Change, innovation, business transformation… these are words that are part of advice that we seem to hear every day in the business community.
For businesses that have operated in very much the same way for years or decades, these words seem to come with a great deal of risk. On the other hand, might the organization face a larger risk by ignoring these principles? What do they even mean?
We are pleased to have Justin Gress, Americas Business Transformation Leader, AXA XL on Ilume to shed some light on these important words and decisions. While Jusitn leads this function at a large global organization, he spends much of his time thinking about how these risks and practices fit into the model of small and mid-sized businesses. Business transformation is certainly not just for large organizations!
Justin refers to business plans that couch an annual strategy in terms of ‘we will do more of what we did last year’ as just luck. Sometimes that works, but the risk of underperforming is great. Small and mid-sized businesses don’t need a full-time innovation or transformation leader to embed these principles into a culture. Sometimes it just starts with a few hours to review opportunities and threats.
Businesses of all sizes have tools available to fit the size and scope of the organization. During our interview, we discussed some examples of 90-day, rapid result initiatives that have worked very successfully in large businesses without the need for significant investment in time and resources.
Perhaps most interesting, are Justin’s thoughts on the connection between business transformation and employee engagement. Some of the most successful change is led by employees from the ground-up, resulting in not only a more profitable business, but also a more engaged team. Business evolution can sometimes feel scary, but the risks are greater in the absence of evolution.
Join us soon and learn about some tactics to help harness the energy of business change and take advantage of the risks and rewards. Stay tuned
Listen to the episode