Many companies are reorganizing
to cope with new competitive realities, but few CEOs have approached the
process of organizational redesign systematically and methodically. Through
Nurture Growth Conference, SME business consulting expert and CEO of GE Consult
Fred Wu talks about organizational strategy, business planning, budgeting,
strategy, implementation and why organizational strategy matters for startups
and small business as well.
Q1. Companies across the economy
have been decentralizing, downsizing, and flattening. What makes a successful
company's reorganization different from what other companies are doing?
A company’s reorganization often might turn out a tricky undertaking with
pitfalls on the way. Whether one is able to navigate its enterprise’s reorganizational
process successfully depends on a number of factors. What some managers, in my
opinion, overlook while embarking on it is that they perceive reorganization as
a simple structural reshuffle on an org chart. But that is a superficial
understanding of its main objectives which is not merely improvement of
financial metrics and outcomes but a holistic process of enhancing decision
making system on all levels, employees’ performance and collaboration between
departments and divisions. For instance, a flat organization structure may not
have effective decision making process if authority is too MD-centred. Whether
you like it or not, it’s a complex process which involves all stakeholders and
requires continuous monitoring and adjustments along with effective resource
utilization. In sum, a successful company is the one that has proper
reorganization structure based on internal and external assessment made through
in-depth consideration of scare resource: employee, cash, products, making the
company energy-efficient.
Q2: What can happen in a business
that makes fundamental changes so necessary?
Such changes are crucial for any company that aims to unlock better
performance by shaking up the entire system. Bringing fundamental structural
changes can help you speed up product development and decrease costs as it
smoothens the decision making process and enhance tasks execution. And this is
what GE CONSULT does by dragging companies out of a pit of bankruptcy by
accelerating their turnover based on available resources and reorganized
structure efficiently. But one must keep in mind that it can also destroy the
company’s existing value whereof restoration would take a huge amount of time
or even lead to another reorganization. So be smart.
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| GE Consult CEO Fred Wu featured in Nurture Growth Conference 2015 |
Q3: How has technology helped in
creating more effective business systems?
A well-functioning information technology system opens up opportunities
to handle and boost the company’s efficiency without which it would have
vanished from the market. First of all, it facilitates the enterprise to
enhance rapport with all stakeholders of the company including employees,
investors, business partners etc. Apparently, it is crucial in establishment of
a great image of the company. Secondly, it facilitates monitoring of the
overall workflow, smoothens the decision making process and keeps an effective
and collaborative interaction between employees, suppliers and partners – a
self-sustained eco-system – which certainly contributes in fostering your
business. It also can increase customers’ satisfaction providing adequate
information of a product line and maintaining a continuous interactive link
between customers and customer relation management. Not to mention, it can
significantly reduce the operational cost of the company as the tasks execution
and monitoring becomes much convenient. This is just a quick glance at the IT
potentials in boosting the company’s effectiveness.
Q4: What is your advice for startup
entrepreneurs?
Developing a comprehensive concept with a clear vision of what they are
going to do is of primary importance before they embark on their future enterprises.
Therefore, it is a main point of their program to design a product and service range
based on that concept. How can it be achieved? Of course, through a well
written business plan which would eventually shape their entrepreneurial
activities and show them a right direction at a right resource allocation. What’s
more, developing a comprehensive and cohesive concept of your business will
also help to find the right investors as conveying your ideas and passion will
be much easier.
Q5: When opening a business,
what's the first thing the owner should do, in terms of business structure and
organization?
It is crucial for every startup entrepreneur to provide a clear vision
on how decision making process and role authorities must work within their
enterprises. Therefore, what they actually need to do is to clearly define
responsibilities of each position in the company, establish a transparent
workflow and a suitable structure which would be based on the available
resources of people, products and budget (cash).
An effective handling
of those internal and external resources will bring the sufficient energy for the
startup by which the company will be able to save up a tremendous amount of
money. Therefore, keeping the architecture lightweight with roles and
responsibilities being clarified and resources effectively employed is what
must be achieved from the very start. Otherwise, the overall process might slow
down to the level which would adversely affect not only the company’s
competitive edge but the business momentum which is of the primary importance.
**About GE Consult
GE Consult is a Malaysian-based marketing consulting
firm headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. Since inception in 2003, the company has
been pioneering professional business plan and company profile services in
Malaysia, and has assisted many local and overseas SMEs, large corporations and
government agencies to grow business. For more info, please contact +603 4031 1683 or +6017 330 8077 and/or email info@geconsult.org today.
