MOST BUSINESSES ARE NOT PREPARED FOR THE UPCOMING GROWTH!!!

I recently became involved with a tremendous new diagnostic tool called "Surveytelligence Powered By InfoTool." http://www.infotool-online.com/  This awesome tool when administered in any enterprise allows the management of the organization to determine exactly where the variables are in the organization by person, department or by any data point that they want to set up.  This then illuminates targeted improvements such as, strategic and organizational alignments, training and process activities.

During my training, one of the new colleagues I met was Bob Woodcock, Chief Engagement Officer at The Pulse Check http://www.thepulsecheck.com/  based in Collingwood, Ontario, Canada.  Bob recently introduced me to an article in Talent Magazine written by Catherine Farley and David Gartside is entitled "Talent That Fuels Growth.".  The link is:  

http://talentmgt.com/departments/dashboard/2011/April/1496/index.php?pt=a&aid=1496&start=0&page=1

In my humble opinion, one of  the most important quotes in this article is: 

"the road back to recovery and growth begins with companies aligning their business strategy with a human capital strategy that puts the right talent in the right roles performing in the right ways to bring the business strategy to life and execute it optimally."   

Now that may seem simple to any of you reading this, but the reality after reading this article (and from real experience from 35 years of consulting experience) is unfortunately a much bigger problem that most of you may realize.  A recent survey done with 674 C-level executives around the world supports how difficult this problem is going to be.  This study was conducted between January and May, 2010 and found that 'challenges in improving enterprise skills levels, workforce performance, HR organization productivity and effectiveness can substantially impede a company's ability to capitalize on emerging growth opportunities as economic prospects brighten in most parts of the world.'

What the survey found was:

• "62 % of execs in the survey reported their organizations had reduced the number of full-time employees during the downturn.  layoffs were much more prevalent in developed markets than in emerging markets."
• "52% of companies claimed to eliminate employees in the lowest tier of performance."
• "4 in 10 executives (said) eliminated employees either had skills that were not critical to the organization's future business future business or were in workforces that were not deemed important to the organization's focus areas going forward."     

But in the same survey:

• "only 1 in 10 respondents strongly agreed they have a formal analytics capability that can help them make fact-based decisions about the skills needed to drive growth and the changes necessary to improve HR and training performance and effectiveness."
• 'just 21% of executives who named sales as a major area described that workforce as high performing down from 25 percent in the previous edition of the study.'
• "a majority of executives who cited sales as their company's most important function said they either lack the needed skills in the sales function (29%) or significant proportions of the skills they do have are out of date (24%)."

Think about what this last group of quotes is saying.  Sales is one of the greatest drivers of revenues and global executives are concerned that within their own companies, the quality of the sales team and allied functions are decreasing.

The article and the discussed survey offer other fascinating views and information.  But the bottom line is that it is clear that if businesses today and in the very near future want to take advantage of the coming growth that we are now beginning to see, then they must have the right strategies in place that put everything in their company into alignment.

It was Fred Smith, Chairman of Federal Express who is quoted as saying, "Alignment is the Essence of Management."  What is further interesting about aligned companies as stated by George Labovitz, co-author of the book, "The Power of Alignment" is "Aligned organizations outperform misaligned organizations by every metric measure."  Now if what Labovitz and Smith both say is correct, then why are the C-suite survey takers results the way they are. The reason is simple, they have not had good results being feedback to them about the values within their organization and as a result they have not set up proper strategies that are aligned with their customers, their people and their processes.

And until that happens, as the title of this blog says, MOST BUSINESSES WILL NOT BE PREPARED FOR THE UPCOMING GROWTH!!!!!

Bob