Business Management

Managing Change In Your Business

Managing change in an organization is crucial if the business is to move forward with adapting any new structure or shift in business focus needed to realize its goals of growth and profit improvement.


Here are a few thoughts on areas management needs to focus on to implement and manage change in the organization.



1. Responsibility. 
Clearly management and communication of change rests at the senior levels of the organization. Employees have the responsibility to try and accept and help implement changes.

2. Involvement. 
Management should involve employees in the changes – it is never a good idea to just impose change from the top. Employees want to understand how they are impacted.

3. Understand.
Knowing where the organization is and understanding where you want to be at a specific time, why, and what steps are needed to achieve the goal are all critical steps.

4. Plan.
The organization must develop a plan that is achievable if management is going to be credible. The plan should set out stages for implementing change in phases that are not only achievable but measureable.

5. Communicate
This stage cannot be overly stressed. Clear communication of objectives, involvement of staff at the early stages, and empowering them will facilitate involvement and buy in for the company.

It is obvious to most business owners that people matter. Sometimes however the organization gets lost in plans and processes rather than facing the difficult and more important people issues. Making the initial steps to involve the entire organization starting at the top will help achieve success.

I’m always happy to hear your thoughts.
Gerry@polarisgroupmc.com

Business Management

Critical Steps to Crisis Management

Unplanned events can have a devastating effect on small businesses. Crises such as fire, damage to stock, illness of key staff or IT system failure could all make it difficult or even impossible to carry out your normal day-to-day activities.
At worst, this could see you losing important customers - and even going out of business altogether.
But with good planning you can take steps to minimize the potential impact of a disaster - and ideally prevent it happening in the first place.

Here are a few ideas to consider:


1. Plan
It's essential to plan thoroughly to protect yourself from the impact of potential crises since you may lack the resources to cope easily in a crisis.
Failure to plan could be disastrous. At best you risk losing customers while you're getting your business back on its feet. At worst your business may never recover.


2.  Identify a spokesperson
If the crisis could potentially impact the health or well-being of customers, the general public or employees, it may attract media attention. To ensure your company speaks with one voice and delivers a clear consistent message, a spokesperson must be identified as well as prepared to answer media questions and participate in interviews.


3. Collaborate
While there is nothing more important than forming a strong bond with your employees and clients, don’t overlook others with whom you should forge a relationship. This includes the local police department, community centers, and educational institutions among others.


4. Continuity
You should draw up a business continuity plan setting out how you will cope if a crisis does occur.
 It should detail:
- the key business functions you need to get operating as quickly as possible and the resources you'll need to do so
- the roles of individuals in the emergency
Making the most of the first hour after an emergency occurs is essential in containing the impact. As a result, your plan needs to explain the immediate actions to be taken.

5. Communicate with customers and suppliers
You do not want customers and suppliers to learn about your crisis through the media. Information on any crisis pertaining to your organization should come from you first. Part of the crisis communications plan must include customers and suppliers and how they will be regularly updated during the event.


No matter what has happened in the past, you never know what the future holds. At some point, you are likely to face a crisis. How and when you deal with this will determine what direction your company takes. I hope these suggestions help. Please let me know your thoughts: Gerry@polarisgroupmc.com

Business Management

Leadership Principles for your Business Success

Effective business leadership demands a captain of the ship, not just someone who's standing by the helm. Leadership is active, not passive.

Cool-headed, farseeing, visionary, courageous - whichever adjectives you choose, leadership is a winning combination of personal traits and the ability to think and act as a leader, a person who directs the activities of others for the good of all. 

But you can't be a leader just by saying you are. Business leadership, like leadership of any kind, needs to be worked at. 

Here are a few principles that merit consideration:

1. Create a Vision

Vision is essential to good leadership. Vision provides direction and without direction, there’s not much point to all that planning; your small business will still flail about. Create a Vision Statement for your business. You may wish to become the “Preferred” supplier in your field. To become the Preferred supplier in addition to offering high-quality, reliable products and services, you must provide a great customer experience. Preferred suppliers create a competitive advantage by servicing their customers better than their competition.

2. Plan proactively

The core of business leadership is being proactive rather than reactive. Sure, leaders are good in crises - but that doesn't mean they sit around letting crises develop. Leadership involves identifying potential problems and solving them before they reach crisis proportions. Good leaders analyze and plan and adapt their plans to new circumstances and opportunities.

3. Embrace a culture of continuous improvement

Share with your employees that your expectation is for them to continuously improve their part of the business. Ensure they have the needed resources to do their jobs and don’t micromanage them.

If your company doesn’t continually improve, it will fall behind its competition. Even though continuous improvement is led by the CEO and other senior leaders, it is driven by employees at every level within the company. 

4. Staffing

Businesses are as successful as the people working in it. Great leaders who created successful companies have one thing in common: they surround themselves with talented, courageous, loyal people. Hire people with good critical judgements who are unafraid of making decisions. Once you have recruited them, invest in their development through training, coaching and fair compensation.

Learning to be a leader isn't easy because it takes a conscious commitment and consistent effort to develop one's business leadership skills. The advantage for the business however can be immeasurable.

Please let me know your thoughts: gerry@polarisgroupmc.com