Has Change Management Changed?

Change management is a structured process to help public institutions, private companies and individuals adapt to extensive change of all kinds. For example, if a large military base is closed in an area that depends heavily on the installation for employment and economic health, there will be many extensive changes that are both complicated and difficult to predict in advance. Such attempts to have an organized approach for coping with a changing business, government and financial environment have understandably provided mixed results. Is there a better way to deal with change?

If any attempted solution is not dealing satisfactorily with a specific problem, even change management strategies should realistically be changed in an effort to find workable solutions. Managing change successfully requires a delicate balance of the following elements:

• Flexibility
• Creativity
• Collaboration
• Management (one of only two words in "change management")
• Planning

While there are multiple results which are not identical, the lack of effective management and planning is frequently a major contributing factor when change management efforts do not succeed. Some pertinent planning and change management advice from an individual often referred to as "The Man Who Invented Management" is provided in the following Peter Drucker quote:

    "Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window. The best way to predict the future is to plan it."

Changes in the banking industry provide an illustration of why change management strategies are frequently not the answer to many situations involving extensive change. Few industries have changed more than banks during recent years. Individuals and companies faced with bank services that have been restructured are faced with uncertainty as to what their new financial choices are. In some ways it is a situation that is not so different from the previous example of how a community was impacted when a military base closed. Banks have been a core member of communities for many years, but banks have suddenly changed and there is not an organized change management strategy to help.

Do You Have A Strategic Business Or A Tactical, Reactive Business?

Do you have a strategic business or a tactical, reactive business?

A strategic business will outperform a tactical, reactive business in all metrics. Studies show 60% of the profits at Fortune 500 Companies come from strategic business practices, yet only 10% of small and medium-sized businesses are using strategic business practices.If you want to vault quickly above your business competitors, ask these strategic questions:

Do you have an overall Vision of what your business really does and where it is going? Are you doing something daily to move towards that Vision?

Do you have detailed daily plans for your long-term business goals? Do you follow them, or are you in a reaction mode to whatever the day throws at you?

Is your business focus on "problems" or "solutions"? That is a very profitable mind shift.

Do you look for Strategic Alliance opportunities to expand your distribution, product lines, service lines, marketing, intellectual capital, prospect generation, or create an entirely new business within your business?

Do you constantly look for well executed great ideas in other industries, and then ask yourself "how can I use this in my industry"? (This concept alone will place you high above your competition.)

What systems, procedures and policies are in place to maximize your business efficiency and profitable output?

Do your daily tactics (systems) support your strategic Vision and goals? Have you tested improvements to those daily tactics?

Do you educate your clients and prospects to show them why you are the logical first choice?

Do you have a UVP (Unique Value Proposition)? Is your UVP in all of your marketing material?

Have you identified your perfect client and where to find that perfect client?

Do you know the highest impact areas of your business? Do you know the numbers?

Remember the Pareto Principle: 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results. Focus on that 20%.

Do you focus on improving one high impact area of your business each week?

Do you know where your industry is heading? Are you a leader in that industry growth?

Do you know what your business will look like 3 years from now? One year from now?

Could you identify the 3 most important action steps your business needs to complete each day to move you towards your business Vision?

The Ultimate Guide To Lean Enterprise

Lean manufacturing can be described as a practice that considers the expenditure of resources linked with any process of any particular organization. And if any step within the process fails to create value for the organization that becomes a target for elimination. Any organization that religiously follows the principles of lean manufacturing can be called as Lean enterprise. Manufacturing scenario has completely changed with the advent of lean thinking. With the advent of lean concept, the increase in the quality of the end products and the fall in cost of manufacturing products are quite visible. Lean enterprise is responsible for the manufacturing of top quality products at a great deal.

Some of the common characteristic of lean enterprise includes various factors. Those factors could be-

• Primary focus on the customers- Whatever it be, the truth remains the same, you are designing the product for the customer and he is the one who is giving you profit by buying your services or products. It is of utmost important that you give value to your customer by taking care of his needs, wants and demands.

• Appropriate alignment of the organization- The employees are the key people in the company. The smooth functioning of the company depends largely on its people. So, it is important that the people should know their purposes of being in the company apart from knowing just job description. All the people involved in a company directly, or indirectly should be well aware of the goals of the company.

• Building trust- Trust building is of utmost importance. Yet, it is the toughest job to be executed as there are thousand options available for the consumers in the market. Yet, trust building is possible with constant effort.

• Knowledge sharing- Probably knowledge is the only thing that increases with sharing. Moreover sharing knowledge also increases the chance that your company will start running well.

• Questioning culture- Any office should not be a pin-drop-silence classroom. It is of immense importance that you build up an atmosphere of constant questioning. Constant questioning helps you reach the root of any problem.

• Flexible manpower- If you are having manpower you have got all the strength in your hand. Manpower plays the most important part if you are really willing to give pace to your organization's production. Flexible manpower is also required to give desired results in customer's demand.

• Visuals- Visuals are way more important than they appears. Visuals are not irregular and are driven by factual data's. It actually helps in spotting the action that has not delivered as per the expectations at the earliest point and eliminate that at the earliest.

• Continuous improvement- There is no full stop to development. If you wish to develop, there is always a scope for development. Continuous development is required to enhance the growth of the organization.