Small businesses have not done enough to put post-recession recovery plans in place, according to a new report from the Open University Business School.

Newbusiness.com said the report revealed that only 10% of small firms have put together a plan for the recovery and that those businesses with a plan were most confident about their immediate prospects.

“Just under a third of business owners with no plan in place said it was because the effects of the recession had not been significant enough for their business. A further 18% said recessionary effects on their customers are still too uncertain,” said Professor Colin Gray, professor of enterprise development at the Open University Business School.

“Although there are increasing signs that the economy overall may be turning the corner, recovery remains elusive for the 95% of all firms in Britain that employ fewer than 10 people.”

The question now is, What are you and your colleagues doing to plan your future progress? Are you specifically looking at ways to improve your cashflow or ROI? Which areas of your business are getting the most attention?

The answers to these questions may well dictate how quickly things pick up for you.

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

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Sometimes you wonder whether change is necessary within your department, and the factors driving change may be counteracted by factors resisting it. How do you work out the results before taking the action? Kurt Lewin may have the answer for you.

Lewin was an American social psychologist perhaps best-known for developing Force Field Analysis, an analysis that determined if change was necessary within a company.

According to Lewin “An issue is held in balance by the interaction of two opposing sets of forces – those seeking to promote change (driving forces) and those attempting to maintain the status quo (restraining forces)”.

Lewin viewed organisations as systems in which the present situation was not a static pattern, but a dynamic balance (“equilibrium”) of forces working in opposite directions. In order for any change to occur, the driving forces must exceed the restraining forces, thus shifting the equilibrium.

How do you conduct a Force Field Analysis?

Here’s some suggestions:

1. Describe the current situation

2. Describe the desired situation

3. Identify where the current situation will go if no action is taken

4. List all the forces driving change toward the desired situation

5. List all the forces resisting change toward the desired situation

6. Discuss and interrogate all of the forces: are they valid? can they be changed? which are the critical ones?

7. Allocate a score to each of the forces using a numerical scale e.g. 1=extremely weak and 10=extremely strong

8. Chart the forces by listing (to strength scale) the driving forces on the left and restraining forces on the right.

9. Determine whether change is viable and progress can occur

10. Discuss how the change can be affected by decreasing the strength of the restraining forces or by increasing the strength of driving forces.

11. Keep in mind that increasing the driving forces or decreasing the restraining forces may increase or decrease other forces or even create new ones.

Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

The Balanced Scorecard method of Kaplan and Norton is a strategic approach and performance management system that enables organisations to translate a company’s vision and strategy into implementation, working from 4 perspectives:

1. financial perspective,

2. customer perspective,

3. business process perspective,

4. learning and growth perspective.

1. The Financial perspective:

Often, there is more than enough handling and processing of financial data. With the implementation of a corporate database, it is hoped that more of the processing can be centralised and automated. But the point is that the current emphasis on financial data leads to the “unbalanced” situation with regard to other perspectives. There is perhaps a need to include additional financial-related data, such as risk assessment and cost-benefit data, in this category.

2. Customer perspective:

Recent management philosophy has shown an increasing realisation of the importance of customer focus and customer satisfaction in any business. These are leading indicators: if customers are not satisfied, they will eventually find other suppliers that will meet their needs. Poor performance from this perspective is thus a leading indicator of future decline, even though the current financial picture may look good. In developing metrics for satisfaction, customers should be analysed in terms of kinds of customers and the kinds of processes for which we are providing a product or service to those customer groups.

3. Business Process perspective:

This refers to internal business processes. Metrics based on this perspective allow the managers to know how well their business is running, and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements (the mission). These metrics have to be carefully designed by those who know these processes well. In addition to the strategic management process, two kinds of business processes may be identified: a) mission-oriented processes, and b) support processes. Mission-oriented processes are the special functions of directors and senior managers, and many unique problems are encountered in these processes. The support processes are more repetitive in nature, and hence easier to measure and benchmark using generic metrics.

4. Learning and Growth perspective:

This includes employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. In a knowledge-worker organisation, people are the main resource.

In the current climate of rapid technological change, it is becoming necessary for knowledge workers to be in a continuous learning mode. Many companies find themselves unable to hire new employees and at the same time is showing a decline in training of existing employees. Kaplan and Norton emphasise that ‘learning’ is more than ‘training’; it also includes things like mentors and coaches within the company, as well as that ease of communication among workers that allows them to readily get help on a problem when it is needed. It also includes tools such as the Intranet.

The integration of these four perspectives into a graphical appealing picture have made the Balanced Scorecard method a very successful methodology within the Value-Based Management philosophy.
Thanks again,

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Tony Robbins has identified six basic human needs and believes everyone is—or can be—motivated by their desire to fulfill these needs.

You may want to consider these needs when thinking about developing your team members The question to ask is, “What need or needs do my team have that will enable them to fulfill their job roles effectively?”

1. Certainty/Comfort. We all want comfort. And much of this comfort comes from certainty. Of course there is no ABSOLUTE certainty, but we want certainty our computer will start up, the canteen will be open when we want it to be and our job will still be there when we wake up tomorrow morning .

2. Variety. At the same time as we want certainty, we also crave variety. Paradoxically, there needs to be enough UNcertainty to provide spice and adventure in our lives.

3. Significance. Deep down, we all want to be important. We want our life to have meaning and significance. Can you imagine looking back on your life and wondering whether you made a difference and coming to the conclusion that you didn’t? There’s not many things worse than that.

4. Connection/Love. It would be hard to argue against the need for connection with other people. We want to feel part of a community. We want to be cared for and cared about. Abraham Maslow called it our need to ‘belong’. It’s the essence of teamwork. It’s what we crave for when we work with others.

5. Growth. There could be some people who say they don’t want to grow, but that’s probably because they have goals that don’t inspire them (or no goals at all). To become better, to improve our skills, to stretch and excel may be more evident in some than others, but it’s there. Try creating goals for the team that will provide rewards other than money, and see which team members go for it. Those who don’t may have died mentally, but not told you!

6. Contribution. The desire to contribute something of value—to help others, to make the world a better place than we found it is in all of us. Take that need away, and you lose all motivation.

Action Point
Evaluate this list to better understand your personal motivations and examine which ones seem the most significant to you. Then, look at what you do to fulfill the needs of other team members. It will likely make a difference in what and how you do what you do. It also should make a difference in the way you describe and explain what you and your products can do.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Manager Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

In this unprecedented time, one thing is for sure; business will never be the same again, and with respect to your department budget, this will more than likely be the case!

It’s unlikely that the company will increase the overall budget available. It is more likely that you will be competing for the same pot as everyone else looking to protect their budget. So you must build a strong case and be prepared to fight your corner.

If your manager has no real budgeting authority then it may be difficult to pin them down on this topic. Remember if your company budgets top-down then no matter how much involvement you or your manager have in the budgeting cycle, you will still end up being given a figure and it may be less than you were hoping for.
What to do?

Firstly, put your budget cut into perspective.

How does it compare to other departments? Are your cuts deeper or the same as others? Or are getting off fairly lightly in the overall scheme of things?

So ask yourself:
“How does the cut I’m being asked to take compare with cuts elsewhere in the business?”

If it’s less than others, thank the boss! If it’s deeper, find out why the differential has been made.

Secondly, if you’re able to carry out an analysis between your budget and your required revenues to carry out a great job, you should be in a position to justify a higher budget figure. Ask yourself whether your boss would be more impressed with revenue gain than cost-cutting. If so, ask:

“If I could show you that increasing our budget would generate more revenue than the budget cut, would you approve it?”

This also proves your value to the company, as all senior managers would welcome a critical and creative thinker when it comes to investment in their business.

Thirdly, even after proving your worth and legitimising a better budget figure, you still may be forced to accept a change in what you are able to work with. In this case, you need to be open with your team members and ascertain where their help might prove worthwhile.

In meetings with your team, generate some ideas on where they see value could be enhanced in the business by savings or improvements. Often, team members close to the ground can come up with ideas you hadn’t thought of. Ask:

“What can we all do to save or make money in the department?”

If this is done in the right spirit, with people understanding the reasons for it, motivation won’t suffer, and all input will be assessed and valued.

After you’ve analysed the situation, you have to decide how much effort you want to spend in defending your budget. It’s important that you fully understand the chances of success before you start this; the most sensible approach may be to accept that you will not get the funds you need to carry out all that you had planned this year.

Redirecting your efforts into reviewing what you can do rather than what you will not be able to do might be a far more sensible approach.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Manager Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”