Transitions are a must. Any organization which fails to change with the changing environment fails to succeed. Does this mean the Business goals are also changing. The TRUTH is, YES!
Why should business goals change ?
There are changes that keep happening in all major fronts, and the key factors which FORCE change are:
1. Customer needs keep changing – technological and trends changes.
2. The speed at which these changes happen – This forces us to compete with innovative products which grab the market shares. Hence the budget for R&D has to increase.
3. Channel partners who take the product to the end users influence the sales, and makes us rethink our strategic approach to marketing , CRM, and distribution.
4. Non- availability of skilled manpower and attrition, force the organizations to have a proactive approach to HRM through appropriate performance management systems.
5. Increasing cost of raw material, labor, logistics, operational cost etc, force the organizations to work more effectively towards operational excellence.
The most effected are small or medium sized business. Hence, it is essential to have goals to succeed. With such transitions that a business encounters, a goal becomes very important in the success and growth of any business.
Most small companies plan to accommodate such changes as they know that these changes are rapid and plan to face challenges like market dynamics, expenditures towards R&D, distribution logistics, production etc., but fail in planning towards the Human Resource (HR) initiatives.
The major backlog in HR planning is the absence of the right knowledge, resources, skilled manpower for execution, and a well translated goal for every department which is linked to the vision and goals of the company.
There are several companies with goals like “We will double our sales volume in 3 years !” or “We will reach a turnover of XX millions in 2 years” etc. These companies force themselves to achieve what they had promised for themselves, which eventually damages the culture, as they were too busy developing strategies to achieve their goals. Instead, if organizations build goals relevant to the changes happening and grow a work culture to suit the same, they would see better long-term success.
Some key solutions:
• Culture in an organization is more important than a strategy – Hence develop a culture required for growth – for example when innovation is the key strength for growth, LEARNING should be prime culture of employees in R&D and production.
• Plan your human resources – If you have excess manpower, train them with new skills in their free time.
• Competition is not about doing all that your competitor does or challenges, but being vigilant that your profits are not destroyed by wrong investments in in turbulent times – hence plan to be in the market with your own USP.
Being focused on the following fronts helps the business succeed in the long-run:
1. Orientation towards the customer needs
2. Orientation towards a work culture that supports Product innovation, Market dynamics and Technical changes.
3. Orientation towards operational excellence that leads to better profits internally.
An organization with a clear goal and with an orientation for transitions accompanied by a proper mission is sure to have a journey of success.
Authored by: Nalina.R – BE, MBA – She is an HR consultant from Coimbatore, India with 16 years of experience in Recruitment, Training, Performance management systems and OD interventions.
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