The problem with the current trend for headlines using, or more often misusing, economic technical terminology, is that they risk paralysing us mere mortals into the business equivalents of rabbits dazzled in car headlights, just waiting to be run over. We have been assailed by double dip and now triple dip recessions, fiscal cliffs, and all manner of disaster scenarios until we can no longer so see the wood for the trees. Yet each day the sun comes up, and we find that, once again, the world has not ended.
My point is that despite all the doom and gloom, since we don’t have a magic wand to change things, we only have two choices, give up and crawl back under the duvet or deal with it. While no-one can deny that things aren’t as easy as they seemed to be before the banking emperors were found to have no clothes, things are not universally disastrous. Even in the torrid areas of retail and construction there are businesses adapting and thriving.
As in nature, so it is in business, those businesses which adapt to the changing environment thrive, while the dinosaurs become extinct. Not perhaps the most comfortable thought in the current economic environment, but if you are prepared to come to terms with the fact that life isn’t fair, so you had just better get on with it, there are things you can do.
First of all, ignore the headlines and concentrate on the underlying economic environment as it affects your business. The consensus is that growth in the UK economy is going to be slow, but of course that is an average of activity across all sectors, so your sector could be better or worse than this.
Next take a step back from fighting the day to day tactical battles and take a longer term view of the business in relation to the business environment you find yourself in. This is something that most businesses just don’t do, and done properly you will be surprised how it can unearth opportunities and identify problems before they occur, allowing you to plan the actions needed to take advantage of the opportunity, or overcome the problem. This doesn’t have to be a time consuming exercise or a complex bureaucratic process, it just requires some hard thinking about where are we now, where do we want to be in the next 3-5 years, and how do we get there. What it may require to be really effective is someone to facilitate the process, preferably bringing a fresh pair of eyes to the business. The key thing is to have someone independent of the day to day activity, to challenge the status quo and ask the awkward questions we all avoid if we can. This may be a non-executive director, if you have one, or an external consultant.
Then once you have developed your longer term plan make sure that it is broken down into action plans, with responsibilities, time scales and resources allocated.
Finally regularly review the plan, it should not be seen as having been written on tablets of stone, and here again the third party can be key to its successful delivery, by regularly monitoring the process and holding people to account. Both the internal and external environments are constantly changing, and your plan may have to change to keep it on track, and maybe even change completely in the event of a major dislocation like the crash of 2008. My view would be that a progress update against the action plans should be discussed at a monthly board meeting, with a quarterly or half yearly review in more depth. Of course if you are hit with a real curve ball that knocks you substantially off track then this will probably require more immediate action. The point is that once you have mapped out the way that you want the business to go, by regularly reviewing progress any deviation can be quickly identified and corrective actions put in place.
And that’s it, a simple process requiring a bit of investment of time and effort. Hopefully once you have seen the benefits and clarity that a regular longer term planning process brings it will become part of the fabric of the business, and that can only result in a better business.
Lastly some good news for manufacturing based businesses; there is funding available to cover 50% of the cost of getting an external facilitator to assist with this process. As always there are criteria to be met but the definition of manufacturing is pretty wide. So if you are interested in learning more I can be contacted at trevor@uniqueconsulting.co.uk, and remember, forget about the headlines and just get on with it!
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Tags: Business, Business Advice, Business Success, double dip recession, fiscal cliff, non exec directors, Strategic Planning, Uncertainty, Why Plan
This entry was posted on 25/03/2013 at 9:45 am and is filed under General Business Comments, Strategic Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Forget the economic “geek speak” and deal with it.
The problem with the current trend for headlines using, or more often misusing, economic technical terminology, is that they risk paralysing us mere mortals into the business equivalents of rabbits dazzled in car headlights, just waiting to be run over. We have been assailed by double dip and now triple dip recessions, fiscal cliffs, and all manner of disaster scenarios until we can no longer so see the wood for the trees. Yet each day the sun comes up, and we find that, once again, the world has not ended.
My point is that despite all the doom and gloom, since we don’t have a magic wand to change things, we only have two choices, give up and crawl back under the duvet or deal with it. While no-one can deny that things aren’t as easy as they seemed to be before the banking emperors were found to have no clothes, things are not universally disastrous. Even in the torrid areas of retail and construction there are businesses adapting and thriving.
As in nature, so it is in business, those businesses which adapt to the changing environment thrive, while the dinosaurs become extinct. Not perhaps the most comfortable thought in the current economic environment, but if you are prepared to come to terms with the fact that life isn’t fair, so you had just better get on with it, there are things you can do.
First of all, ignore the headlines and concentrate on the underlying economic environment as it affects your business. The consensus is that growth in the UK economy is going to be slow, but of course that is an average of activity across all sectors, so your sector could be better or worse than this.
Next take a step back from fighting the day to day tactical battles and take a longer term view of the business in relation to the business environment you find yourself in. This is something that most businesses just don’t do, and done properly you will be surprised how it can unearth opportunities and identify problems before they occur, allowing you to plan the actions needed to take advantage of the opportunity, or overcome the problem. This doesn’t have to be a time consuming exercise or a complex bureaucratic process, it just requires some hard thinking about where are we now, where do we want to be in the next 3-5 years, and how do we get there. What it may require to be really effective is someone to facilitate the process, preferably bringing a fresh pair of eyes to the business. The key thing is to have someone independent of the day to day activity, to challenge the status quo and ask the awkward questions we all avoid if we can. This may be a non-executive director, if you have one, or an external consultant.
Then once you have developed your longer term plan make sure that it is broken down into action plans, with responsibilities, time scales and resources allocated.
Finally regularly review the plan, it should not be seen as having been written on tablets of stone, and here again the third party can be key to its successful delivery, by regularly monitoring the process and holding people to account. Both the internal and external environments are constantly changing, and your plan may have to change to keep it on track, and maybe even change completely in the event of a major dislocation like the crash of 2008. My view would be that a progress update against the action plans should be discussed at a monthly board meeting, with a quarterly or half yearly review in more depth. Of course if you are hit with a real curve ball that knocks you substantially off track then this will probably require more immediate action. The point is that once you have mapped out the way that you want the business to go, by regularly reviewing progress any deviation can be quickly identified and corrective actions put in place.
And that’s it, a simple process requiring a bit of investment of time and effort. Hopefully once you have seen the benefits and clarity that a regular longer term planning process brings it will become part of the fabric of the business, and that can only result in a better business.
Lastly some good news for manufacturing based businesses; there is funding available to cover 50% of the cost of getting an external facilitator to assist with this process. As always there are criteria to be met but the definition of manufacturing is pretty wide. So if you are interested in learning more I can be contacted at trevor@uniqueconsulting.co.uk, and remember, forget about the headlines and just get on with it!
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Tags: Business, Business Advice, Business Success, double dip recession, fiscal cliff, non exec directors, Strategic Planning, Uncertainty, Why Plan
This entry was posted on 25/03/2013 at 9:45 am and is filed under General Business Comments, Strategic Planning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.