John Bridges
John has 25+ years of experience with delivering organizational, digital, and operational transformation in a range of business environments including telecoms, utilities, business services, engineering, healthcare, IT, and government.
It's never too early to plan for Q4. Business leaders should therefore be asking the following questions to best prepare their organizations.
- What is overall market demand like, compared with what it was in February?
- What is the likely sales turnover this year going to be? And the expected profit?
- What size of organization can we now afford? What is the required staff skills mix?
- What are the demands of our customers and have they changed?
- What is our cash flow position? Are we at critical levels, and what rate are we burning cash?
- How does our mission, vision and operating model need to change?
- How has our competitive position changed? What do we now need to compete and grow?
- How innovative and change-oriented are we as an organisation?
- How resilient are we as an organisation?
- What is the size of the change needed in all our functions? Technology, finance, sales, marketing, HR, production, operations, procurement?
- What are the main ways in which the organisation needs to be changed or transformed, and how long will that take? What investment is needed and what ROI expected?
- How engaged and supportive are our employees?
- Are we paying enough attention to employee well-being?
- Where do we need our staff to be located and what is the face to face vs virtual working balance?
- Can we manage the required transformation ourselves, or should we call in experts to shape and lead the transformation, and deliver the business benefits?
Generally, organizations that have clear answers to the above key questions, can debate and agree on the way ahead, and take action promptly. Those who do will enjoy a first mover advantage in their market, taking market share from slower competitors.
