Development and implementation of business strategy
is one of the biggest obstacles that’s organizations face on a daily basis.
Where is our business going? How effective is our leadership in directing the
business in that direction? What steps do we need to take to reach our end
goal? These are all questions that executives and managers need to be thinking
about when dealing with business strategy. Before any strategy can be created
businesses have to determine where they are at, at that point in time. Is the
business growing, or is the business on the brink of going under? Organizations
have to be honest with where they are at as a business, to determine where they
want to go or be in the future. In the Harvard Business Review, M. Beer wrote
an article explaining how businesses can have effective conversations about business
strategies that will help promote the growth of their business. The article
also talks about the steps a business should take to design and implement an
effective business strategy. The biggest hurdle that organizations need to
focus on overcoming is transparency and internal communication (Beer, 2004). Employees
need to feel like their opinion and suggestions are being heard and are not
going to come with a consequence (Beer, 2004). Too many employees are scared of
expressing their feelings with how the business is run in fear of what might
happen to their job (Beer, 2004). Creating a sense of community between leadership
and lower level employees helps with that transparency. There needs to be open
lines of communication between all parties involved. Managers and executives
have to be willing to hear the hard truths about the different departments
within their business. Although sometimes the truth may be difficult to hear,
it will be more beneficial for the organizations growth in the long run. When
developing an effective business strategy the organization has to look
internally to see what actual areas need improvement; not what areas the
executive leadership wants to see improvement (Beer, 2004). Doing internal
research is critical to an effective development and implementation of a
business strategy. This is where businesses tend to slip up. There is not
enough internal reflection to see where the root causes of the problems within
the business are. Interviews can be
conducted with different levels of individuals within the business. These
interviews are great ways to gather internal data on how internal processes are
working, what’s not working, or what changes that individual would see
beneficial. If an organization is only using a top-down management structure
they are going to see the business through a very small window. There needs to
be a paradigm shift within manager’s mindsets that only executives have viable
insight into the organization. Gaining that employee involvement in the
development stages of the business strategy will also aid to employee commitment.
Far too often businesses forget about their employees and what they do for the
business’ success. Without their commitment moving forward the business will
not be able to effectively develop and implement a new business strategy.
Below is an infographic (visual
representation of data) from Zendesk a customer service software provider. The
infographic that discusses where in the world the happiest employees are
located based on geographical regions. I thought this was extremely interesting
because only 30 % of the average American workforce is happy or satisfied with
their position. Unfortunately it does not break down the reasons for
dissatisfaction.
Finally, below I attached a link to an interesting
article off of Randstadusa.com that discusses the 5 Workplace resolutions for
2014. It starts the article off with an interesting statistic, that only 44% of
employees reported that they aspire to have their boss’s job. To me that shows
me that businesses are not utilizing their employees to the best of their
potential and not giving them the opportunity to succeed and grow with the
business.
http://www.randstadusa.com/workforce360/workforce-insights/5-workplace-resolutions-for-2014_167/
Beer, M., & Eisenstat, R. A. (January 01,
2004). How to have an honest conversation about your business strategy. Harvard Business
Review, 82, 2,
82-9.
"Where are the happiest
employees?."Where are the Happiest Employees?. N.p., n.d. Web. 22
Feb. 2014.
<http://www.zendesk.com/resources/where-are-the-happiest-employees>.
"Workforce360." Randstad's.
N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2014. <http://www.randstadusa.com/workforce360/workforce-insights/5-workplace-resolutions-for-2014_167/>.
