Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In every workplace staff will happily discuss the challenges that they face day to day, yet they rarely effect the necessary change. Everyone has a view on how things can be improved, ranging from the detail to the strategic. Yet organizations stagger along with unproductive work practices and inefficient value chains.
As a community, we should all be doing our best to improve the organization that we work in. We may not have the same impact as the free trade deal with China or altering interest rates. But everyone’s combined action does make a difference and improving business performance inevitably leads to growth.
If you pull costs out of your own business, the owners may get wealthier (which might not be very productive) but eventually it will lead to cheaper services for your customers. If you pull costs out and improve services at the same time, you have transformed a less productive resource into a more productive one.
Improving business performance is rarely painless. The big impact improvements usually involve large scale process redesign with implementation focused on achieving measurable business benefits. This will deliver much more for the organization than running a myriad of unconnected projects.
The challenge in running transformational programs is in finding people with the energy and capability to see things through. Things get tough and you need credible leaders, preferably with a solid history of integrity and delivery within the business.
A successful program manager needs to gather skills around him or her to maximise the chances of success. They need to take the right decisions through good analysis and drive implementation through good project management.
If you feel ready to step up to the plate and help deliver the 2.1%, make sure that you don’t let your ego get in the way of a good outcome. Find the experts in strategic analysis, change, project management, business analysis and procurement. Invest in getting the decisions right up front – you know it will be cheaper than trying to turn around a program going in the wrong direction.
The three easy steps to growth:
- Move from projects to programs
- Do strategic analysis to take good decisions
- Surround yourself with experts
Are you ready to spark global growth?