business
‘‘
TALKING
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the University of San Francisco, explains
that growth can put employees under
psychological pressure to perform and
that in turn can give people more energy
and endurance, sharpening their thinking
and focus for the intellectual demands
they face. However, as soon as demands
begin to exceed capabilities and resources,
business growth (and the stress it brings)
may become debilitating for workers and the
businesses that employ them.
“
WHILE A CERTAIN
AMOUNT OF STRESS CAN
BE STIMULATING, IT CAN ALSO BE
INCAPACITATING FOR BUSINESSES
OR EMPLOYEES FOR WHOM IT IS NOT
MANAGEABLE.
Stress may be a by-product of growth, but
businesses want to grow. So, what can they
do to help make the journey easier?
It’s possible that more senior staff have
a better understanding of the business
benefits of technology change, because
they have a clearer idea of the business’s
growth strategy and the ‘end goal’ that
technology will help them to reach. Less
senior employees, however, tend not to be
involved in the decision-making process,
making it harder for them to see the value in
change. They may also be over-burdened by
increasing workloads and have little patience
for learning how to use new technology on
top of their daily grind.
Our research shows that businesses turn to a
variety of methods to help them keep on top
of the stresses and challenges they face while
growing and demonstrates that different
members of the workforce have different
opinions on how to make business growth a
better experience. Not surprisingly, nearly two
in five (38%) members of staff questioned
in our study believe that business growth
could be less stressful with better leadership.
On the flip side of this, 37% of directors
and managers think that the challenges of
growth can be largely overcome if employees
worked more efficiently.
There are differences too between different
sized organisations, with a quarter of large
organisations (with over 1,000 employees)
tending to feel that growth would be less
stressful if their business model was more
flexible and only 16% of small organisations
(with under 100 employees) feeling the
same. Smaller businesses, after all, tend to
find it easier to adapt, making change less
difficult to manage. Larger organisations
on the other hand tend to have to work
harder at evolving. They have more internal
processes to follow and more stakeholders to
involve in strategic decision making, which is
an inevitable aspect of growth.
John Timpson, Chairman of the high-street
services provider, Timpson, has commented
that the larger businesses that do learn to
adapt well are the ones that survive the
longest and often have a place in their
customers’ hearts too. Across the board
there is widespread recognition that
implementing better technology is key to a
business’s ability to cope with the stresses
and challenges presented by growth. Making
use of the latest technology can help
36
INTELLIGENTCIO
businesses work more efficiently and even
help them expand into new geographies,
without having to make huge investments in
staff and facilities.
This is especially true in the manufacturing
sector, where intelligent enterprise resource
planning (ERP) solutions are helping
organisations to bridge the top floor with the
shop floor. By doing this, ERP systems allow
for better data flow – for example between
sales teams, machines on the production
line, shipping partners and customers – as
well as automating otherwise manual tasks
to cut time to market.
Almost half (47%) of business professionals
across the globe agree that technology
is an important factor in overcoming the
challenges of growth, with those that are
in a position of power tending to feel even
more strongly about this fact. A total of 54%
of CEOs and 52% of directors and managers
believe that technology helps them
overcome the stresses of growth. However,
just 37% of staff who are less senior agree.
Technology change can, moreover, threaten
the organisational culture of the workplace;
it can change the work environment
by transforming tasks and processes,
providing greater visibility of those tasks,
something which will understandably make
staff nervous if they don’t feel they have
a personal and professional stake in the
changes being made. Organisations that do
choose to embrace digital transformation on
their pathway to growth must therefore do
this in a manner that will allow all members
of the workforce to understand the reason
for the business’s investment, to overcome
resistance from staff.
While it’s certainly true that some business
professionals do thrive under the pressure of
growth, beyond the online rhetoric and the
year-on-year increase in output or profits,
there’s a deeper, more human experience
of business growth too. While some find it
rewarding, others find it challenging. The
most successful high-growth organisations
are those that have flexible systems, are
able to constantly adapt to new and better
business models and are able to bring their
staff onboard with changes along the way.
Investing in technology is a good way to
meet these three growth requirements and
tackle the challenges of growth head on. n
www.intelligentcio.com