Ask your employees, suppliers and partners for their opinions. Look at revenues, sales, and other metrics. If sales drop or customer satisfaction is delayed, conduct focus groups or surveys to learn more. Changes in customer requirements could require a major restructuring on the part of your company to remain competitive.
Review industry benchmarks to see if there could be a long-term change in the industry that could affect your company. Expand an existing product line or market it in a whole new way. For example, sell your products through an online store instead of a more traditional retail business. Look for new customers who aren't currently segmented as consumers of your product.
Research new forms of communication with customers, such as social media technology. Find out what they're hearing first-hand from customers and competitors. Adjust your trading strategies to take advantage of opportunities. For example, change your business hours or pricing model if those actions can help you remain competitive.
Tara Duggan is a project management professional (PMP) specializing in knowledge management and instructional design. For more than 25 years, it has developed quality training materials for a variety of products and services that support companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Compaq and HP. His freelance work is published on several websites. Agility transformation is about reacting quickly to changes in workflow, business strategy, operations, and culture.
Therefore, investing in education and team training is essential to achieve a smooth transition. Therefore, if employees already have an educational habit and are used to systematization in their workflow, they will not be afraid of these changes and will find them quite manageable. The best way to ensure your company's adaptability to change is to become the agent of change in your industry. Use your strategy meetings to identify new ways to marginalize your own business or a competitor's business.
Talk about how you would implement that change. As you develop your ability to think in scenarios of change, your own ability to adapt to any sudden change will improve. To achieve successful business change, it is necessary to establish well-defined objectives along with a strategy to achieve them. Evaluate the adjustment of your business strategy six months after making the changes and again after a year.
Introduce changes slowly and be prepared to return to your previous strategies if the new strategies don't work for your business. In theory, a good business strategy provides a future action plan to generate benefits that extend beyond the life cycle of a product or service. However, while the short-term impacts of change can sometimes be unpleasant, addressing business change can have a positive impact on a company's long-term success. A strategy helps define the vision of what the company should seek during that transition.
Companies can adapt with the help of open-minded people on the team, creating an open-minded company. Changing business strategies often involves analyzing current business practices and determining where and when adjustments are required. Below, 15 members of the Forbes Business Development Council share strategies for strengthening a company against obstacles and ensuring that it has the capacity to change direction in difficult times.
