Business: Tomorrow Is Another Day!

Dr B K Mukhopadhyay

Global business are has been changing very fast making it difficult for the poor-walkers to retain the market. There is a lot of noise out there. Merger/ amalgamation / tie-up arrangements / outsourcing are being watched out — still something more is needed and that too on an urgent basis especially considering the existence of a very competitive world where there are many hungry competitors.

Little did we think that the airlines could compete with the railways, the then sanctioned housing loans turning to be a giant sub-prime crisis and great recession would be visiting the biggies. Actually, jet-speed changes in competition, technology, and workforce values are compelling organizations to search for new and more human ways of increasing productivity and competitiveness

In today’s fast-changing world, business is not just a cake walk / goodwill tour that one lands, grabs the opportunity and then vanishes. Myopic approach is suicidal. Truly, success means a long-term phenomenon —continuous market scans and adapting to change-friendly approaches.

The biggest changes have been due to the impact of information and communication technology. The ability to access vast information resources within a matter of minutes and to communicate across huge distances at ever lower costs and improving quality and convenience is transforming the way people and companies interact. Virtually, it is becoming harder to achieve market leadership and to stay on top.

So, complexities galore — business space, technologies, processes and business models as well have turned out to be more complex. New characteristics are added frequently [subtracted infrequently]. The dimensions of business space keep increasing, adding complexity, while at the same time furnishing attractive new opportunities for those who can successfully vigate in the new environment. This complexity, in turn, also inhibits greater size and greater value creation.

Of course, initiating any change is a stupendous process apparently, but the same is possible and there is no short-cut general prescription for the same in as much as all depends on the case concerned. There is a tendency to resist change, but the change itself in a business environment impacts employees, business relationships, customers, bosses, subordites. It is up to the magers to carry out the duties of the company towards its customers while helping employees vigate through the change du jour. The change could be due to economic crisis, losing a customer, gaining a new customer (thus much more work), a new project, etc

The issue is a burning one in as much as the same not only affects liquidity, profitability and equity of individual company but also affects the tiol economy by freezing the supply link, which, in turn, terribly affects the process of capital formation.

Clearly, in today’s business world competition comes in many forms: price, service, quality, speed of delivery, uniqueness, experience, experience, knowledge, contacts, resources, brand equity, and so on and so forth. Boosting of service quality, keeping in view the very ture of effective demand, is the crying need. The challenge is not only to acquire the customer, but also to retain him in the business for furthering the process of improved customer value. What is more, the fact remains that the market share once gone would be very difficult to regain as not only the number of CORE [Competitors, Opponents, Rivals and Enemies] is on the rise but technology also is being continuously replaced.

And success means a long-term phenomenon - continuous market scans and adapting to change-friendly approaches. Strategy existing today may not be liked by the next generation and thus quick adaptability system is required to remain inbuilt.

Under such facts and circumstances, maging capital and risk exist at the front door. Tapping the high-growth opportunities ensuring capital efficiency stays, thus, at the forefront. Essentially, before the broad objectives/ strategies are set, the crucial aspects are to be kept in mind. Business without risk is similar to day without night!  

Consolidation would definitely continue to be the key factor, but obviously is not the end as is presently thought of, rather the tip of an iceberg. Tying up/ amalgamation/ merger with the stronger is definitely one of the ways out. But what are the things that are to be done thereafter? Have the problems faced by the regiol rural banks been solved after their mergers which are already taking place in a big way? Actually, in today’s unprecedented talent crunch, the business world as a whole is grappling with developing leadership, talent, risk awareness and of course the very task of building up/ inculcating positive- change attitude.

Next, the very aspect of communication comes into play — what information each stakeholder / customer needs and how to deliver the same. Organization’s roles and responsibilities exist in such a boiling context as one of the major determints.

Why not to try more intensively with the joint endeavours in a more pronounced way, maybe with the telephone, insurance, non-conventiol energy agency, post offices having a reach deep and wide and also resorting to PPP (Private- Public Partnership) drive.  

The choice of strategy also depends on facts and circumstances — maybe one particular strategy becomes outdated or calls for supplements not necessarily by discarding the older one. This renovation is thus a continuous process. The redesigning of existing processes can effectively lead to dramatic enhancements in performance that ebles the organization to deliver greater value to customers in ways that also generate higher profits to the stakeholders. A well-groomed strategy could not only help protect the fund deployed, but also eble to face competition through customers’ confidence building.

Business processes must become more mature and the institution must be able to deliver higher performance — spatially, temporally, hierarchically and functiolly.

Enterprise capabilities are the crucial factors for the ultimate achievement — leadership, culture, expertise, and governce.

For developing high-performance processes, institutions need to offer a very supportive environment. It is in that greater competent those institutions emerge as the victor, while others struggle to keep the heads over water.

So, focusing on, measuring and redesigning the customer-facing and interl processes improvements could be there in areas like cost, quality, speed, profitability and other key areas. Arranging for such change-over calls for more than rearranging work- flows, which does what tasks, in what locations, as well as in what sequence.

For making the new process work, the need is there to ensure that the jobs are redefined broadly, backed by updated training system to support these jobs and at the same time ebling decision-making. The process and the outcome are to be studied for the next course of action.

The broad areas under such a change-over method include, among others, reshaping organizatiol cultures to emphasize on team performance, fixation of persol accountability, customer’s importance, magers overseeing the tasks rather than supervising and realigning the information system so that the cross-functiol processes work smoothly than simply support departments.

(The Writer,  a noted Magement Economist, an intertiol Commentator on Business and Economic Affairs and Principal, Eminent College of Magement and Technology, can be reached atm.bibhas@gmail.com)