Posts Tagged ‘fixing business issues’

Got a Plan B?

Monday, July 5th, 2010

I apologise for being a bit behind the curve in blogland lately but I’ve been rather busy elsewhere…!

But if like me you’ve watched the BP oil spill drama unfold, you may have been left wondering something? What on earth happened to Plan B? Who would have thought that despite the (now evident) risks of operations at an amazing depth of 5000ft, there didn’t seem to be a plan for what happened if and when things went wrong?

For BP, this must be a worst case scenario. It’s share price has continued to tumble and the company is being vilified across the globe. One evening whilst watching the news I watched in amazement as Barack Obama called called for the head of the BP CEO Tony Hayward. Fortunately, Mr Hayward has handed over day to day responsibility to someone else. To little too late but hey… And where on earth was the BP PR machine? On holiday and probably not in Louisiana is my guess..

Worse, much worse, an unprecedented ecological disaster is developing that is wreaking havoc on the US coast. Natural habitats are being destroyed, as are the livelihoods of many thousands of people.

Back to BP for a moment, it’s worth bearing in mind that this could be any oil company who has fallen victim to these events. Rented equipment and I’m not sure that BP was even operating the rig when things went wrong. There must be a number of CEO’s giving quiet thanks that it’s not them in the firing line.

I don’t have the answer to these particular issues of course, but there’s a lesson to be learned for all of us from this sorry mess. Have a Plan B. Contingency planning is something we all need to do. Things go wrong. Despite best laid plans events often take an unexpected turn for the worse.

Let’s give some thought to what the risks are, how likely they are to happen and how serious the outcomes might be. And then plan accordingly should the events ever happen in full or in part. Something is better than nothing.

Feel free to get in touch to discuss.

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Break, Fix, Improve – Part 2

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

OK so we knew this one was coming!

In the previous post we were talking about something being broken, fixed and improved, in order to be stronger. In that post the subject was me. And a dodgy knee caused by my stubborn stupidity amongst other things.

But you have to admit that the parallels to businesses with issues are striking. Think of this. There’s a business problem, albeit small, and so you ignore it. It’s gets a little worse but you can still work through or around it. Eventually the issue can no longer be ignored. It’s got to the point where the business can no longer function normally anymore.

So what should one do? Limp along with a fundamentally broken business, whilst losing valuable customers and staff? Or maybe look to address the issues? And in doing so work to ensure that the problems are dealt with and unlikely to return. And of course finally, to not only fix the immediate issue but to become stronger for the experience.

All sounds very obvious so far right? But you’d be amazed by how often issues are just left to fester. Things either slowly fall apart or people learn to live with them.

One of the many things a business coach can do is help organisations to deal with exactly this kind of scenario. Sometimes it takes an ‘outsider’ to be the bad guy, to call it as it is and suggest appropriate responses and changes. The keys are objectivity and independence. A coach has a brief to help the business. Whilst it’s important, in my opinion, to have an understanding of the broader scenario, a good coach will work to the brief for the benefit of the business, without being swayed by politics or other influences.

We evaluate a problem, propose remedies, assist in implementation if required and help you and your business emerge stronger than ever.

In fact, we help with this scenario more than any other. If the above is familiar to you or there’s another issue or question that springs to mind and you’d like to talk it through with me, please do get in touch. I look forward to hearing from you.

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