The most productive months of the year are here – but does that productiveness extend to work processes?

There are two things companies and organisations are bad at: leading change and leveraging new IT technologies.

The goals of businesses are constantly being discussed on social media. These goals are paramount to growth. Discussions revolve around things like desire for control (something I find myself guilty of quite often), controlled execution, controlled change, constant development, relevancy, and other topics du jour. But what constitutes efficiency in today’s world? And what do winning organisations and teams look like?

There’s a gargantuan amount of information around us. The latest information is available digitally, but there’s also a plethora of different information formats from decades past. There’s no shortage of variety either; there are ideas, business cases, and success stories, all of which support contemporary businesses’ goals. One of the goals and clear desires for modern-day companies is digital transformation. Is this transformation even possible or does it only exist on paper in the myriad studies conducted by innumerable consulting companies? I like to think of it as an opportunity that is shared across an entire company. An opportunity that is also a central vision for a company’s future.

Accept deficiencies and the need for constant development

Proper use of technologies, software, and systems is what supports everyday business. I have read that there are two things companies and organisations are bad at: leading change and leveraging new IT technologies. In simple terms, digital transformation entails implementing these two strategic wholes into the everyday business of a company.

As a fairly new entrant in the software and solutions field, I’ve noticed after only a couple of years how difficult it is to accept deficiencies and the need for constant development. To look at it from the opposite perspective, these two things are the requirements for success due to the fact that the business environment as well as the needs and wants of clients are ever-changing. There is no turnkey “organisation” or “product” that keeps a business going. For this reason, it’s imperative that companies and organisations remain agile and open to new ideas.

It all starts from the top – people first, technology second

The heads of companies have to enable a company culture where healthy questioning and the search for new ideas is part and parcel for everyday business. In a work culture where everyone takes part in company-wide goals through innovation and questioning, competitive advantages incubate continuously. At the centre of it all is the client and their needs, but also the user and the employee experience.

According to consultant Markku Vierula, competitive advantage for a business means any factor that a business can use to compete in the market, and which can provide additional value to clients as well as other stakeholders. The traditional product-centric approach and the need to produce a better physical product than what the competition has are hallmarks of rigid design principles. Instead, the competitive edge can be found in the market-centric approach. In this model, there’s no price-based competition as pricing of products and services is based on how much value is provided to the client. The key here is that the entire organisation takes part in producing client data for the company. Although competitive advantage may only seem like a policy set from on high, it drives the organisation forward as a whole.

When a business process is established, it has to be made clear that the process is there to serve the organisation and not vice versa. It’s crucial that a company is ready and willing to develop its business practices. People need to be involved first; technology comes only after. This way, people can be motivated for development while being aware of their responsibilities. They can get feedback on their actions both internally and also externally from their own clients. The ensuing growth and success for the company seem like by-products.

Stop, question, and don’t rest on your laurels

While sharing our last Trineria blog, I posed people a question: “How are things done in your company? Do you go for the ready-made product or for a solution tailored specifically for you?” Change is effected when you’re willing to stop and think of ways to make things more efficient, less strenuous, and better overall. Questioning doesn’t mean throwing spanners in the works, but to consider and assess your own actions and the surrounding environment honestly and with an open mind. When a business is doing well, this is something that’s often forgotten. Situational thinking, growth, and progress should be kept in mind during feast as well as famine. This can only happen by creating something new and by being aware of the situation on the client side as well.

 

Wishing you a productive autumn!

The author of this blog, Tero Huuskola, works as Trineria’s Chairman of the Board

 

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