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Saturday, April 29, 2006
Batuhan: Why bother?
By Allan S. B. Batuhan
Foreign Exchange
Last week we posed the question, how does a company ensure that it is always trying to do better? That it always has the best processes and procedures for making products and delivering services? That its remuneration policy is in keeping with its intention to recruit and retain the best people? That its ways of measuring performance, soliciting feedback and taking corrective action are running smoothly and functioning effectively?
In short, that it acts like any rational human being when he or she realizes that there are better ways to do certain things.
As we said, it is not easy. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and “not invented here” are just two of the many syndromes and ailments that affect the way organizations learn and act.
There is too much at stake in changing course and abandoning an embedded practice or procedure. For those that instituted the practice in the first place, a change may be construed as a personal criticism of their initiatives. If they are still in the organization when a change is proposed, they may oppose it thinking that it would affect their standing and stature.
On the other hand, there is the actual process of making change happen. Altering systems of reporting, for example, is almost always a major upheaval—in terms of information technology (IT) requirements—involving retraining of staff and reeducation of managers and other users of information. For some, it is just too much to contemplate, so they end up with the attitude of “why bother?”
But there is very good reason why organizations should “bother” to change. Because their very survival depends on it.
Globalization, the rise of the Internet and the rapid dissemination of consumer information across borders and markets have turned business models upside down, rendering obsolete in a very short span of time long-held beliefs and practices about how business organizations ought to be run.
Who could have envisaged just a decade ago that financial institutions would all end up having customer service departments in far-flung locations? Which airline could have predicted that by today many passengers would be buying their tickets, reserving their seats and food for their flights over the Internet? Which retailer had the foresight to tell that in the early part of this millennium, substantially all of the products they would be selling would come from China?
The answer to all of the above probably is—no one.
Things just move too quickly now for any business to stand still. Fashion cycles are getting shorter, fads are here today gone tomorrow. From design to manufacturing to sale, the cycle must likewise work as fast or it might be that before products hit the shelves, consumers have already moved on to the next big thing.
And yet in spite of all the urgency and the motivation, instituting the process of change—systematically embedding a process that ensures that change happens, and actually changing corporate culture to be more accepting of and seeking for change—still remains a challenge that most businesses need to overcome.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 29, 2006 issue)
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