When dealing with companies that are in the phase of growth, I always advise them to start with the end in mind and to engage with external partners. I strongly believe such an approach will allow them to achieve success they are after. Let me explain you why.
- Questions companies should ask themselves
- The role of external partners
- Communication as the highest value within the company
- Choosing the right partner / consultant
- What companies are looking for when it comes to technology?
Questions that businesses should ask themselves
At the start of any new cooperation with a firm that wants to expand and seeks guidance on the best methods to do it, I address certain key elements they should consider, discuss, and constantly keep in mind.
1 Function
The first is their reason for being. You should be clear about your aims and objectives when launching a new company or creating a new product. Consider the following: what problem are you attempting to solve? Which opportunity are you most eager to seize? How will you proceed? How will you go forward? What makes what you do crucial? How do you intend to reach your ultimate goal?
It is vital to start with the purpose in mind in order to respond to all of those queries. It is from Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It entails sitting back and thinking long and hard about the purpose, the objective you want to attain, and the ultimate result. How does it appear? What objectives have you set for the ensuing three to five years? Do you wish to sell your business? Do you want to push it any further?
Planning backwards with that aim in mind is necessary once you have a distinct objective in sight. We are all used to planning ahead, so planning back may seem strange at first, but It becomes second nature after a while. For example, if your ultimate objective is to be purchased, you should consider which firms you would like to be acquired by. Who exactly are they? Obviously, they may evolve with time, and such firms may not yet exist, but you may imagine them, what they are like, and what sort of culture they represent.
Such an approach aids in making sound judgments along the road. It’s similar to a moral compass in that you must continually recall the objective and consider if the action you’re making today is pushing your organization closer to that goal. You need a change of direction to go forward.
Review your purpose every three to six months. Review it with your board, investors, and partners. Ask regular inquiries on how to get to your destination.
2 Individuals
You’ll need individuals to assist you attain your goal after you’ve identified it. And, as with purpose, your people needs will change: you will require various individuals and skill sets at different periods. As a result, it’s critical to employ the individuals you need immediately while keeping the medium and long term in mind.
When beginning a firm, you must consider scaling, when you will need workers who work on customer happiness, when you will need to recruit a product officer, and when is the optimum moment to build up your risk team. When your firm expands, it is critical to consider your resources and how they should adapt. Along the process, you must recruit the proper individuals.
3 Procedure
I am a firm believer in the power of processes. Because of my technical background, I see procedures as small building pieces that allow you to go forward. To understand how processes function at all levels of company, you must consider and map them. Learn about your financial operations, including selling. Processes, a complaints handling system, and how you report to the board are all crucial to specify since they inform you how you should function and provide clarity about the roles and duties of different individuals in your organization.
When you expand quickly, operating a firm may become difficult and confusing if responsibilities are not clearly defined, routinely updated, and frequently remarked upon.
4 Proposals
The fourth consideration for businesses is their proposal. What value do they add to their customer base, and what problem do they solve? How do they assist their customers? It is critical to remember that everything changes, and clients’ finances are redistributed based on various pressures, concerns, and issues. However, people are continuously looking.
The BNPL – purchase now, pay later mechanism is a superb illustration of such an improvement. It’s an intriguing method to take control of your financial responsibilities that was designed with customers in mind.
5 Science and technology
The final issue that requires consideration is technology. Make sure your technology is suitable for purpose and will continue to be so in the future. Questions to consider here include: can I grow my software? How can I make sure my info is secure? How will I be able to address everything?
External partners’ roles
When you think about typical businesses and how they run, you can easily see that HR has always fulfilled the duty of following regulations, CFOs have mostly focused on figures and reports, and CEOs have always given directives.
But times have changed, and modern businesses must adapt: HR must assist employees, CFOs must become more active in commercial decision-making rather than just reporting, and CEOs must drive their firms in a more nimble manner.
CEOs must listen to them in order to learn more and make better judgments.
External partners are also important for supplementing the existing skill base. The finest firms have a strong foundation of people, but they also leverage external services, allowing their staff to be more productive, do more, and make greater use of their time and knowledge. External partners also have access to talent pools that you may leverage to supplement your current pool. External individuals come in, provide fresh ideas, and tell you whether they’ve seen the solutions you’re preparing to present elsewhere and how well they performed.
I believe that strong firms should be made up of both internal and external employees, and I am confident that this trend will continue.
Communication is regarded as the most important value inside the organization.
The Abilene paradox is a concept used in the psychology of collaboration that applies to all organizations, regardless of size. It refers to a circumstance in which employees band together and begin functioning in opposition to the board’s plan. Why? Because of communication – when the board establishes the plan, they believe they convey it well to the management team, and the management team believes they communicate effectively to their teams. But, along the way, the plan becomes diluted, misconstrued, and rethemed, and by the time it reaches the It is unclear to the worker who is actually performing the task.
This is the time when a group of people decides to change something. And a fight breaks out. The board will experience uncertainty, assumption-making, rage, sadness, and demotivation if they don’t sufficiently communicate their strategy and if employees are unsure of their duties, responsibilities, how they fit in, and how they offer innovation. People cease caring if they are unsure of whether what they are doing is good or bad, and this is how silent quitting begins.
Therefore, communicating your tactics properly is crucial while using them. People must understand their place in the organization, and managers must listen more and explain the plan to their staff members clearly. Simply put, the business suffers when there are too many false assumptions.
selecting the ideal consultant or partner
Keep in mind that experience matters while picking your external partners! Choose employees that are able to expand your business and have experience doing so. Similar to Formula 1, the most successful teams are those with a ton of experience, who have driven a variety of vehicles on a variety of tracks, and who have seen how a wide range of tires respond to various driving situations.
The chemistry is another crucial factor. You will be working closely together, so you need to have a high level of understanding since there may be occasions when you both have doubts and questions. Make sure you can all work together to solve it.
An effective counselor must comprehend their customer and always consider how to manage him. Advisory cannot be about challenging moral principles, but rather about enhancing the company by cooperation and asking the proper questions.
That part about asking questions is crucial; a good coach should ask more questions than they should tell. In order to help clients reach their own decisions, advisors must recognize that their customers have their own thoughts and inspirations as well as a lot going on at once and limited time for thinking. The focus is more on counseling than on directing. After all, investing in your own ideas is considerably simpler than doing so in someone else’s. Advisory work entails providing customers with direction and producing something of value while remaining adaptable to changes.
What sort of technologies are businesses seeking for?
Security is currently the most critical factor that businesses consider. Since cloud migration has already taken place, businesses cannot afford to remain offline. Security is crucial no matter what you do because of this.
The platform you use is another crucial factor. Companies want their platforms to be adaptable, scalable, and to offer a solid framework for future work.
Fintechs and fintech apps are best examples, since they are utilized by organizations from other industries, such as car dealerships, who wish to have a fintech solution on their app, allowing them to give financial services to their consumers. Everyone need a versatile platform to help them launch new goods and offer innovation. Today’s financial systems are more flexible and purpose-built. They enable for scalability while also taking security into mind. This will also be the future trend.
Ribbit Consulting’s Managing Director is Antony Bream.
He is an internationally experienced UK Managing and Sales Director who has spent the last 30 years at the board and ‘C’ level in manufacturing, media, publishing, technology, legal, and financial services, specializing in marketing, business development, and selling of complex enterprise-wide software and professional service solutions, both in-house and SaaS.