Running a modern business is like heading out on the highway.
Things can become dangerous if all you do is focus on trying to keep up with the fast pace of everyone else.
The truth is there are numerous factors that will impact your ability to effectively run your business and safeguard your future.
These include public and economic policies, innovations, serious market competition, an unpredictable and turbulent business environment, changing consumer behaviour and tastes, as well as technological advancement.
Put together, these have all made managing a business a very challenging task in 2019 with entrepreneurs kept on their toes constantly to identify and overcome challenges.
All of these factors also have a significant impact on business management survival and practices. For businesses with long-term goals, it is important to be flexible with management practices to best respond to changes, with a focus on workplace culture more than just a passing buzzword.
When dealing with matters internally though, the key question then is this – how can businesses keep up in this demanding and technology-rich modern era?
The following 5 business management practices are critical to ensure your continued survival and growth in 2019 and beyond.
1. Transform Your Employees
It is important to recognise that your employees are representatives and ambassadors of your business.
Their actions affect your business both directly and indirectly. You are responsible to train and inspire them to act in such a way that they make positive contributions to your business goals. This means there should be visible movement from a passive to an engaged employee.
Workers who are alienated do not care about performing their jobs successfully. They just care about getting advancing their interests and getting a pay-check. This is reinforced by Health Coach Tony Neale who notes “motivated employees lead to increased productivity and output. In 2019 a strength-based culture is proving to be effective. This means focusing on the strengths of your team instead of highlighting weaknesses.”
The first thing that a manager needs to do is figure out how to get employees to care about their company’s vision. Not only are engaged workers more productive and enthusiastic; they are also less passive, and help to attract new talent to the company and take responsibility for their performance.
2. Have an Excellent Talent Management Plan
All successful businesses thrive on having an efficient talent-management plan.
How do you manage and improve the talent of your workers? You need to have a very clear goal, communicate this goal effectively to your staff, provide guidance, mentoring, and training, and have an effective performance appraisal system in place.
It’s also vital to have a clear performance reporting system in place too.
Modern entrepreneurs are gradually coming to the understanding of how important talent management practices are and how they can help to set the stage in the long run for earning high dividends.
In fact, both well-established firms and startups that fail to recognise the potential of aligning their key business strategies with their talent schemes often will end up in a lot of trouble in the future. This can lead to a massive waste of the organisation’s valuable resource and cause failure in numerous ways.
3. Invest in Personal Development
Financial, material, and time resources that are invested in making yourself more knowledgeable and better is never a waste.
If you don’t currently see the usefulness of this in your business, be patient for it to pay off in the future.
So how can you engage in personal development?
It is not simply surfing the net searching for the latest clothing designs, leading watch brands, latest car models, best vacation destinations, and top-rated smartphones. It is simply doing all of the essential things over time.
For example, attending academic institutions, workshops, symposia, conferences, and seminars for knowledge, insights, and new ideas in your field of expertise.
4. Focus on Your Customers’ Experience
How do your customers feel about the way they are treated by your company?
In today’s business world this is a key question where the perceptions of customers in the market build memories and feelings that affect their loyalty and behaviour.
According to studies, 86% of customers are willing to pay more to have a great customer experience, while 73% of customers state that their customer experience is a very important factor in their purchasing decisions, and 65% of customers found that having a positive experience with a brand was more influential than excellent advertising.
This data is reinforced by the human behavioural experts at Mindset Mastery who note “businesses can use the Halo effect by optimising management practises. When people have a positive experience with your brand it creates a glowing halo around your products and services, increasing the likelihood of further positive interaction.”
By 2020, it is expected that customer experience will be overtaking product and price as the key differentiator among brands. So it will become vital to position your team to develop a drive for success.
You should aim to achieve customer service excellence at all times. This will definitely make a positive impression on your customers. Also, make sure you give customers plenty of room for expressing their opinions on the quality of your services or products. Customers always have things to say about our services, products, and business, and interactions and having an effective feedback system can help you achieve customer service excellence.
5. Stay Current On New Technology
It is incredible to see new technologies springing up on a daily basis. The disruption that digital technology has unleashed has brought about all types of new platforms, tools, and business processes and changed the way businesses operate.
Rather than push back against emerging technology, embrace it to further your management practices. This is reinforced by the accounting team at Robinson Accounting who note “in the same way technology has connected borrowers and lenders, technology can connect you with your audience in a hugely positive way. It’s no longer a case of interruptive marketing trying to cast a wide net. Now, you can invite people in with permissive tactics that reduce friction. And that’s in huge part due to the increase in technology on both consumer and business sides.”
With 80% of shoppers using their mobile phone while inside a physical store to find other store locations, compare prices, or look at product reviews, staying accessible on mobiles should be a priority.
An increasing number of individuals also use smartphones for online transactions. That implies that your website needs to be optimised for mobile users. It is also a necessity to have a good business app, along with leveraging social media networks to reach a broader market.
