Change Management | Teik Oh

Does my small business really need a Board?

Dec 08 2015

Last week I wrote about establishing a governance framework in a family business. If you missed it, look here.

Just to refresh ourselves, the difference between governance and management is that governance is about strategic direction, overall policies, establishing a vision and mission, whereas management is about caring for the operations of the business, the “how’s” of running the business to meet strategic direction and policy.

The decisions correctly made in governance are about the really big things in the business that will affect the long term future of the business.

Appropriately these governance decisions are made by a Board of Directors while the CEO and other managers look after operational management.

In a small business, whether a single owner-manager business, or one with a number of family or unrelated partners, both governance and management decisions are often made by the same people wearing different hats, and more often than not, the decisions are made smoothly and efficiently.

So, why would you need to put a Board in place?

I believe a number of issues make the establishment of a good Board beneficial to your business, at the right time. Read More

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Get Your SWOT Worksheet!

Nov 24 2015

In any planning exercise, you will need to understand where you are starting your plan from.

Just as you need to know where you are starting from to get to the end of any journey.

This identifies what you have to do to go from “here” to “there”. It’s no good setting up great goals and a fantastic vision of your journey’s end, if you start from the wrong place. In order to build, say, a great website presence for your business as a goal, you need to be clear about what your current website represents in terms of strengths and weaknesses so that you can change it from the present to “great”.

In order to get a good picture of where your business is right now, the best exercise is called a SWOT Analysis. Read More

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Are you stapled to one spot?

Nov 10 2015

Status quo is the enemy of business growth. In order to grow your business, you need to innovate and improve continuously.

However sometimes, you can get stapled into one spot or stuck in a rut.

Whether you are stuck because of some outside influence like the economy, or let’s face it, sometimes because of an internal influence like you get tired, you do need to recognise when you are in that predicament and shake it off.

If you want to grow your business you need to continuously improve your processes, you need to find new niches that you can service, you need to update your products and services to meet the current day’s needs. Innovation isn’t all about inventing Back To The Future’s hoverboard. Innovation is about improving the current product, service or process just by a fraction so that you are always moving forward; until all these small improvements end up as the hoverboard.

When you are stuck in a rut, I have a great Three Step Process to Innovate. Read More

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Teamwork needs Agreement!

Sep 22 2015

The more I help clients grow their businesses, the more I see how “teamwork” is not a natural thang!

Sure people like to belong, and people like to help in a common endeavour, but people are different and they have different values, habits and personalities. Ask your team to define “a job well done” and you will get a variety of different answers.

This may not sound like a significant problem, but what if their different definitions of a job well done mean that they approach the joint task differently? To you, it might be okay to call out at team meetings discussing how to do something, and voice your ideas. To someone else, they might want to think through the problem and think that your calling out is just self-aggrandisement, and just plain rude. There may be a raft of other differences that can cause team members to be frustrated at each other and the way the team works.

In a more formal structure, I have helped clients create team “charters” which outline what the team was formed to do, its objectives and scope, and its authority in doing the task. Read More

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Do you use LACE when you communicate?

Sep 15 2015

Like anything else in life, communication is the key in business.

Whatever your business is, whatever you sell, you will need to communicate clearly so that your team understands what your business stands for and what their instructions are, you will need to communicate effectively with customers so that they understand exactly what it is you are selling and telling them, and you need to communicate with suppliers to ensure you are both on the same page.

Whether you are staring a change management initiative or trying to provide better customer service, good, clear, effective and efficient communication is vital.

How many times have you told someone what to do, and when it is done, comes out different from what you expected? Is it their fault that they did not listen to you, or is it yours for not being clear?

How many times have you listened to a customer ask for something, and when you gave them what they asked for they tell you that wasn’t what they were after? Was it their fault for not explaining clearly what they wanted, or was it yours for not listening closely enough?

More often or not it is both parties’ fault, but “fault” is probably a bad word to use. It’s more like it’s both parties’ nature to misunderstand!

What do I mean by that?

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Category - Change Management

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Does my small business really need a Board?

Get Your SWOT Worksheet!

Are you stapled to one spot?

Teamwork needs Agreement!

Do you use LACE when you communicate?