Change is coming, Will Your Business be a step ahead? - Change strategy

Is your business prepared for change?

In our ever-evolving world, where technology, social unrest, and geopolitical factors intersect, the business landscape becomes increasingly volatile. Change, sweeps across industries, demanding adaptation and recalibration to meet their client's needs and remain relevant has exposed the reluctance of most business leaders towards change as they prefer to cling to familiar routines.

Change can be growth-inducing or challenge-ridden but it is undoubtedly the lifeblood of progress. The pandemic has been a crucible, revealing how resilient businesses are towards unplanned events. The businesses that have survived the pandemic will testify that any organisation that will maintain its relevance in its market and thrive must recognise that a robust change management strategy is not optional but a necessity for longevity. 

What is change management and how does it affect your organisation?

Managing change is the process of understanding what the change is, planning for the change, implementing the change and communicating the reason for the change. You will see that change management is a series of processes that when properly deployed, your organisation can quickly and (most importantly) continuously deliver change successfully in a staff-friendly, dynamic and innovative way.

To understand how change management affects your organisation, it is important to understand other terms that sound like change management - business improvement and business transformation. We will briefly look at the difference between the three. 

Let’s break down the distinctions:

1. Change Management: This involves managing the transition from the current state to a desired future state within an organisation. It focuses on processes, people, and communication during changes such as implementing new systems, restructuring, or mergers. Change management ensures smooth adoption and minimises resistance.
2. Business Improvement: this involves continuous efforts to improve existing processes, systems, and practices. It aims to optimise efficiency, quality, and effectiveness. Business improvement often involves incremental changes, such as streamlining workflows or reducing waste.
3. Business Transformation: Unlike incremental improvements, transformation is more radical. It involves fundamental shifts in strategy, culture, and operations. Business transformation may include redefining the business model, adopting new technologies, or entering new markets.

In summary:

• Change management deals with managing specific changes, it is best seen as a process that can be reiterated.
• Business improvement focuses on gradual enhancements, like professional practices that can be adopted into all processes to improve all outcomes.
• Business transformation involves profound, strategic shifts. We will think of this as a strategy that guides the direction of the organisation and informs what business improvements are required for the transformation to be successful. 

Back to the issue of how change management affects your organisation, you will see that it deals with how you take the bigger picture (business transformation goals), break them down the organisational sections and further into bite-sized deliverables that you can accomplish on a day-to-day basis. 

While they intersect, each serves a distinct purpose in organisational development and this is why we hope you will take a step today to consider these three things: What should your organisation look like in the future, what infrastructure or investment ( people, process, funding etc) do you require to reach this future state and finally what process are in places to enable your staff, customers, investor etc to be part of the change, continually.

At Servisory, we are all about business development through the help of business intelligence. If you are a leader and you are not sure how to start from here, we recommend you start with a business review, a survey involving your client group, employees and leadership. This might help to define the direction of travel to focus on.