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Increasing productivity
Increasing team productivity will be the mission critical task of most businesses over the next two years. See Here for more details on an event that you need to be attending.
How to Make $000s Without Trying!
Over this past month I’ve been researching how small business teams will work in the future.
This research has led me to attend a number of conferences where I’ve listened to highly successful “web-gurus” talk about how they are making $000s through on-line selling and affiliate marketing and using virtual teams.
There seems to be a number of common threads to all the talks:
- Small teams can provide exceptional products that are often better than equivalent and expensive products from larger businesses.
This is true and I’ve even invested in two CD’s packed with useful information for under $10, including postage. - Work such as marketing, web design, product production and delivery, customer contact and much more can be outsourced at a fraction of the current cost.
Again very true and if there is one aspect to the future of business that will impact even large teams in multinational companies.
The final message that I heard from all of them is that individuals and small teams can make $000s without much effort. All you have to do is to buy the product package the “Guru” has developed for $000s and your journey to riches begins…100% money back if not satisfied…guaranteed!
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that people still find the “instant riches” message so attractive. The Lottery, advertisers and TV game shows all contribute to this perception.
Having spoken to and observed some of the “Gurus” telling everyone how easy it is to make money on the web and that it only takes an hour a day it’s interesting that they themselves seem to work very very very hard and very long hours.
Perhaps the learning point is that: Technology makes life easier but the effort that needs to be directed towards producing and maintaining a successful and sustainable outcome for clients changes.
Those that get rich will only do so through hard work, the rest continue to delude themselves.
Professional jobs at risk!
A couple of days ago I was talking to a friend of mine, Chrissie Lightfoot, who has written a great blog titled The end of Lawyers on the changes to how the legal profession will be changing. The article is very revealing and Chrissie has made some excellent observations.
Her blog has caused some discussion with friends who use the internet for business. It’s been agreed that now we can offer experts in India, China, Thailand and all over the world work that would normally be done very expensively such as marketing, research, print design, professional advice and even pay someone to write our blogs, monitor the results and only pay for what we have had satisfactorily delivered at a fraction of the price. Why would we want to hire expensive people or firms locally?
The result must be that professional firms in Europe and the USA must consider that to survive they must identify Micro-niche products that can’t be easily replicated.
Professional jobs at risk!
A couple of days ago I was talking to a friend of mine, Chrissie Lightfoot, who has written a great blog titled The end of Lawyers on the changes to how the legal profession will be changing. The article is very revealing and Chrissie has made some excellent observations.
Her blog has caused some discussion with friends who use the internet for business. It’s been agreed that now we can offer experts in India, China, Thailand and all over the world work that would normally be done very expensively such as marketing, research, print design, professional advice and even pay someone to write our blogs, monitor the results and only pay for what we have had satisfactorily delivered at a fraction of the price. Why would we want to hire expensive people of firms?
The result must be that professional firms in Europe and the USA must consider that to survive they must identify Micro-niche products that can’t be easily replicated.
“British Airways Strike and Teambuilding”
The current dispute between British Airways and the cabin crews must pose concerns as to the ability of the airline to develop a positive working relationships in the future between the airline and its staff.
Whilst there is no doubt that British Airways is looking to cut costs and ensure that the airline is able to compete with its rivals one must consider that British Airways must either break the union or potentially become a shadow of its previous self.
The problem with either result is the potential ill feeling felt by both sides at the end of the dispute. A recovery of morale, trust and mutual support could take many years to achieve. During this time passengers may well opt to travel with rival carriers and thus leaving BA with the long-term potential of becoming the UK’s Pan Am!
The Airline would do well to start planning how they might achieve a recovery of morale, professional working and team-building prior to the end of the dispute. To spend time congratulating itself on any real or imaginary victory over the union could well be too late.
Maria finally leaves to another employer
Maria has left and after the story it’s probably a good time to look at her journey before a full post-mortem is held.
a) On arrival she alienated her team
b) She developed relationships at work that were not prepared to support her when times got difficult at work
c) She restructured her team for effect as opposed to focussing on long-term results
d) She introduced Quick wins that did not include her boss’s sought after results
e) She introduced employees that she had worked with in the past
That is not to say that everything she did was bad, it wasn’t. During her time she had some success with the introductions on a new process for hiring employees, she helped the Sales Director restructure his area and she increased productivity.
The problem was that the positive aspects of her work were not sufficiently large enough to outweigh the negatives and as a result the “perception” of her work was seen to be negative. It’s worth considering that negative aspects often have a greater impact than positives where considerations of capability at work are concerned.
So Maria’s job lasted around six months before she decided that her career would be better served by finding another position to move to. The question that we might all have is “Has she learnt from her mistakes or will they be repeated again?
Further info on job transitions can be found at:
http://assimilating-talent.com
Maria moves to her new team
In what is being seen as a definite demotion by the rest of the company Maria has agreed to lead a team in an administrative area. However her new team are not pleased to have been told that her appointment is to “troubleshoot” the team to increased productivity.
Maria is sacked and given a choice
Maria had a meeting with the CEO this morning and has been told that due to unsatisfactory performance she is being moved from HR to leading an administration team.
As she is within the twelve month probationary period the decision is within this time-scale, however, the CEO is reluctant to dismiss her as she is a “senior member of staff” and he wants to be seen to be as supportive as possible to his senior team.
John will take over as head of HR and Maria will start in her new role on Monday.
Maria asked what alternatives she had and was told that either she accepted the situation or was dismissed as per her contract of engagement. Maria has left to go home early.
No commentsMaria has gone sick
Maria has been calling in sick with stress and a cold.
In the meantime her assistant is solidifying his position.
The CEO and Sales Director are coming to rely on John more and more and have already identified him as a successor to Maria when she leaves.
It’s likely that on Maria’s return from her illness that a meeting to “discuss her position and future” will be arranged.
Rumblings over Maria continue
A lot of blame is being heaped onto Maria by the Sales Director and the CEO. Both suggest that it was her fault that one of the candidates found details of the assessment centre process in the photocopier. However as there were seven sets of the documentation distributed it’s uncertain that any one person can be identified as the culprit.
It looks as if Maria is seeking advice on what to do next and whether it is time to consider her future and she is thinking that a change is appropriate before she is forced to leave.
She has taken advice from the CIPD and her husband who also works in HR.
However, is there any advice you could give her?