Restructuring 5.0: With seven steps through your transformation
The COVID-19 virus has been raging in our world for over a year and is particularly shutting down the service industry. Viewed positively, the pandemic and the accompanying slowdown in the economy can be used to take a closer look at the internal processes by asking yourself: "How is my company set up and where are opportunities to make my company more efficient and more effective for all people? Where do I have to pay attention to, which mistakes and time-wasters can be avoided and which best practices can be found and used?"
Certainly, it is worthwhile - especially for the hotel industry - to look over the garden fence into other industries and sectors that - as part of the accompanying digital transformation - began to adapt to the new market conditions and customer needs even long before the pandemic. Especially those who have tried out new strategies and failed can now look back on valuable learnings that can help avoid mistakes in the future.
In a research study carried out by Quartz Associates and the Harvard Business Review with over 2500 companies, reorganizations were documented and analyzed over the years. According to the last edition of the Harvard Business Manager, only 8 percent managed to successfully complete their restructuring on time and 19 percent of all restructurings caused lasting damage to the company. Viewed positively, this also means that valuable insights can be drawn from 100% of the companies analyzed to learn how to successfully position yourself to be more agile and resilient.
On base of this study, seven elementary measures for a successful and sustainable reorganization and restructuring of a company could be identified. These can provide orientation for companies in the hospitality and event business.
1. Activation of planning & speed
Unsure quarreling and waiting belong to the past! Think about what you can actively influence and shape and just start! This not only increases your self-efficacy as an entrepreneur, but also that of your employees. Some measures and strategies from recent years have lost their validity and effectiveness due to globalization and digitization. Your courage to question and to rethink is now required: Your company needs a quick, targeted and planned action! Ask yourself what has gone well so far and what you have achieved through which measures. What did not work? Were market conditions, economic factors responsible, or also limping internal processes or insufficient skills of your staff? Give it a try and don't be afraid to make mistakes or quality circles – get your insights and learning. Want to overcome your personal hurdles? I am happy to assist – contact me!
2. People are assets
It is important to know to what extent a company is operating profitably and within which framework of the intended business goals. What often falls aside, however, is an equally targeted and detailed analysis of your most important assets in the company: your employees!
Here, too, a company can become self-effective. A proven and successful way of drawing up targeted recovery plans is to use internal benchmarking to make comparisons and to analyze the reasons why some departments or areas are working more successfully and efficiently than others.
This not only leads you to a faster discovering which of your own best practices can be identified, but also gives you the opportunity to transfer these directly from employee to employee - and thereby ensuring greater acceptance and effectiveness of the changes introduced. The biggest advantage is that you are working with your company's DNA and starting there, where it can have the most impact. Seek more ideas? Let’s talk!
3. Efficiency through targeted investments
In times of crisis you can be quickly misled by your finance director by using the red pencil to make savings. A high headcount is not always the reason for inefficiency, too high costs or too little income. The reasons can vary: inefficient specifications, guidelines, bureaucracy, inflated decision-making paths and the associated sensitivities of hierarchy (have you ever thought of the integration of agile working methods?).
Take a look at the hurdles your employees have to overcome in order to come to a result or a decision. Does your organizational structure still make sense? Do you need all specifications and paragraphs together with several management levels and hierarchies? In a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambivalent world (VUCA for short) it is crucial that decisions can and must be made as quickly as possible and more nimbly. Differentiating in which areas savings should be made and in which areas should be invested not only helps you to better learn how to deal with the uncertainties of today's economy, but also to anticipate them in a targeted manner and - as far as possible - to control and influence them yourself! Still uncertain of how to start? Then contact me: I am happy to assist in finding your business solution!
4. Solution Activation: Support from above - know-how & action from below
What used to be decided by individuals at the top should today be shared jointly by several people. The largest assets in your company are not the machines, buildings or the output, but the know-how of your employees. By including not just individuals but all relevant people knowing the particular process, you not only reduce the risk of a one-sided wrong decision, but above all enable support, commitment and the implementation of the jointly decided projects - effectively, efficiently and motivated! It is important and decisive for success that you think and act as a team in a solution-oriented manner and remain open to new creative solutions and paths. Want to hear more? Call or mail me!
5. Flexibility and courage
Especially in times of crisis, freedoms should be preserved and creative potential supported - and not - as is often the result of fear and uncertainty caused by company management - authoritarian and restrictive. Biting into the "tried and tested" and rigid management structures will not achieve a practicable result. Your employees no longer need your control in order to feel safe and motivated, but rather your trust in their abilities and your positive vision for the future. This promotes a person's individual degree of self-efficacy.
Agree as a team on how the overall concept and vision of the company should be, which guard rails should / must be observed in the change processes, which cost targets exist and which processes must be defined. How these goals and processes can be designed within the guard rails of the overall concept, however, is the responsibility of the individual managers and their teams. If you have the courage to share responsibility and trust, you will soon be able to say “Goodbye!” To loss of know-how due to fluctuation and de-motivation of employees! Do you have the courage to engage? Then call me!
6. Transparent and timely communication
How would you feel as an employee, if you knew that the world was in crisis with your employer, that losses were being made, but nobody was talking to you about whether you could still have your job tomorrow and therefore be able to support your family? What does that mean indirectly if you don't find out anything?
Leaving people in the dark is one of the greatest tortures of the human psyche. Because ignorance leads to insecurity and that leads to fear. Fear paralyzes and causes the opposite of agility, flexibility, motivation and action. So, which side are you seeking to?
Even if your news is that there will be x layoffs to be expected in the next few months, this news will be even better than none at all. Do damage control - communicate and share information - even if that includes literally "putting your pants down". This creates trust and commitment until the last day. Because no matter what you do: you are never alone! Want sparring for your crisis communication - then call or email me!
7. Feedback loops at eye level
Could you run your business all by yourself? Could you all alone deliver the products and services in your entire company to all of your customers and guests ALONE? Would you honestly be able to achieve the income you currently have (or before the crisis) as a "one-wo * man-show"? No?
You not only need feedback from your managers, but above all feedback on challenges and obstacles in the implementation of the innovations. No new system runs perfectly right from the start. Therefore, adapting the set screws and changing course in a timely manner are decisive for the success of a company restructuring.
For this you not only need the communication path from top to bottom, but also from bottom to top. The more you know what is happening at your base, the better and faster you can bring about suitable strategy adjustments. The days of hero management are over – being the boss you don't have to know everything anymore - that's what you have your team for! Practical, isn't it?
Do you want to arm yourself? Then arrange a management coaching session with me on the subject.
CONCLUSION
The power of science can teach us a lot if we (want to) listen or look. Thousands of companies have been observed and analyzed over the past decades. Why suffer when suffering can be avoided? To find out more and find solutions, call me or make an appointment with me. A restructuring is limited in time and - if used wisely - can save you a lot of worries in the future.
You won't always find the answers on your side of the fence. Be brave and curious - it's worth it! Learning from colleagues in other industries can give you the power to understand change and strategically implement it accordingly for your company. Because the good news are: No matter what happens - the choice is yours! And I can be your backup!
An serial-article written by Britta Viktoria Opatz, published between March 8-23rd, 2021.
