Change Management
A business or organisation that stands still is really going backwards, at least relative to its competitors. The challenge to any business that wants to be successful is, as with most living organisms: " to create order inside change and create change inside order".
In most businesses, it's the desire of owners and the duty of directors and managers to maximise shareholder wealth. In the jungle of commercial survival this requires a constant awareness of, and continuous measured responses to, demands for change.
Some businesses do well, at least for a time, by being efficiently reactive. But real winners are highly proactive - actively using change to maximise competitive advantages and commercial returns.
In most businesses, especially family businesses, there is nothing more certain than that an older generation's opposition to change will alienate, disenfranchise and ultimately destroy the next generation's interest in participating in the business.
Inspiring, implementing and managing major change goes far beyond the normal challenges of management, as it requires an almost contradictory mix of strategic thinking, leadership, management, aggression, openness, vulnerability, optimism and realism.
TSG has many years of experience working in industry, law, accounting, management consulting, dispute resolution and professional problem solving. Our Solutionists are expert facilitators who, in case of need, can draw on an extensive network of business strategists, management consultants, executives, dispute resolvers and senior family business people. As individual circumstances require, we mobilise advisers to act as a communication bridge (and filter) between owners, managers, staff and other generations to:
- Identify business and personal needs, both current and future.
- Develop a collaborative Vision for the business, incorporating a credible mission statement.
- Develop a collaborative Strategic Plan for the business and for key people in the business. (For Family Businesses we also develop a separate Strategic Plan for the family). In developing the Strategic Plan we apply agreed values and goals to the developed Vision to produce tangible and quantifiable aims and objectives for the business for the short, medium and long term.
- Develop a collaborative, credible and comprehensive Business Plan which details, down to a divisional or operating unit level, the activities and results required to achieve the objectives set out in the Strategic Plan. Developing the Business Plan creates a de-personalised environment where individual roles, responsibilities and accountabilities can be allocated in accordance with the planned needs of the business. This is a fundamental part of the process as it identifies, according to objective commercial criteria, individual and organisational capabilities and deficiencies. Decisions are then made for the sake of the business, to satisfy the agreed needs of the Business Plan, that largely avoid the risk of embarrassment and inter-personal conflict.
- Work with key personnel to design and develop implementation plans for new / enhanced / replacement business systems (organisational / operational / management etc).
- Facilitate implementation of new / enhanced / replacement systems by helping to introduce concepts of change. We approach this task as a complex negotiation with staff and work to help overcome their fears and objections and to develop consensus, ownership and champions amongst the stakeholders.
- Facilitate training for enhanced / replacement business systems.
- Facilitate monitoring and future modifications of new systems.
Benefits
- Change is confidently welcomed as an opportunity, not as a threat.
- Business leaders are empowered to lead and inspire their businesses through times of desired / unavoidable change.
- Owners and managers, partners and family members participate in developing and adopting shared visions and strategies for the future.
- Both the people involved and the organisations they represent are empowered to proactively direct and grow with change, thereby managing their risks and minimising the danger of being swamped.
