Once you have your processes and people where they need to be, your next step should be to define what technology you have and what you need. Just remember there are no magic bullets that will do all the work for you. IT is the backbone—but people and processes are the muscles and bloodstream. Each aspect of IT will need to go through an assessment. This lets you see where you have gaps and where [...]
For smooth operating, your IT department has to be professionalized, with policies and procedures to follow and standard operating procedures. While professionalizing your team, you want to focus on desktops instead of individuals; in other words, it’s the role, not the person that will keep everything running efficiently. If the role is well-defined and well-documented, processes will continue to move smoothly, without gaps, hesitations, or blockages. You achieve this by implementing a PMO—a project management [...]
So – you’ve hit the hard wall of slowdown we call Consolidation. You’ve gone through the heady, wild sales spike and rapid growth of the Tornado, and suddenly you’ve stalled. Sales are down, and you’re not making your margins – not even close. Now what? This is not the time to point fingers and blame people for whatever brought your Tornado to an end. No one did anything wrong. Everything you are experiencing is a [...]
Mistakes happen when you’re learning to ride out the ever-changing business cycle. In fact, most startup companies and divisions make the same ones. In the new product or acquisition phase, many departments get scant resources and little attention; unless they are doing something that actively hinders the growth product, they’re mostly ignored. This makes the people in those areas feel sidelined and left out. Resources and people may have been taken away from their departments [...]