The festive period is officially upon us, and with it comes the promise of a refreshing change in the new year. Whereas we’re all prone to making (and breaking) resolutions for ourselves, when it comes to our businesses, failure could have consequences. But that’s not, however, a reason to shy away from shaking things up in 2018.

 

With the likes of Brexit, the summer’s snap election and economic woes weighing down the headlines, it’s no surprise that many business owners are looking for a change in the new year. For some, that could be as straightforward as moving office or hiring a new employee. For others, it’s an opportunity to tackle long-overdue procedural challenges holding their teams back.

As many of the business owners reading this will agree, being open to change is an essential attribute of any company’s top decision maker, the reward being innovation and success – but only if planned, introduced and executed properly.

The team at Kaleida have had extensive experience in exactly this, helping clients to leverage bespoke solutions to transform their organisation. I’d like to impart some of that experience – three key pieces of knowledge in particular – on anyone looking to shift gear in 2018 to ensure that their plans for change run smoothly in the new year and beyond.

 

Employees Know Best

Any and every change to the business – from the smallest rearrangement of desks, all the way up to a complete relocation – unquestionably affects one group of people the most: your employees. Therein can lie one of the greatest challenges in introducing change, but also your greatest asset in conquering the challenges ahead.

As we move away from the day-to-day groundwork of our businesses, owners can find themselves distanced from the minutiae that makes up the organisation. Your employees and managers, however, remain close to the business and understand its processes, services and clients inside-out. Therefore, consulting with your teams to identify where they feel improvements could be introduced – such as lagging workflows, complex communication policies, or even just limited software – is a smart first step. Using this unprecedented level of insight, you can begin to plan the changes you’ll introduce and hone in on the priorities at every level of the business.

On the other hand, side-stepping your employees’ opinions can have quite the opposite effect: if changes are being made which they deem unnecessary thanks to their daily interaction with the business and its customers, then the potential for friction arises. You need your team around you to support any re-balancing, and fire-fighting distracts from the whole process. Instead, respect their perspective and tap into the knowledge available.

 

Find the Right Tool for the Job

Once employees have been consulted and ideas have been drawn up around the changes you’re introducing, the real challenge begins. Luckily, as anyone who signed up to the gym in January to lose weight will attest, there are resources available to help make change a success – and this scenario is no different.

For more complex alterations, such as streamlined processes, a new level of customer relationship management, or the development of a new service, it’s crucial to find the right tool that will enable you to achieve the goals set out at the start.

Although there are plenty of off-the-shelf solutions which can address some of these needs, it’s incredibly rare to find one that addresses them all. For those businesses unlucky enough not to find this holy grail of off-the-shelf solutions, options are limited to compromising or choosing multiple subscriptions, the price of which can soon start to add up as fluctuating license fees pile on top of one another.

If you’re serious about change, it’s therefore best to invest in a bespoke software solution built specifically to deal with the challenges and goals within your organisation. Discussing what you hope to achieve and the changes you wish to bring to the business with an experienced software development house can result in the perfect tool being crafted for your business – a tool which grows alongside your business and belongs entirely to you.

 

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Even as we choose our own personal new year’s resolutions, we can get a little over-enthusiastic and neglect the here and now. As exciting as it is, don’t let your enthusiasm for an organisational change distract you from what still needs to be done in the run up to Christmas – a notoriously busy time of year for all businesses.

By all means, lay the foundations now: keep communication with your team open, shop around for suppliers, plan potential changes and contemplate challenges. However, leave the concrete decisions until after the holidays. This will allow you to create space in your day for focusing on both present challenges and the excitement awaiting you in the new year – and you can return refreshed and ready to go in the new year.

Thanks to a never-ending slew of innovations and a professional landscape that becomes more competitive every passing year, the case for implementing change in your business is strong. Don’t leave it until the new year to start contemplating, however: next year is set to be a challenging 12 months where businesses will need to rise above the competition to succeed, and the first step in that is blowing off the cobwebs and shaking things up for the better – just make sure you have the right tools to hand.

 

Kaleida is a bespoke software development house in Manchester. During our 20-year history, we’ve worked with clients to revolutionise their processes and service offerings using bespoke software, creating the tools they need to succeed. To find out more about the industries we’ve worked with, feel free to explore our case studies. Alternatively, feel free to get in touch directly to discuss how we can help you.