Posts Tagged ‘business strategy’

Guest post contributed by Sarah Carling, on behalf of Injury-lawyers.net.au.

Today’s businesses have used Change Management and Risk Management with varying degrees of success. While these strategies can help companies prepare for an unknown future, they fall just short of accomplishing the strategic goals that 21st century companies need if they are to keep pace with rapidly changing market conditions. What will it take to fill the gaps in these two theories? Surprise Management.

Background

We all know how disconcerting change can be. And when we add surprise to the equation, we face a huge organizational challenge. Uncertainty, unpredictability, and our all-too-human inability to dictate outcomes are facts of life that organizations must address if they are to thrive.

The natural fear of uncertainty often leads organizations to implement uncertainty-reduction (or risk-management) measures—and hence the development of Risk Management theory. Many have tried to eliminate “the surprise factor”—with varying degrees of success. One method that’s been suggested for eliminating surprise is to anticipate surprises before they happen and take appropriate steps to minimize their occurrence—certainly a commendable goal. Yet, a surprise by its very nature cannot be foreseen. (Otherwise it wouldn’t be a surprise.)

A more realistic way of phrasing the above goal might be to say that reducing surprise involves an attempt to predict what could go wrong (i.e. to project risk) and put in place preventive measures against these potential problem occurrences—measures which not only minimize the overall number of occurrences but also reduce the number that are actually surprises. It is only in this sense that Risk Management can “eliminate the surprise factor.” While it would be impossible to anticipate the surprises themselves, this thorough projection of future possibilities would undoubtedly help eliminate some surprises, simply because the organization would now be aware that these eventualities could potentially occur. Yet, the success of this approach in managing surprise is limited.

In contrast, Change Management, by providing both managers and workers with the tools they need to handle the reality of change across a rapidly evolving business landscape—and perhaps equipping them for various specific future eventualities—can at least help an organization prepare for surprises, if not reduce the frequency of their occurrence.

Surprise Management: A More Comprehensive and More Flexible Approach

Surprise Management—a concept which is thoroughly analyzed in a 2005 article in the British Journal of Management, “Surprises in Management and Organization: Concept, Sources and A Typology”—presents the rationale for addressing unwelcome (and perhaps even welcome) surprises through the concept of diversification (despite the authors’ non-use of that specific term).

The authors define surprise as “any event that happens unexpectedly, or any expected event that takes an unexpected turn.” The main point of the piece may be distilled into the following brief summary: Because unpredictable events and unexpected turns of events (aka, surprises) cannot be precisely controlled, a more diversified and more flexible approach is needed for an effective response.

As the authors state, “Surprises can potentially result in organizational catastrophes (e.g., Shrivastava, 1992),” and they therefore conclude that “rather than merely insisting on the prediction of surprises, organizational researchers should investigate how organizations might develop the resilience and mindfulness necessary to deal with unanticipated events.”

Surprise Management Tools

A few surprise-management strategies the authors recommend for developing such mindful resilience follow:

• Bricolage (constructing a solution from whatever diverse resources may be at hand)

• Improvization (“the ability to access creativity in the moment and under pressure, to resolve or direct the resolution of a situation to meet [company] objectives…”)

• Distributed decision-making (a decision-making process [that is] distributed across multiple participants, each of whom contributes to the final decision by performing one or more tasks)

• Minimal structuring (implementing “a set of consensual guidelines[,] agreements, [and] co-ordination devices that attempt to focus the activities of people around a common set of goals and deadlines without limiting their discretion to best decide how to reach these goals)

• Dynamic adaptive capabilities (“the capacity of…institutional approaches to permit actions that are effective ‘adaptive’ responses to changing environmental circumstances”)

The above approaches combine to provide the diversified organizational response that today’s enterprises need to skillfully manage the surprises that might otherwise prove catastrophic to their successful operation—helping them not just survive, but thrive.

This is a guest post by Jessica Sanders

Working from home comes with some amazing perks: slide out of bed, enjoy a relaxing breakfast while reading the paper and taking the morning headlines, and saunter over to your home office. Yes, it is as good as it sounds.

And that, is just the problem. At home you’re comfortable, familiar and easily distracted. Working from home is less stressful, more comfortable and convenient, but presents you with more options to get off track. It’s important that you can hold yourself accountable – whether you have your own business or still report back to the command center office.

Create A Productive Office

You need to have a space for work only – no kids, no partners, just you and your work. While a messy cramped apartment may offer little to no extra space, even a corner will do. Having a space that is separate from the bustle of everyday life is important.

• Split off a part of your bedroom or living room with a folding divider or hang a sheet. You should be able to step into your office, and close off the rest.
• Utilize a spare room that’s not being used. Keep personal décor out, and keep it as work friendly as possible. In an office you wouldn’t have personal items, and your home office should be no different.

Hone Your Organizing Skills

A cluttered space = a cluttered mind. Too many family photos will take you down memory lane, and bills splayed on your desk will bring on personal stress. Make your space as much like an office as possible. If you are running a business, without a boss to hold you accountable for work, it’s especially important that you make this possible for yourself.

• Create long and short term goals for yourself. At the beginning of the month, layout what you hope to accomplish. In the beginning of the week note what needs to get done. In the morning, list the items that need to be completed before leaving your office.
• Get a calendar on your desktop. This is where you look everyday, and can help remind you of important duties, meetings, etc.
• Find a notebook or scheduler for your desktop as well. Spell out projects, ideas and small lists for your day. When this is on your desk top it’s easily accessible and won’t get lost in the shuffle.
• If you spend much of your day running around, find a good organizer for your smart phone. Utilize Google to keep your email, important dates and project information all in one.

If Only Your Boss Was Around

When you have a boss around, you are less likely to take quick breaks or step out for snacks. At home, with no one watching, it’s too easy to excuse yourself for an extended lunch or multiple coffee breaks. Help motivate yourself to power through work by acting as if your boss was sitting right next to you.

• Snacks: Don’t allow yourself to get up 10 times a day for a pantry trip.
• Lunch break: If you have personal errands to run, plan them into your lunch break instead of taking valuable time away from your workday.
• Clothing: When you dress professionally you are in that frame of mind. Simply changing from your pajamas to jeans will be beneficial.

Working in your home office is a blessing and a curse. Creating a balance is critical to benefiting from working at home while still getting work done. By scheduling personal errands with other work related duties and lunch breaks, you can be sure to take advantage of your situation while staying on track.

Jessica Sanders writes articles for a small startup, Chonies, who sells men’s designer gifts.  She gives small business, fashion business, marketing and SEO advice. Click through to the website to check out their stock of men’s wear.

Running a business is not easy but it doesn’t have to be difficult.  Low investment in business might sound like a distant dream but take it from me it’s not.  It is in fact quite achievable and with some thought and a little planning you could set up your business for little or nothing.  Sounds too good to be true?  Well here are 13 zero to low cost business ideas to help you net BIG GAINS with negligible investment…

Consultancy

Anyone with some experience, expertise and skills in a niche area can turn consultant.  What’s more?  You need little more than your cellphone, laptop and an internet connection to get on the road of setting up a consultancy.  You can even set up a free blog with tools like Blogger, a free Facebook page and Linkedin profile and you have started your own consultancy.

Spread the word around by encouraging people to like your page or profile!

Teaching

Teaching from home, taking personal lessons, training or delivering modules online via Skype or YouTube are just some possibilities you can explore.  Oodles of patience, a genuine interest in people and networking and the willingness to adapt to needs of learners are some essential qualities you need to teach and tutor people.

Hiring

It’s the new business…renting clothes, accessories, books and toys are just some ideas worth exploring.  In a bid to promote frugal living and helping people overcome their temporary needs for products while steering away from accumulation, hiring is a great business opportunity.

Look around you…rope in friends, family and gather stuff that can be used and hired out to other people.  Either that or procure new things to create an inventory that you can use to hire out.

Catering With a Twist

Each and every one of us who cooks has his or her special treats, dishes that he or she can rustle up in signature style.  Running a catering business around your specialty as a cook might just be the thing to do.  Else opting for simple things like just cupcakes, desserts, cookies and doughtnuts with a hole in the wall shop might be the best thing to do.

Personal Shopping

Time is a scarce resource and most people today lead very busy lives.  They don’t have time to shop for their personal needs yet it’s important that they are well turned out.  This is where your business opportunity lies.  Turn personal shopper if you have an eye for fashion, information about the best places to shop, an ability to work with varying budgets, a sense of style and a willingness to meet your client’s needs.  Shop and get paid to do it!

Home Care Business

Another business opportunity that spawns out of busy lives we lead today.  People don’t have time to cook, wash, clean and buy groceries but it’s a job that must be done, right?  Set up a service to help people procure groceries and essentials or simply clean their homes.  A good opportunity to explore particularly in developing countries where unskilled labor is available in plenty but always in search of jobs and good remuneration.

Urban Gardening

With lifestyles in all cities veering towards clean and green living, raising flood inflation and a growing tribe of people favoring organic foods the concept of urban gardening is being embraced with enthusiasm.  Use your garden patch, terrace or windowsill to grow exotic vegetables and rare herbs to begin your foray in to urban gardening.  The other option is supplying aspiring urban gardeners with supplies like seeds, information and training.

Writing

If you have a way with words then writing is one lucrative business opportunity.  Turn resume writer, letter writer, editor, copywriter or go all the way and publish a book.  If looking for publishers is not something you want to do then set up a free blog or self publish on platforms like Kindle and test the waters first.

Translation

This is a lucrative opportunity especially when you know people who look for translation facilities.  Tap in to an expat network or set up a business that provides foreign students with translation facilities or connect with companies who look for interpreters and translators.

Crowd sourcing

Bank on people power to help companies garner resources and ideas from a number of people.  WittyShit is one company that encourages people to submit one liners and sells them to companies looking for slogans and one liners.  The idea is to reward people who come up with these ideas and help companies find resources at a fraction of the cost they would have otherwise incurred.

Project Work

All over the world students are constantly looking for help with their project work.  So if you have access to the required resources like books and journals, a flair for writing and drawing then assisting them with their projects might be an opportunity worth exploring.  Even a niche area like preparation of PowerPoint presentations and handouts here is a good idea.

Vending Platforms

Organise a flea market or set up an e-commerce site for crafters.  Take a leaf out of the etsy, afday or shopo experience to help connect buyers and sellers looking for a platform to sell.  Never liked it anyway is an online venture that helps people get rid of stuff their “exes” gave them.  A great way to meet financial needs while you get rid of the “ex” files literally!

In compiling this list of zero to low cost investment ideas I have tried to set you thinking about what you can do.  I want to open your minds to opportunities and wrench you free from obstacles.  If I can help you develop and build on any ideas that you may have, I’d be happy.

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