When not at War..
In the current state of environment, it is apparent that the economies across the world are experiencing a demand side slow down, almost a contraction. The rate of growth has significantly come down leading to lowering the rate at which organisations need to work. Many companies have taken actions to close down a few shifts, some have closed down their plants, a few also have laid off people & some have postponed their capital expenditures. It almost is like passing through a phase of industry cycle where you actually have spare capacity in almost everything. Similar to an Army which is not at war.
Arguably Army represents one of the early formal organisational structures of work. It is of interest of explore 'when not at War what does the army do'? It seems that army views this period of time to be most appropriate time to sharpen it's weapons, plan new strategies, improve on the skills, think of buying & training on new weapons etc etc. When not at war is the time of thinking & planning the next phase.
Industry cycles turn. Organisations too sooner or later will experience a turn-around in the phase from low growth to high growth, which i like to call it as 'from not at war to being at war'. Organisations who would use this period of time to invest in resources which would support the phase of 'war' would be the real beneficiaries of the current phase. In my opinion this is the ideal period of time for the industry to make investments in people skills, redesigning new processes, challenge the existing strategies, frame new policies etc etc. e.g. some organisations may find human resources reasonably free to upgrade their technical skills, some may find time to solve problems which other-wise couldn't be solved due to scarcity of time....
In short, smart organisations need to use the 'not at war phase' to lay down the seeds & nurture the organisation to be ready to fight the war. Else one has wasted a great opportunity which may not come back soon & would leave you gasping for breath.
Training the employee or investment in new technology or redesigning new process or any such initiative that is undertaken to get ready for the war time will incur a significant amount of investment. But usually top management is reluctant for such initiative. How to address this issue.
ReplyDeleteHi Chirag, normally the cost of initiatives is far lesser than the benefits accrued. Many a times the road block for the top management is the lack of business case to make the move. Any initiative which has an business impact can stand a chance. In absence of outcome based initiatives, Investment is treated as 'Expense' so a balance sheet item moves to the P&L!
DeleteI love the title !!
ReplyDeleteFrom my view there are two types of wars any organization has to face. One is external & other one is internal.
ReplyDeleteDuring an external war fulfilling customer volume needs is the only critical deliverable, everything else is secondary. In such a condidition other improvement areas are kept aside knowingly / unknowingly.
I agree that organizations do not face an external war today.
So, in my view we have the other was going on, which is an internal one. In this condition, customer requirements must be fulfilled with an added aspect of cost management(else risk of losing market share is significant). But also, internal war on waste takes a very important role. Apart from efficiency improvements, organizations should look at improving their effectiveness. This can be done by innovation in process / product / business models. This also prepares organizations for the next upturn by being ready to meet changing customer demands quickly.
In short, organizations are continuously at war & they must have / build capability to manage both the cycles to become successful
Hi,
ReplyDeleteYour blog is awesome knowledge pool. Thanks. I have one query quite un-related to above post but may be to SCM. I am recently seening sales representatives from Samsung, LG or voltas etc at big consumer durables dealers shops in Chennai, representing their own company products. I am sure there are not employed by the shop. What concept of marketing does this belong to?
Regards
P.M.Hariharan
hariharanpm@gmail.com