The Business Matrix helps turn our members into strategy experts. Does your companies visual cues describe your business as well as it could. The way we live is governed by visual cues that help us understand the world. The Business Matrix helps you understand the key elements that build the values of an effective environment for your business to flourish.
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There are many cultures alive in business today. Above you will find five classic examples. No one culture type is right or wrong. Conflicts only appear when there is a perception of one, and an activity that reflects another. This damages the chances of creating an innovation culture as the messages are unclear. A company that has a fragmented culture is pulling in so many directions that its chances of failing are increased dramatically. Knowing which culture you wish to foster and maintain should be seen as an essential business function even when your company is a small business.
Every organization needs a balance of staff to square the four corners of its organization. The nature of recruitment and staff training can aid the development of a balanced staff mix. In such a culture good ideas are generated and successfully implemented. There are a number of effective methods that aid successful recruitment. Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is currently at the forefront of this field. If an organization is unbalanced it will find itself slowly moving away from the generic mission of all business: to increase wealth. Over time, some businesses shift the emphasis from doers and idealists to reflectionists. This to some extent is the reason why some businesses are described as `dinosaurs`. The balance has not been maintained and the company has fallen behind, due to a lack of idealists. Is your business balanced? Or do you question why there are no great ideas put into action?
As described in the cultural diagrams, particular cultures work well in their appropriate environment. Conflicts occur when there is perception, promotion and understanding of one and an activity which reflects another. Detailing your company procedures against key words to describe your desired culture will highlight potential conflicts. If only one activity is in conflict then a 5 culture rating could be considered. If, however, a large number of procedure culture conflicts appear, then a lower score rating needs to be awarded
A culture is a part of the business that can be traded on to attract higher quality staff and to create bonds with customers and suppliers. This type of activity has a direct effect on the company’s bottom line. Understanding the need and desire for a change in direction is crucial to smooth and profit-building development. Consult the score ratings as a guide to establishing your company`s capabilities.
We now live in an innovation culture where new developments must take place at an ever-increasing rate if a business is to survive. Working closer with key suppliers can be a fruitful way to increase the number of ideas entering the business. The only hurdle to overcome on this route to success is the cultural stance that a business takes. To score 0 suggests that while a culture may exist within a company, its spread is limited outside, with suppliers possibly finding the company difficult to deal with. A 4 score would suggest an internal culture that is confident in itself and therefore feels strong enough to build meaningful relationships without losing its own identity.
Consider the questioning process for new ideas in your company. If agreement is always reached and followed through without any difficulties, a score of 5 can be given. If, however, you feel that issues are difficult at the clarification stage, this can be reflected in a company score of 2.
In any business a culture develops along a fairly fixed route. With each step it moulds the culture by design or by default. Scoring a 2 would mean the company has not reached the stage of a formulated policy. By contrast, a business that could be awarded a score of 4 has probably reached the point where new staff naturally adopt an established and readily understood cultural philosophy. How much vision does your business have in developing an innovation and design culture?
The daily functioning of a business is equivalent to running an on-going project. Both have set milestones and objectives. So why is it that when a project is set up, it fails to run as smoothly as daily business? Primarily there are two key reasons why a project goes wrong. Firstly: incorrect assumptions are made at the outset. Secondly, there is incorrect total quality management structuring to reflect the nature of the project. While the assumptions are individual to each project, project management can be broken down into a few approaches. It falls apart when the chain of command is not clearly understood by all. Project management works best when it is viewed as art and not science. Even a very small business or group of people need a leader to project manage. Remember, if you are the key decision-maker there is no point in you holding the position if you don’t make decisions. Above you will find five key project matrices. Pass your curser over each to see a fuller explanation.
The key function in project management is to keep people informed at the right time of progress, obligations and developments. Some companies work on a `need to know` basis. Others take a more open approach to keeping staff and suppliers informed. The more effectively this aspect of a project is managed, the higher the chances the project has of success. Informing too early can overload people with unnecessary information and generate disinterest, while informing too late can lead to resentment from feeling excluded. How a company approaches this task reflects not only on their chances of success but also the nature of their culture. A new project is an excellent opportunity to establish and reinforce the cultural aspects of a company.
Quite often when a project is being undertaken, the degree of in-house knowledge is insufficient to complete the task. Bringing in outside consultants can be a good way to proceed; and how you proceed is likely to reflect the culture within the business. Setting up a steering committee of knowledgeable people such as suppliers, clients, other members of staff and independent consultants, can help ensure that the best people are being involved. It will also mean that the right questions are being asked, and so improve the chances of achieving the right results. While the organization of this approach requires management time and additional money, the costs are small in comparison to the savings that can be made. How good are you and your company at understanding when others should be brought in, and how open are you to this approach?
While using software to run a project is a proven way of achieving an overview of priorities and time scales, without a few prerequisites any project is likely to fall behind schedule. We all learn each time we carry out a project, yet we invariably find ourselves making the same obvious mistakes due to differing agendas. How often does the financial aspect of a project take precedence over capabilities or specification in dictating the pace of a project? How often has an issue been postponed, only to find later that a lack of understanding at the outset has resulted in an overrun of costs? While all projects need to carry a contingency, if costs overrun every time, the financial management of the project is probably the weakest link in the exercise.
In managing a project, the key facets are time, cost and quality. Each of these are driven by different people`s agendas. To aim for the best quality could put undue pressure on time and cost. Equally, if you are aiming to turn the project around quickly, increases in cost and loss of quality will occur. How well does your company manage to balance these factors when undertaking a new project? Is it driven by the needs of the customer or the objectives of each department? If you find that you have started with one set of objectives and ended up with another, you may have moved from a customer driven objective to an internally driven one. This could result in a failure to meet the needs of the customer.
When a company goes through changes, the staff members are also expected to handle change. This creates a period of instability within the company, and staff turnover can increase. If the demands of the project are not controlled and focused, staff become confused and stressed. How good are you at managing your time and knowing when to say `yes` or `no` to demands and commitments? Sometimes saying `no` is the best answer. On such occasions, how well is this response received? Are you put under pressure to produce results no matter what? The behaviour of others reflects the cultural environment in which projects are undertaken. The more sympathetically this stage of the project is managed, the more commitment will be demonstrated by the staff members involved.
The after effects of a project can be just as difficult to deal with as the management of the project itself. Crucially, staff need to be fitted back into their previous positions. Alternatively, a decision needs to be made to take the opportunity to re-position them. Ensuring that staff are trained and aware of the implications of their new responsibilities and working practices is vital. While these are quite obvious repercussions of a project, how well they are integrated into the project brief shows vision at the outset. This action will reduce the time required to implement the project; minimize the number of mistakes; and achieve a higher degree of success. Does your company use the development of new projects as a means of driving change itself within the organization? Or do you feel lack of vision is one of the chief causes of objectives being missed?
Keeping control of your company`s finances is seen by many as the most important function in the survival of a business. But in order to thrive it is not control that is required, but a sound understanding of how to gain a return on spend. The single greatest waste of money in any company is directly attributable to failed project management. Financial dynamics is all about the balance between vision and investment, with the objective of making money. This can be described as the business opportunity. Having all of the money in the world and no vision is as limiting as having all of the vision and no way to finance it. There are two sides in book-keeping: debit and credit. Equally, there are two aspects to business opportunities: investments and vision. So how do you tell what is the right amount of money to invest in a project? Many companies suffer from the view of: “we've gone this far lets keep going”, only to find themselves justifying the spend by raising their expectations. This type of behaviour is very common in very small businesses and in government projects where politics get in the way. It is a delicate balancing act to maintain the day-to-day running of the business while fostering a culture where investment is made in improving all aspects of the business. Sometimes there are justifications for spending money on non-essentials that enable the company culture to work harder. Carrying out a financial swot analysis rather than a company analysis can reveal some interesting results
A good pep talk and verbal congratulations to staff should be the on-going minimum function of the directors in this area. However, to foster the generation of good ideas, a company should be looking to reward staff who think beyond their remit and make contributions to the company that produce benefit and profit. A known structure should exist where staff are clearly benefiting from the growth of the business. Is your company this open and proactive? Or is it an environment where everybody has to fight their own corner, and the originator of the idea receives no real benefit other than the respect of colleagues?
Quite often when a project is being undertaken, the degree of in-house knowledge is insufficient to complete the task. Bringing in outside consultants can be a good way to proceed; and how you proceed is likely to reflect the culture within the business. Setting up a steering committee of knowledgeable people such as suppliers, clients, other members of staff and independent consultants, can help ensure that the best people are being involved. It will also mean that the right questions are being asked, and so improve the chances of achieving the right results. While the organization of this approach requires management time and additional money, the costs are small in comparison to the savings that can be made. How good are you and your company at understanding when others should be brought in, and how open are you to this approach?
So many small business owners start with a grand idea, and then impulsively embark on putting it into practice. At each hurdle they adjust their attitudes to feel more comfortable about their actions and investments. Too often this creates a blinkered view of the potential risk of an unprofitable outcome. Small businesses that survive this, can put it down to experience. But why do so many experienced companies continue to follow this same path? Having created innovations and ideas, you must protect them by investing in patents, design registrations, trade marks etc. The greater the number of these commercially valuable legal instruments that a company holds, the larger and more secure the business is likely to be. Do you believe that your company protects its financial interests sufficiently?
The design and innovation taking place within a company is the regular subject of gossip within the finance, marketing, research & development and sales departments. The issue of financing new ventures should, therefore, bring departments together. Why then are annual departmental budgets always argued over? Everybody should be supportive in ensuring that part of their budget is invested in design and innovation. They should be confident that this benefits the whole organization and can also lead to their department receiving higher budgets as a consequence of the implementation of innovations. Is your business one where departments work together for the common good? Or do disputes take place over annual budgets, with each department determined to impose its influence and power over other departments within the company hierarchy?
If you regard your company`s approach to spending money as being similar to the competent way in which you handle your personal finances, then a balance is being achieved. If the company is constantly suffering from financial stresses and this anxiety is communicated to staff, a counterproductive environment will exist. Staff are less inclined to be innovative and creative when they are under stress. If the stresses experienced by staff are too high, the outcome can be a loss of ideas for some time while everything settles back down. We all feel financial stress. Some individuals work well under pressure, but others don’t, and it is these – otherwise excellent members of staff – who can prevent innovation taking place. They need to be kept in the design and innovation loop.
Innovation takes you into virgin territory by default. So how does a business deal with this? A business innovation can be as small as changing from a black and white photocopier to a colour model. Nevertheless, if its introduction helps the company expand their capabilities, it is important. In a small business, small innovations have a big effect. With the growth of the company, finding those significant innovations becomes harder. You need a balance of the right type of people, with appropriate and compatible skills, to produce innovative results. Have you noticed your company trying harder to find innovations as it grows? Or is it an organization that trades off the back of its existing business rather than its potential?
This category of the Matrix encourages you to examine the level of understanding that exists in your company about its product branding values. A key point for you to notice is whether there is uniformity in the directors` interpretations of the company`s branding, and how this corresponds to staff and customer perceptions. Products evolve through the symbolic language of their brands. It is the creative element that distinguishes a product and builds up its reputation in the marketplace. A review of your company`s branding will enable you to view the progress you have achieved since the company was a small business.
Fonts have been in existence since the invention of printing in the15th century. They were styled to reflect the sentiment of the writer and thus the culture of the individual. Today, we have a vast range of fonts available to us. If the staff within the company are left to use these at their own discretion, the company`s culture will be communicated externally in a confusing mixture of messages. Do you know which fonts the company uses for particular applications and purposes? Are guidelines provided on your intranet, or in a printed manual?
To truly succeed in developing a recognizable brand, continuity of the message must be managed across the entire media spectrum. Careless actions such as the distribution of brochures carrying out-of-date logos, and use of illegible photocopied fax headers, will damage the brand`s image.
We have entered a time of great and rapid change. The single driving force behind this is the way in which we communicate with each other. Telecommunications is the largest growth area in value terms of any development in history. It outweighs the impact of the printing press - one of the fundamental elements in communication. It also overshadows the significance of the invention of television. We are now in an era where the expansion of new media is bringing exciting innovative products and services into the market. Every company has an opportunity to benefit from this change. How well-informed are you? And, how do you feel your business is placed to take advantage of these opportunities? One of the largest loss-making risks to business is allowing its communication systems to fail or become out-of-date.