Change management - strategic weapon for competitiveness

Gap between intent and implementation

2014 supplychainforesight respondents ranked lack of relevant skills and talent as the number one strategic business constraint. Whilst skills development of employees ranked as a top area for investment for long term gain in supplychainforesight 2015, this is seen as an area of clear intent but lack of implementation.

This article outlines the necessity for bridging this gap.

Arming for Change

Why is there a hesitation on the part of organisations to invest in skills if possessing relevant skills is identified as having the biggest positive impact on achieving a sustainable future?

Since “Identifying and managing change” is the top strategic objective in this year’s supplychainforesight survey, what strategic constraints were identified as preventing this from happening? The top 3 were: - (lack of) willingness to change/breaking old habits/relationships, supply chain information and intelligence and reactive vs. proactive approach.

These constraints can be addressed by training, provided it is understood that training is a process which will lead to changes in behaviour, performance or both. Of these constraints, the second (supply chain information and intelligence)  is a technical competency which will require some theory and a great deal of practice to impart. Such a need responds well to formal training.

The first and last constraints (willingness to change/breaking old habits/relationships and reactive vs. proactive approach) provide the biggest opportunity for business sustainability because they are attitudinal. They inevitably require substantial behavioural and cultural changes which in turn indicate a more holistic approach aimed at both the organisation and the individuals in it.

Change initiatives are time consuming and costly, significantly impacting the organisation’s drive toward success. Since we are living in a climate of rapid and radical change, supply chain organisations need to resolve how to successfully adapt and sustain change.

The first step requires the whole company to participate in workshops whose purpose is to identify why there is a need to change. Unless each person within the organisation can see for him or herself what is happening out there to necessitate changes in the way the company does its business, very little will happen. Such recognition can only be achieved through participation at all levels in workshops where senior management identifies strategic threats and opportunities whilst those at the coalface recommend the changes needed to deal with them.

By incorporating these recommendations into the company’s future strategy, top management will win the hearts and minds of those who must behave differently if the initiatives are to deliver and sustain their strategic benefits.

Whilst this consultative approach to developing organisational strategy will identify the need to change, it must also identify the measurable indicators which will show that the organisation has achieved its change goals and the target dates by which they need to be achieved.

At the heart of this method lies the identification of the key skills which will transform the organisation. An adaption of an old saying is very apt, “To change into what we’ve never been before, we need to do what we’ve never done before”.   To do what we’ve never done before means acquiring the relevant skills to do those things and this is where the winners emerge from the pack. Companies that will thrive in this climate of radical change are those which are aggressively upskilling each team member so that they are equipped and confident to thrive in a changed environment. This means not only the acquisition of new, “hard” technical skills but also the “soft” skills needed to adapt to change.

One of the most exciting things about managing change is that the job is never done: no sooner have we transformed the organisation to meet one set of changes than there will be a new set of changes facing us.

In conclusion, the important factor that makes organisations effective at change is having a culture that embraces continual change. After all, delivering strategic change is only half of the story. The other half is all about sustaining the change.

Is your organisation proactive or reactive when it comes to change?

What steps are you taking to bring about a culture of change in your organisations?

What skills do you see as being key to a sustainable future in the supply chain management field?

Targeting Training for Strategic Success

Introduction

Training is a key weapon to manage change in the battle for increased competiveness in a rapidly evolving environment.

This article offers important tools to optimise training investment by accurately determining the organisation’s competency needs. 

Competency as key to competitiveness

The business of implementing efficient and effective supply chains is transforming at light speed. This presents new opportunities for greater cost reductions and market growth.

Training is an essential but expensive tool in building and maintaining competitiveness.

To make this investment effective we must be able to target training for maximum impact.

The first step is to accurately determine the organisation’s competency needs, where competency is defined as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitude.

How to do this without the need for sophisticated software or specialised knowledge?

This particular elephant is best tackled in meal sized chunks:

Business strategy

Consider these trends:

Consumers

More than ever before, consumer is king and the pace of change in consumer demands is accelerating. The agility to adapt to these radical and rapid changes is what makes a winning organisation.

Technology

The ability to identify and embrace new technologies which will strengthen the organisation’s ability to determine changing market needs and adapt to them is a vital competitive weapon.

One world  

Whilst “multinational” denoted a corporation with turnover in the billions and workforce in the hundreds of thousands, this is no longer so: the tools are there for even the smallest to diversify into global markets and this versatility is crucial to all.

Today’s business strategies focus on how to meet rapidly changing consumer needs by harnessing best in class technology for enhanced competiveness over an expanding global footprint.

It is essential that such a strategy also defines the competencies required to achieve the objectives. It should answer the question “Which are the competencies which, if we don’t have them, will prevent us from achieving our strategic objectives?”

Skills profiles

The strategy describes the future state of the company- by analysing the current skills profile of each function within the company we determine:

• How the current functions need to be adapted to achieve the strategic objectives
• To what extent the identified competencies are applied in the current functions, and at what level. For example, the competencies, Distribution, Warehousing and Logistics are practiced at many different levels
• Which of the identified competencies will need to be acquired/ enhanced in the adapted structure.

Whilst there is no rocket technology in carrying out this exploration, it will take time and the commitment of Line Managers. Best to see that they are compensated/ recognised.

Individual Assessment

A critical step in the process is to determine the extent to which each individual within the organisation possesses the required competencies to:

• Carry out their current function
• Function successfully in the future organisation.

To determine these gaps requires that those within the organisation (and possibly outsiders) who already have these competencies to write assessments which determine the knowledge and skills areas required by each function.

This may be unfamiliar territory but it has been done in many organisations.

The results of these assessments will identify the company’s unique skills gaps and give clear direction as to where training resources need to be allocated.

The bottom line benefits

• Ensures learning is directly aligned to organisational strategy
• Directs resources to areas of greatest demand effectively and efficiently
• Identifies the "gap" between required and current performance
• Enables the organisation to tailor training to meet current and future requirements
• Provides a platform to enable an organisation’s sustainable competitive advantage based on employees’ ability to learn and adapt to change.

Would this strategy work in your company?

How could you adapt it to better serve your needs?

Is this an area which receives enough attention?

Are there better ways of determining the competency needs of an organisation?

Please share your thoughts.

Important Milestone: Competencies for Competitiveness

In a previous post the table below was suggested as a framework to build the competency requirements of the organisation.   

	Technical	Soft Skills	Management	Company In house Systems and Procedures
Aware
Basic
Operational
Expert

Each column needs to be unpacked so that an individual company can select those competencies which are key to its competitiveness.

Some experience and more research have suggested the following “menus”:

Technical	Soft Skills	Management	Company in house Systems and Procedures: Role Specific
Contract Management	Strategic thinking	Enterprise Management	Accounting/ Finance
Compliance Management	Critical thinking	Group Management	Inventory
Risk Management	Thinking agility	Business Management	Payroll
Intellectual Property Management	Decision making	Functional Management	Customer Relationship Management
Logistics/  Return Logistics Management	Problem solving	Manage Managers	International Logistics
Financial Management	Negotiation	Manage Others	Statutory Compliance
Marketing Management	Emotional intelligence	Manage Self	End user computing (e.g. Microsoft Office etc.)
Warehouse Management	Self awareness
Procurement and Materials Management	Self-belief
Financial Management	Self-promotion
Human Capital Management	Stress management
	Communication
	Presentation / public speaking
	Technical writing
	Facilitating
	Mentoring / coaching
	Active listening
	Interviewing
	Selling
	Quality client service
	Team work
	Conflict resolution
	Networking/ Collaboration
	Cross-cultural intelligence

Each business is different: every company maintains and grows its competitiveness in different ways.

Now comes the interesting part:

• These menus need to be verified in terms of our own organisation. Best recommendation is to workshop. 
• Copy and paste these menus on to as many separate documents as there are position in the organisation. Then, for each position, tick off the competencies needed and ADD any which have been left out. These additions will most likely be needed under the “Technical” and “Company in house Systems and Procedures” pillars because these tend to be specific to a particular postion (i.e. role specific). There will be blurring between each pillar: this should not be a concern – what is more important is to capture all the competencies for each job under one of the pillars. Some of the competencies listed may need further unpacking (example: Warehouse Management may need to be specified in much more detail). There may well be competencies which have been listed here but which are not required. 
• The question which needs to be asked during these workshopping sessions is “In order for us to be as competitive as possible, what competencies does each person holding this position need?”
• In capturing these competencies try to ensure that, as far as possible, requirements do not only reflect the NOW of the position but what it will be in the next TWO TO THREE YEARS.
• Once all the competencies have been captured for each position, by indicating against each competency the LEVEL (Aware, Basic, Operational, Expert) at which that competency is required for that position, a competency profile for each position is created. 

This is an important milestone: the competency requirements have been objectively established for each position and they reflect our organisation.

Having obtained this vital information about the organisation, we need to find out, in future posts, how it can be used to turn our people into super performers. 

Does a methodology for creating competency hold values for your organisation?

If so, is it worth spending time in developing these?