and strategy.

Business innovation management
Mark Sinclair

The benefits of innovation may have no relation to the size of the innovation itself

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Innovation is simply the introduction of something new – e.g. knowledge, an idea, a method, a device or a technology. Innovation is at the heart of ongoing business and organisation success.  Business survival depends upon innovation, whether incremental or fundamental.  Importantly, the benefits of innovation may have no relationship to the size of the innovation itself.  Small changes to products, services or processes can sometimes deliver transformational business benefits.  So, business leaders need to be mindful of small changes that have the potential to deliver major benefits.

Business leaders should challenge themselves, their teams and their staff to innovate by questioning existing approaches to planning, resourcing, service, products, systems and technology and introducing new concepts, processes and ways of thinking. Innovation may be required to become the leader in a field.  Maybe, innovation is required to keep up with competitors.  Innovation may be small or possibly transformational.

As we have pointed out, an important point is that innovation can range from very small changes to major change.  The benefits of the change may have no relation to the size of the innovation and the level of work involved in implementation.  Very small changes can sometimes have business transforming effects.

Consider the successful organisations of today and the way they operate, the products they provide or the services they deliver.  We challenge you to identify any successful organisation that has not achieved its success through innovation – either as a leader of change or a follower.  On the other hand, there is a long list of organisations that no longer exist because of a failure to innovate effectively.

Here are some key questions to ask.

  • What creativity processes and tools do you use?
  • Do you have an innovation culture and, if not, how do you develop one?
  • How effective are your problem solving and decision making processes?
  • Have you performed a competitor analysis?
  • Have you searched for, and experienced, best practice?
  • How successful are you at converting ideas into results?
  • What processes do you have for idea generation and evaluation?
  • What attention are you paying to experiential activities – do you visit other markets, do you try to experience new technologies to understand potential uses and benefits?

Here is a reference to some ideas on innovation management.

Mark Sinclair

Execution of strategy matters more than inspiration

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In our experience, Execution matters more than the inspiration.  Great strategies and business plans require great execution.  Without effective execution, plans are worthless. Probably the most important requirement for successful implementation is the alignment of leaders and teams with the vision and what needs to be achieved.  Carefully considered and planned stakeholder management  and communication is essential. The selected approach to implementation should be customised to fit with the business or organisational context.  Implementation and project management often require different approaches, skill sets and resources at varying stages.  There are a myriad of project management approaches and processes and the best  approach will vary from one organisation and project to another.  Here is a reference to some ideas on the change implementation process and the inputs for successful execution of plans.

Mark Sinclair

Business planning needs to balance the possible with the achievable

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Strategic planning and business planning require the capacity to balance what may be possible with what is achievable.  A major pitfall in strategic planning and business planning is failure to implement the plan or to put in place the essential conditions for organisational or leadership success. The planning process requires expertise, processes and models to help identify the possibilities as well as to make the right strategic and business decisions.  Along the way business leaders need to put in place the skills, systems and resources to implement their plans and operate in the new strategic or business environment.  In other words, success comes from embedding the skills and processes so that successful implementation of the strategy or business plan does not depend upon their involvement alone.  Strategic planning and business planning requires consideration of many factors.  Here is a reference to some of the typical  components of the strategic planning and business planning process.