I joined a webinar the other day about someone’s experiences building a high performing team. A 45-minute presentation plus 15 minutes for questions, so an hour. I reflected on the ‘value’ of that hour spent and my immediate reaction was one of feeling, to put it kindly, a little ‘underwhelmed’.
In a previous blog [COVID-19 -- three things that businesses should do NOW], I offered some short-term solutions to improve collaboration where businesses have not yet implemented remote working capabilities. It reminded me about a conversation that I had with a client CEO some years ago when we were discussing the business case for a PC upgrade – their computers still had Microsoft XP (some even had NT!) and the antivirus software was no longer in support.
As government advice strengthens to reduce the peak of COVID-19 cases that need NHS intervention and thus avoid those services being swamped, we only have to look at Italy and France to see what further measures may be implemented in the next few weeks.
Businesses are already being impacted by the pandemic, and it will get worse. Here are three things that you should do NOW to better ensure that you weather the storm…
It's perhaps a debatable use of language but the so called 'IT labour market' seemingly continues to grow. The word 'boom' has been used. And yet there's a counter intuitive problem arising. Despite this being a period of growth, companies are finding it hard to recruit IT people.
You may recall that I wrote recently about booking a hire car online. The problems with the drop down menu were an insight into what can go wrong if your technology doesn’t deliver.
This weekend I was booking a hire car online from the UK. I went to the website of a highly reputable organisation and selected the airport in Florida from where I needed to collect the car. Next drop down box is where I wanted to drop it off. Click. Next box - the dates and times.
Even now the implications of BREXIT remain as unpredictable as ever. The fact of its happening is a given. The machinations of implementing it I’ll leave to the politicians. But, the implications of it are far from certain; because they’re so diverse.
That may sound counter intuitive, or just plain contradictory, but it’s worth thinking through. Delivering business change through IT is what I do, and over the last few years I’ve realised that one key reason for a business to need my services is not that they’re about to change what they do, or even how they do it; they need to implement change because their current IT systems no longer meet the needs of the organisation as it stands.
If your company has a long history, stretching back to the pre-digital age, it will have undergone significant changes at several key stages. Production methods will have altered. There will have been increasing choice of media through which to promote the business.
And of course, came the day, the computers arrived. After that the systems became part of what was to become ‘IT’.
Even if your business has a shorter time line, and it came into existence after the digital revolution, the chances are that the systems that were installed originally are not the ones to take you too much further into the future.
It’s often said that the one advantage small businesses have over big ones is that they are more ‘fleet of foot’. They can adjust to change more rapidly, and change direction more easily. The old sailing boat compared to an oil tanker analogy springs to mind.
Whilst there’s considerable truth in that, managing the changes needed to grow, diversify and stay up to speed is a process that shouldn’t differ wildly with the size of the organisation involved.
Running your business involves dozens, possibly thousands, of projects. Each individual job, contract, or sale, is a project. Every system, with its attendant monitoring and controls is a project. They are all tasks, and the people involved are familiar with them. They know what they’re doing, and a good project manager will have created the right team to deliver each part of the task to bring it to fruition.
It’s perhaps not the most elegant of metaphors but it works very well. Your business, depending on its size and complexity, will have numerous tasks and communications that need carrying out every day. They are what makes your business ‘happen’. But nothing ‘happens’ if those tasks can’t be carried out, or those communications carried, efficiently and cost effectively. They need a reliable, fir for purpose medium to carry them. In short, the ‘roads’ or infrastructure of your business is your IT system.
Assuming - and why wouldn’t I? - that you’re running a successful business it’s equally fair to assume that you know your market, products, competition and media opportunities.
Whatever the history of your company, a long established family firm or relatively new start up, you and your team will have driven it to the point it is by hard work, and, crucially, knowledge and expertise.
I’ve touched on this subject before. The vast majority of transitional, or transformative, changes to a business and the way it operates will, in today’s commerce, mean overhauling at least, and possibly rebuilding, the IT.
My role is not to identify the changes you may need to make to your business. Depending on the scale of the task your project managers, or external change management experts, will guide you through that process.
It’s as simple as that. But, if you’ll forgive the pun, IT’s not as simple as that. Which is why I’m in my business, and you’re in your’s.
Let me explain. I don’t know how to run a logistics operation, an insurance company, or a manufacturing plant. Whatever your business is, you know how to run it. And because you know how to run it you know how to monitor your market, identify new opportunities and recognise the changes you may need to make in order to benefit from those openings. Or, you will know of legislative or industry compliance issues that are forcing changes upon you.
