To achieve innovative change and transform your business and achieve optimum outcomes it is critical to challenge yourself first. When is the best time to make change? Starting the thinking process now is important. The content and the action of the ideas that you think up is where the real work begins.

Making change is easier than you think when you are shown the essential elements. Firstly ask yourself some tough questions:

• What are you doing to transform your business today?
• What is missing from your core operations?
• How are you going to improve your revenue growth and productivity?
• What is your strategy for change?
• Are your operations flexible and customer focused on retention?

Due Diligence
When proposing to transform your business by making changes, it is necessary to undertake an effective due diligence. This due diligence will need to be strategic, relevant, accurate and timely. The information acquired as part of the discovery tour of your business will need to be taken from within your business, as well as from outside of it. This will be the ‘insight’ and the ‘foresight’ necessary to move forward. Ultimately you will make better business decisions for your business when you have this type of information. Therefore you, your people and your customers all benefit.

Generally, your vision, planning and goal setting will form part of your business strategies to bring about change. The business strategy requires forward planning. The planning will allow you to move beyond all the old data you have already have collected and information you know about. Your ‘new’ planning methodology needs to fully engage your ‘new’ goals delivering timely changes to services and products for your customers.

The Essentials

These basic essentials allow you to manage the business changes more effectively and efficiently. Utilising a ‘results orientated’ approach for your goals as part of your business plan ensures optimum outcomes within the business and its bottom line. The operational intelligence enables you to create a foundation of information needed to bring about change and to make timely decisions.

Are you using a more customer-focused strategy? As a business owner you need analytical information and new techniques to achieve this. You need fresh customer profile approach enabling you to understand your customer’s needs with clarity.

Innovative Approaches
When collecting and utilising the data about your consumers, it is necessary to analyse the information acquired. This acquisition supports the building blocks for your specific business strategy. The strategy(s) needs to aim at your high net worth customers. (It’s the Pareto Principle in action – the 80/20 rule). The information collected will need to provide further leverage for you to attract new customers who also require your unique products and services. Don’t forget the benefits of the prospect of cross-selling by using your existing customers to generate interest in your other existing or new product and services.

Initiating Innovation in Your Business:
When you work at being as creative as you can, then the innovative ideas themselves will establish a foundation for you to transform your business processes with distinction. Preparing innovative, integrated, and streamlined business processes starts with what your vision for your business. It will be that strategy, planning and conclusion of the actions taken that will improve the bottom line. More importantly the whole exercise of workshopping your ideas allows for re-evaluations and preparation for the new and innovated business.

Ascertaining the right mix of information and ensuring a greater understanding of its power to differentiate you from the competition is important. Investing time in reviewing critical customer data and the impact your products and services have on them will clearly put you in front of the competition. When you begin working on your corporate strategy, always check the various lines of your business and the extent of the planning and outcomes achieved. Consider how you will support all of those functions and specific business processes. This coupled with having the best plan in place, you will be able to manage and improve the overall business performance.

Information is knowledge, and “knowledge is power.”1 Making the best decisions based on the best data becomes the powerhouse for your business’ development and growth. Overcome the discomfort of unsettling conditions when you bring about innovative change to the business. Utilising what you have at the time is always a good place to start. Work from a basis where you use financial projections that consider reduction in overall operational costs, improved production and capabilities. Ensure there is flexibility in the strategic budget to adapt to a constant and ever changing business plan. This approach will achieve the competitive edge that your vision of change was based on.

The Innovative Change Challenge
Navigating your business strategy isn’t always easy and can often become disconcerting. Use basic and effective processes to support your business’ operational goals. Use key business insights when driving growth, containing costs and business optimisation. Know your people and your customers. Take care of both during this process. Your people need to be focused and will be a valuable resource of real value. And just as important, your customers need to know that you will give them what they want and more. Are you ready to make an innovative change to your business today?