Manage Change in 3 Easy Steps

Just as shifting city and home and moving to a new place has its initial period of anxiety, change for an organisation in its business direction and operational processes, brings in anxiety, insecurity and with it a plethora of questions. This can and usually does affect the brand in the market-place.

Change in any form is uncomfortable for us humans. We are creatures of habit and habit breeds its own sense of comfort and discomfort. Take for example our daily work day routine. If one of the items in our daily ‘routine’ goes out of whack, we get irritated and are at a bit of a loss.

Business activities are managed by humans and thus when an organisation implements  change from what it had done; it brings about a fair bit of response. Some good, some not so good and some downright harmful to the business. The ‘enthusiasts’ (or early adopters) latch on to the big picture that the changed direction portrays and willingly start to move forward in the new direction. The ‘yes sir/no sir’ (followers) go onto a ‘wait and watch’ mode to try gauge which way is the wind blowing. Lastly comes the ‘resistant brigade’! A group who clings on desperately to yesteryears and falls back on the achievements of the past years.

Each of these groups effect the brand’s identity in many ways:

1.   Enthusiasts: In their eagerness to contribute to the new strategic direction rush into activity without deeply evaluating the ability of the brand to deliver on it and the long-term benefit (of the activity) to the brand and recruiting necessary manpower to deliver on the new mandates. Often the enthusiasts end up being the “Lone Ranger”—working long hours and alone leading to quick burnouts when operating at very high stress levels due to continuous delivery demands of tasks.

2.  Followers: This group’s indecisiveness and inability to ask for clarity (and understanding) leads them to either do the work activity wrong or to take too long over it and thus deliver well after the timeline is gone. In effect, making the task inefficient.

3. Resistant Brigade: Often the largest group, these try to push back through the “this is how it was done” process with the intention that if continuous resistance can be applied by using defunct processes and bureaucratic red-tape  then the enthusiasts would either burn their fire out or leave (attrition). All the resistance group succeeds in doing is (i) wasting critical time and (ii) damaging the brand image.

So, how do we manage to bring these groups to play ball together:

1. Transparency:  Line managers have to understand the change and explain, at length, how that change is beneficial (or required) and tie it back to the individual roles of staff and their function with regards to the effect it has on the brand’s identity.
2. Top-down Leadership:  Senior management has to have, in place, a support ‘team’ selected from rank & file (so as to assist in the detail work) to ensure successful delivery of key projects that would help to bring about the required change. This team should be provided written mandate as authority to put in place new processes and work flow to enable work flow change to take hold.
3. HR in the Forefront: HR needs to be at the forefront in terms of evaluation of staff’s skills and capabilities to deliver on the new work flow. Planning for training and skills up-gradation become a priority.
4. Deadline: An end target date for achievement of certain critical projects needs to be up in front. Critical projects that affect the brand identity (and image) should be selected from the pool of projects that is in active stage and be project managed through specific project teams.

What is the benefit of doing this?

1. Easier management of key projects that achieve success– A holistic approach that identifies which are the critical projects and provides priority. This aids the organisation to have focus in their daily activity thus ensuring achievement of the planned revenue growth coupled with delivering the desired image.
2. Putting in place a, small core team i.e. “the A-Team” so to speak that cuts across critical functions and champions the specific change management projects. This is the team on which senior management depends upon to take the brand forward internally.
3. Getting efficient work flow processes in place which aid in forward planning of daily work.

Whilst change is never easy to manage or administer, the above are small steps which can help any organisation manage the daily process more effectively.

Related articles

• Change Is Good: J Is for Justification (slalom.com)

Managing change at work place

Just as shifting city and home and moving to a new place has its initial period of anxiety, a change in business direction, similarly, brings about a scenario of anxiety and with it a plethora of questions (and actions) within an organisation.

Change in any form is uncomfortable for us humans. We are creatures of habit and habit breeds its own sense of comfort and discomfort. Take for example our daily work day routine. If one of the items in our daily ‘routine’ goes out of whack, we get irritated and at times, are at a bit of a loss.

Business activities are managed by humans and thus when an organisation implements a change from what it had been doing; it brings about a fair bit of response. Some good, some not so good and some downright detrimental to the business. The ‘enthusiasts’ (or early adopters) latch on to the big picture that the changed direction portrays and willingly start to move forward in the new direction. The ‘yes sir/no sir’ (followers) go onto a ‘wait and watch’ mode to try gauge which way is the wind blowing. Lastly comes the ‘resistant brigade’! A group who clings on desperately to yesteryears and falls back on the achievements of the past years.

Each of these groups effect the brand’s identity in many ways:

1.   Enthusiasts: In their eagerness to contribute to the new strategic direction rush into activity without deeply evaluating the ability of the brand to deliver on it and the long term benefit (of the activity) to the brand and recruiting necessary manpower to deliver on the new mandates. Often the enthusiasts end up being the “Lone Ranger”—working long hours and alone leading to quick burnouts when operating at very high stress levels due to continuous delivery demands of tasks.

2.  Followers: This group’s indecisiveness and inability to ask for clarity (and understanding) leads them to either do the work activity wrong or to take too long over it and thus deliver well after the timeline is gone. In effect, making the task inefficient.

3. Resistant Brigade: Often the largest group, these try and push back through the “this is how it was done” process with the intention that if continuous resistance can be applied by using defunct processes and bureaucratic red-tape  then the enthusiasts would either burn their fire out or leave (attrition). All the resistance group succeeds in doing is (i) wasting critical time and (ii) damaging the brand image.

So, how do we manage to bring group 2 & 3 around to see the positives in the new strategic direction or change that the business unit is undertaking:

1. Transparency:  Line managers have to understand the change and explain, at length, how that change is beneficial (or required) and tie it back to the individual roles of staff and their function with regards to the effect it has on the brand’s identity.
2. Top-down Leadership:  Senior management has to have, in place, a support ‘team’ selected from rank & file (so as to assist in the detail work) to ensure successful delivery of key projects that would help to bring about the required change. This team should be provided written mandate as authority to put in place new processes and work flow to enable work flow change to take hold.
3. HR in the Forefront: HR needs to be at the forefront in terms of evaluation of staff’s skills and capabilities to deliver on the new work flow. Planning for training and skills up-gradation become a priority.
4. Deadline: An end target date for achievement of certain critical projects needs to be up in front. Critical projects that affect the brand identity (and image) should be selected from the pool of projects that is in active stage and be project managed through specific project teams.

What is the benefit of doing this?

1. Easier management of key projects that achieve success. Thus revenue growth coupled with establishing the desired brand identity and image.
2. Establishing a core team, across critical functions, on which senior management can depend upon to take the brand forward.
3. Having in place efficient work flow processes that aid in forward planning of daily work.

Critical brand risks in marketing to the Global Muslim Community

Risk scenario planning (visual courtsey http://www.ficsas.com)

The global Muslim community at a staggering 1.57 billion people is a very large market segment that’s intriguing marketers, across product categories, for a variety of reasons. With a rising demand for products and services, fulfilling needs of day-to-day life to aspirational requirements and armed with strong purchasing power, the global Muslim community is a very attractive consumer segment to businesses.

From the perspective of market entry planning for a brand, it’s no different from entering any other market or segment.

• Identifying the key markets,
• Researching the impact of the existing product portfolio on the market segment,
• Evaluating the competitions’ actions to benchmark and obtain best practices and
• Doing an opportunity cost analysis to obtain earnings and brand sustainability are all part of the basic market entry planning.

But this is where the conformity changes!
Unlike other cultural consumer segments the global Muslim consumer segment is made up of a myriad of sociocultural sets that have been influenced by emigration (of the community)  and adaptation to social and environmental norms of current place of residence and livelihood. Thus producing today’s Muslim consumer who has a strong , individual value system and identity that is based and governed by the core values of  “Halal”(Halal is an Arabic term meaning “lawful or permissible” and not only encompasses food and drink, but all matters of daily life. Ref: isahalal).

An article in the Marketing Week highlighted that “Muslim consumers are a growing, influential and extremely loyal group, making them a desirable market for mainstream brands. But reaching them requires more than launching Sharia-compliant products. Making inroads to this sector takes a deep understanding of the values of this community and building the brand from there. They’re young, ambitious and worth at least $2 trillion globally”. The key words being “deep understanding of the values of this community and building the brand from there”.

Thus, simply communicating and delivering a fulfilling brand experience based on product or service innovations would not suffice for this segment.In order to win the loyalty of this segment the brand has to approach the relationship (with the Muslim consumer from a totally different paradigm). In order to gain the trust of this consumer, adherence to the required standards (halal guidelines) and transparency in (the brands’) operations and activities is a must.

Building a brand in this segment differs (from other consumer segments) in terms of risk and organisational demands.The risks should not be underestimated. They should be thoroughly studied and evaluated on two levels:

• Product/Brand level– A product and brand risk analysis will consider the impact that targeting the Muslim consumers might have on the organisation’s core global brand if the product is sold in non-Islamic markets.
• Corporate level– A corporate level risk analysis will take into account a wider view of potential transnational consumer activism, thereby, enabling the organisation to be ready to deal with at least three potential threats— social, political and financial.

1. Social Risk: by virtue of their numerical strength and purchasing power the Muslim consumer can choose “not to buy”. Such “not to buy” acts are not uncommon. Recall the indignation and subsequently the impact the global Muslim community had over the publication of cartoons of our beloved Prophet (P.B.U.H) in a Danish newspaper. The subsequent lack of political and cultural empathy led to a widespread boycott of Danish products to the extent that even western retailers removed Danish products from their shelves due to fear of negative repercussions.
2. Political Risk: Given the rising awareness of Islam, and a new-found resurgence of the Muslim identity, governments across Muslim countries have responded with regulatory changes. Malaysia, for example, has created its competitive advantage by promoting halal foods, Islamic Finance and halal tourism. Kuwait, had its first women ministers a year ago (ref:www.guardian.co.uk).
3. Financial Risk: An existing organisation has to evaluate the potential ‘fallout’ that may occur through alienating the existing consumer base by entering the Muslim consumer segment AND also has to check potential revenue loss from not correctly serving the Muslim consumer. This needs to be balanced out versus the projected revenue growth expected from serving the Muslim segment.

Lastly, there is a risk of a “backlash” if the organisations are seen to be exploiting the Muslim consumer. With the rise of social media, and “interest based communities” being online 24/7, blurring geographical and cultural distinctions, a backlash (on a brand) can spread like bushfire through the global Muslim community in a matter of hours. Thus affecting the brand not in just one specific region but globally across the markets it’s present in. One way to minimise this risk is to ensure that the brands’ and the organisations’ activities benefit the community .

The Muslim consumers seek reassurance that any brand offer from an organisation is not just a “marketing ploy”. They want to feel that the brand genuinely understands and empathise with Islamic values in all aspects of their operations. Towards this, communicating transparently and providing a beneficial and meaningful brand experience will enable a brand to reduce and control risk to a great extent in marketing to the Global Muslim Community.

Related articles

• The Value Benefit of Convergence (benefitpoint.wordpress.com)
• Halal & Shari’ah Compliance.. A Process or A Value? (benefitpoint.wordpress.com)

Here’s how to manage work place change

Just as shifting city and home and moving to a new place has its initial period of anxiety, a change in business direction, similarly, brings about a scenario of anxiety and with it a plethora of questions (and actions) within an organisation.

Change in any form is uncomfortable for us humans. We are creatures of habit and habit breeds its own sense of comfort and discomfort. Take for example our daily work day routine. If one of the items in our daily ‘routine’ goes out of whack, we get irritated and at times, are at a bit of a loss.

Business activities are managed by humans and thus when an organisation implements a change from what it had been doing; it brings about a fair bit of response. Some good, some not so good and some downright detrimental to the business. The ‘enthusiasts’ (or early adopters) latch on to the big picture that the changed direction portrays and willingly start to move forward in the new direction. The ‘yes sir/no sir’ (followers) go onto a ‘wait and watch’ mode to try gauge which way is the wind blowing. Lastly comes the ‘resistant brigade’! A group who clings on desperately to yesteryears and falls back on the achievements of the past years.

Each of these groups effect the brand’s identity in many ways:

1.   Enthusiasts: In their eagerness to contribute to the new strategic direction rush into activity without deeply evaluating the ability of the brand to deliver on it and the long term benefit (of the activity) to the brand and recruiting necessary manpower to deliver on the new mandates. Often the enthusiasts end up being the “Lone Ranger”—working long hours and alone leading to quick burnouts when operating at very high stress levels due to continuous delivery demands of tasks.

2.  Followers: This group’s indecisiveness and inability to ask for clarity (and understanding) leads them to either do the work activity wrong or to take too long over it and thus deliver well after the timeline is gone. In effect, making the task inefficient.

3. Resistant Brigade: Often the largest group, these try and push back through the “this is how it was done” process with the intention that if continuous resistance can be applied by using defunct processes and bureaucratic red-tape  then the enthusiasts would either burn their fire out or leave (attrition). All the resistance group succeeds in doing is (i) wasting critical time and (ii) damaging the brand image.

So, how do we manage to bring group 2 & 3 around to see the positives in the new strategic direction or change that the business unit is undertaking:

1. Transparency:  Line managers have to understand the change and explain, at length, how that change is beneficial (or required) and tie it back to the individual roles of staff and their function with regards to the effect it has on the brand’s identity.
2. Top-down Leadership:  Senior management has to have, in place, a support ‘team’ selected from rank & file (so as to assist in the detail work) to ensure successful delivery of key projects that would help to bring about the required change. This team should be provided written mandate as authority to put in place new processes and work flow to enable work flow change to take hold.
3. HR in the Forefront: HR needs to be at the forefront in terms of evaluation of staff’s skills and capabilities to deliver on the new work flow. Planning for training and skills up-gradation become a priority.
4. Deadline: An end target date for achievement of certain critical projects needs to be up in front. Critical projects that affect the brand identity (and image) should be selected from the pool of projects that is in active stage and be project managed through specific project teams.

What is the benefit of doing this?

1. Easier management of key projects that achieve success. Thus revenue growth coupled with establishing the desired brand identity and image.
2. Establishing a core team, across critical functions, on which senior management can depend upon to take the brand forward.
3. Having in place efficient work flow processes that aid in forward planning of daily work.

How Blue Ocean Strategy can help the Islamic Finance Industry

Today we have a tremendous upsurge in the interest in Islamic Finance and Halal products and services due to the   burgeoning global Muslim segment (estimated to be at 1.6 bln population currently and growing) and the financial crisis. However, in spite of this vast consumer segment and growing interest in Islamic Finance, the approach to retail marketing (by both industries) is quite traditional in terms of marketing approach.

This is what we marketing practitioners know and, historically, have been taught. And in marketing when we spot an opportunity we approach it with the tools that we have. Alas what, at times, we don’t take into account is the consumer! If we pause and listen to what the consumer (within the global Muslim community) is saying and view it logically we just may see a new set of tools staring at us.

Blue Ocean strategy is oft used in strategic management scenario planning in order to evaluate risk in a new opportunity. Marketers love utilising a “blue ocean “ strategic approach, as it enables them to start with a clean slate and develop strong, sustainable and competitive business positions.

So would a “Blue Ocean” approach for the Islamic Finance industry  be useful?

Scenario:

1. The Islamic Finance Industry has come into prominence in the past decade and this has been more pronounced in the past 2-3 years. But the business models of the IFI’s ( Islamic Finance Instituitions) seem to mirror those of their conventional counterparts whilst adhering/obtaining sharia compliance and having Islamic ethics spoken for in their corporate cultures. The result is “old wine in new bottle”—re-packaged products which still do not answer the consumers need fully.
   
2. IFI’s are business units and (as per our current knowledge base) a business unit is set up in order to make profit ie: the Adam Smith school of thought “One man’s expenditure is another man’s income”. Therefore, “Shariah-compliant” has become another ‘instrument’/ method in marketing financial products and services. And businesses continue to approach their objectives from this P.O.V. (point of view) i.e. making ‘financial profits’ is the sole purpose of the business and thus the sole aim of the employee is to deliver this objective.

Of course a business needs to be profitable in-order to be self sustaining. It can do so whilst taking care of the eco-system it works within. This is more true for a business that’s based on Islamic ethics. In Islam, the purpose of business is different. In Islam business is governed by the  Holy Qu’ran & Hadeeth encompassing trade and commerce. These laws were developed to fulfil a variety of objectives:

• To counter man’s greed and consequent abuse of the rights of others;
• To ensure that the earnings of man are halaal and pure;
• To create a harmonious atmosphere among people, something which can be utterly destroyed by man’s desire for wealth and position.

Among these, the second factor is vitally important to the Muslim individual, since the acceptance of all man’s ibadah (In Islam, ibadah is the obedience, submission, and devotion to Allah (God) along with the ultimate love for Him) and service is largely dependent upon the consumption of Halal food and the utilisation of Halal goods and products.

There is definitely an integral link between man’s earnings, which entail business dealings, and his ibadah unto Allah Ta’ala. This one factor alone underscores in no uncertain terms the significance and emphasis Islam has laid on correct and valid business dealings.

Moving forward:

If we approach the business model from this perspective  and utlise the tools from blue ocean strategy development, what we would have  is a “value based” business model with strong ethical foundations. We would get:

1. A strategic business plan that’s based on delivering financial and social value to the eco-system.
2. Which in turn would lead to sustainability and a ready pool of human resource as well as market (for the organisation’s products).
3. And a process that delivers value (financial and brand image) to the organisations employees as well as to its stakeholders.

The question that now remains to be answered– are we game to give this a try and make a much needed paradigm shift?

Related articles

• GROWTH: Islamic Finance Unbound (project-syndicate.org)

Are Your Employees Engaged?

Pic courtesy Scott Adam's Dilbert

Challenging times show an organisation’s ability on creating a high performance organisation through work culture and the employees attitude towards performance.  One of the factors affecting the employees’ attitude is the depth of engagement that the employees have with their corporate brand.

The stronger and deeper the engagement between the employee and the brand, the more productive and effective the manifestation of the brand to its stakeholders.

The organisation or corporate brand is brought to life through the employees across all management levels. Senior management is the de-facto ‘role-model’ whose attitude and behaviour is replicated by mid and junior management in peer-to-peer interaction and in external business dealings. Thus being a key influencer in the overall brand experience that a stakeholder gets to feel.

In the current business environment, with product based differentiation extremely difficult, highly competitive market segments and low competitive advantages coupled with  fragmented consumer segments with low loyalty towards brands, how can an organisation ensure a strong brand identity?

Continuous advertising of the brand communicating the same old key message is no longer an effective solution. Doing what one was doing in the past, prior to the global recession, no longer holds well in assuring brand profitability. Today an organisation’s BOD (board of directors) is only interested in “growth and profitability” simultaneously.

As a COO how do you deliver this?

By having a 100% consumer centric view that brings forth:

1. Leadership through innovative practices,
2. Creativity in growth planning and
3. Ensures brand risk management

The key here is the 100% consumer-centric approach. This will lead the strategic planning process and provide a clear roadmap that would have to be communicated (to employees) and implemented.

Through the communication and clear instructions of process (i.e. what and how to do) there will come about a attitudinal shift amongst employees resulting in effectiveness. Through this shift the organisation would be able to move, albeit slowly but surely, towards a continuous growth path.

But, beware, the path to achieveing such attitudinal shift is not an easy one! In order to achieve the results planned for, it’s often necessary to make some very hard choices that include changing the way work has been done till date.

One of these hard choices is for senior management to change in their approach to work, in order to affect the results. I.E.:To bring about change in ‘preference for the brand’ the organisation’s senior management cannot keep doing what they have always done. Senior management in the key functions of HR, Production, IT, Marketing and Finance need to be innovative in their functional roles. They need to be ingenious and creative.

The lead for such an environment will come from the CEO/COO. As a COO you would need to lead by example and constantly demonstrate innovation and effectiveness.

No change means zero sum game! There’s an old saying– “You can’t do what you’ve always done and expect better results.”
It’s that simple!

To achieve effective results, an organisation must step up its game. After all, its consumers have. Given the times, their approach to a brand experience and their purchasing behaviour has radically altered. If an organisation doesn’t recognise this and take account of it in its business process, it’s driving its brand to the ground!

Bringing about such a change can be categorised as ‘adopting innovative practices’ — taking a totally new approach to the issue at hand keeping the key stakeholder’s benefit in mind.

Two critical resources would be needed to ensure success:

A.      Identifying ‘High Performers’ and empowering and having them engaged.

• High Performers are problem-solvers, not the excuse-makers. Rather than wallow in hardship or defeat, they take positive steps. They are motivated when others aren’t. They stay focused on the desired outcome and creatively work on figuring out a way even when everything’s stacked against them. What separates High Performers from the rest is how they respond to difficult challenges and the roadblocks in front of them.
• The engagement process for a high performer needs to be quite different from rest of the employees. The high performers are ultimately the organisation’s internal and external ‘brand champions’ ie. They represent the dynamism and effectiveness of the brand. Thus they need to be empowered first or brought on board to develop the strategic business direction and thus have ownership which will bring about engagement.

B. Clearly understanding the strategic insight from the stakeholder’s perspective in terms of what their need is—i.e. in simple marketing parlance this means knowing what’s the consumer’s subconscious need or want that the brand must fulfil:

• E.g.: for a financial service product such as credit card, it would be key to know why exactly the consumer needs a credit card. Is it regulatory requirements? Is it peer pressure? Is it an unsaid social status announcement? Delving into this would automatically bring out the consumer’s financial knowledge base covering spending and savings habit. This would provide for risk coverage as well as fixing of credit limit (and thereby aid in restricting bad debts for the financial institution). Additionally, identifying the specific need would open up a ‘direct’ avenue for brand communication, possibly using social media, to help the consumer and thereby aid in the relationship development between the brand and the consumer.

Such strategic marketing approach is considered ‘innovative’ as it uses cross-industry best practices coupled  with core target audience research, socio-economic and cultural trend mapping. Without  such new approachs an organisation would end up doing what it was doing in the past and not achieve any positive results.

The lead for such changes in the work culture has to come from the senior management. Recognising the change areas, identifying required skill sets and direction setting can only come about through leading by example and identifying the high performers who can put in place a changing work culture.

Without innovative leadership and a focussed brand growth and profitability approach at the senior management level, an organisation would lurch on in its day-to-day activity resembling a ‘headless chicken run’.

Net result—employees would become ‘captive’ brand stakeholders with absolutely no engagement with the brand and in it just for the salary! An extremely harmful and dangerous scenario for any corporate brand, as the brand experience, that would manifest externally from such employees would be disastrous.

Focus and People for Profitability

Managers Focus on systems; Leaders Focus on People

The past week at work had been an exceptional one for a couple of reasons:

1.      Realisation of the fact that there were just a few executives who were stepping up beyond the call of their current roles (yours truly included and sacrificing work -life balance  in order to ensure quality deliverables on time for the benefit of progress).
2.      The various work processes were, actually, hampering work flow and decision making.

Recounting the week, made me ask myself this question—“Are processes helpful”?
The answer is Yes.

Processes play a critical role in work flow management and output. However, the work flow and its respective components are as good as the people who manage it i.e. Human Resource. To ensure that the process is effective and efficient, it’s critical to have the right skills and attitudes in the right job functions so that the team works as one.

As a business planner and marketer (just two of the three hats I often have to wear at work), whilst planning for business growth and revenue, there are two specific areas  that I’ve often found organisations overlooking  in the process of detailing  their business goals:

1.      Focus:  on the economic trends & key customer feedback and

2.      People for the job: job fit i.e.—right skills & attitudes in the right function

This, continuous, over-dependency on the process  is amazing!
The process is seen to be the job and not analysis of the information and logical fact based decision making.

But, in reality, what works is:

• Focussing: on the external and internal environment that affects the organisations’ ability to deliver with quality and competitively.
• Right People: having in place a select, small team of people who are the right fit to lead the implementation with various revenue units

By focussing on critical issues that needs to be addressed for the business to grow and having the right people in charge ( red that as-’empowered with authority along with responsibility’) the organisation gets the right attitude on the table.

People caught up in the “No. It’s not possible” line of thinking mistakenly think that having done the same process for years, it will still deliver and no change is needed. Unfortunately, this is a disguised form of negativity. And negativity sabotages the chance for success by keeping the team from innovating (within the process) and providing cost beneficial solutions. It creates an extremely unhealthy environment which in turn simply kills the process of ideation and thus any innovative approaches..

Secondly by having the right attitude people leading change it would bring in a work culture oflistening, discussions and simplistic evaluations.

These two functions, together, allow for implementing beneficial cross industry practices and strategic options that would enable growth and profitability.

This enables the organisation in having a motivated, passionate, engaged and objective oriented team of high performers who become brand ambassadors for the organisation.