adminmarket is a process that severely requires a comprehensive and bottleneck free plan. As businesses now operate in a very dynamic marketplace; there is need to formulate the right change opportunities to meet the fluid requirements of the organisation.
It can be difficult for people to adapt to change, but sometimes making the change can be an even more daunting task. Almost 500 years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli recognised this when he wrote, “. . . it is worth noting that nothing is harder to manage, more risky in the undertaking, or more doubtful of success than to set up as the introducer of a new order.”
Here are some steps you can take if you intend on introducing change.
No doubt the first step is to communicate the change such as implementation proposals, progress and schedule adjustments promptly to beat the grapevine.
Set up specific form of channel of communication for all issues relating to the change such as noticeboards, newsletters.
Describe the change and its repercussions both positive and negative and be honest to those impacted. Anticipate resistance and develop strategies to overcome it, be proactive rather than reactive.
This may involve gaining the commitment of individuals and groups such that critical mass favouring the change is achieved. Advise the people of the likely impacts of the change and concentrate on listening to their reactions rather than endeavouring to sell the change.
Go on and allow people to express their feelings, particularly if they express loss of something presently held dear.
Business Process Reengineering
The talk these days in advancing businesses is on Business Process Reengineering (BPR). If you find your business going through poor financial performance, facing stiff external competition, erosion of your market share, you might need to consider BPR.
BPR does not only mean change, but rather dramatic change. What constitutes this drastic change is the overhaul of organisational structures, management systems, employee responsibilities and performance measurements, incentive systems, skills development, and the use of Information Technologies.
Reengineering is clearly not for companies that want a 10 percent improvement; it is for ones that need a 10-fold increase in performance. These are not small improvements; rather it aims for total reinvention of systems.
Automation must never be mistaken with reengineering, even though technology plays an important role in re-engineering, its role is to enable new process designs, not to provide mechanisms for performing old ones.
Business process engineering looks at strategy, processes, technology, organisation, and culture. Reengineering is a continuous process, results can never be achieved overnight.
Information Technology
Let us consider the era of new technologies that has rocked businesses. The basic computer and Internet have changed the way we do business. Emails have provided organisations around the world with the means to communicate with one another faster, efficiently at very low cost.
The result of this has been that organisations in the postal business have been forced to restructure their business. Decline for postal services over the last decade has declined by more than half- the result is for all to see, our postman who used to command so much respect within the community is almost gone extinct.
ICTs have allowed organisations that are geographically dispersed to operate as if they are in the same locality. With extranets, Spar Zimbabwe is connected to Unilever South Africa such that as soon as the levels of a product get low, Unilever will know and either arrange for deliveries or put it on the production line restock.
With e-banking, banks have almost eliminated the need for banking halls. Customers can access their accounts even when they are out of the country.
These have necessitated banks to provide an around the clock and around the world service. The days of travellers’ cheques have fast disappeared into oblivion- it means that the printers of travellers cheques were forced to restrategise their business.
Developments in technology have resulted in the invention of very powerful storage devices. With a data storage device that can fit in a pocket, organisations can now store documents that needed a very huge archiving department.
A single server which occupies less than a 20th of a room has replaced an archiving department that used to occupy more than 500 square metres for a newspaper publishing company.
Registry officers who used to man archives with shelves of documents have been replaced with network and systems administrators who man and maintain the company’s computer networks.
The cellphone has already started facing competition from Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technologies like Skype which allow users to phone each other at much lower rates than when using the cellphone.
Mobile phone companies have already started taking strides to invest in these technologies so that they can remain competitive. Chat services allow people to send each other instant messages and this has resulted in the reduction of email usage and that is why companies like Yahoo have lost the glitter which they had at the beginning of the century.
Mechanisation in agriculture
There has been a shift for organisations that are in the agriculture sector from labour intensive production systems to capital intensive systems.
Due to developments in technology most farming activities are now being done by machines from planting, weeding and harvesting. This has resulted in organisations reducing the human labour replacing it with machine labour. This has also helped improve overall productivity in the farming sector.
Necessary actions for transitions
One company that I assisted embarked on a restructuring exercise that resulted in a reduction of head count by 62 percent affecting all levels of staff.
The company’s operating cost ratio was expected to improve from 18 percent to below 10 percent within the completion of the restructuring exercise.
It was a taxing exercise necessitated by a survival issue and not due to incompetence of the individuals.
Parting is never an easy option, but not a single country or business is immune to forces such as the global economic downturn and this determines that one cuts their garment according to their size, shape and built.
We operate in an unpredictable market, forcing management to sometimes make decisions that are painful but with a vision of the ultimate survival of the business. Decisions are made to make the company more robust in issues to do with cost management from a head count perspective.
So, to you all who plan on introducing any form of change, it would be wise to communicate the required change clearly.
This involves you being clear and specific about what you want — the timeframes, specific measurable outcomes and targets as well as the specific behaviours you are aiming for.
When people have concerns, don’t stifle them, allow them to speak up and air their grievances. When you have done all that, plan with those who will be affected by the change.
Getting them involved not only reduces resistance but also increases the much needed commitment. A Chinese proverb says “Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand”.
Till next week, remember, the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Imagine life without change, it would be static, boring and dull.
l Shelter Hamandishe-Chieza is a Management Consultant. She holds over a decade of management experience and is at the completion of a Management of Business Administration degree with a local university. She can be contacted at [email protected]
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