The value of teamwork

My friend is a business owner who always think ahead. He wants to know when the economy improves what else could he do to continue to be a successful person. He told me: “I am sure things will change, some companies will survive and some may not. Globalization will impact everything and competition will be fierce but what else should I prepare for this change? I do not want to let thing happen to me, I want to control my destiny.

I told him that this global crisis will probably take several years but it also allows business owner like him to plan and take necessary actions to “grasp the opportunity” when the economy improves. There are challenges that he may need to overcome and they have to do with the use of information technology. Today management structure in most companies is centralized, rigid and inflexible therefore it is difficult to change. Since speed is the essence of the 21st century, the first thing he could do is to restructure his company to cope with the rapidly changing environment of a global economy. He needs to have a new management structure which is decentralized based on a network of technology and people. He should takes advantage of technology to deal with events as they occur. For example, today when thing happens in his company, his manager fill out a report to him. The report will travel through several layers of managers who review and may rewrite it to fit their needs, so it takes several days before it reaches him. With information technology such as emails and Instant Messenger, he could receive the report in minute rather than days, assume he allows the management structure to be decentralized. This new management structure will allow employees and company to reconsider how and when decisions are made. Since his company is doing business globally, his employees should have some decisions about direction, services, products and reputation across global markets and sometime they have to make decisions outside the management structure. This is where roles, responsibility and accountability of every position must be clearly defined.

My friend seemed uncomfortable but being open-minded person, he asked: “In that case, I should not have a top-down but a flat horizontal structure? How does it work?

I told him: “That is why relationship is important in this new structure. Instead of giving command, manager must have good relationship with employees and within this kind of relationship people understand their roles and responsibilities. Instead of structure like military command and control, you must structure like a family. In a family, there is relationship between people based on their roles and responsibilities”.

In the near future, events will happen very fast so employees must react quickly to meet demand by relying on well-defined processes based on massive amounts of information and teamwork. By having the best knowledgeable workers and a “working together” environment, leader like him could grasp opportunities for his business and compete with others. This will require significant amount of efforts in hiring the best knowledge workers and provide up to date trainings so they all work as a team because all future “value-creation” will center on knowledge, markets and the ability to use knowledge. When the economy improves, every company will try to take advantage and market volatility will demand advanced planning and coordination among employees. The business owner with the best team will win.

My friend asked: “In that case, the roles and skills require to do business will be different from what they were just a few years ago?” I told him: “Yes, definitely and so is the kind of leadership”. Future leader will not be the one to give command to employees but the one with the strategy, the vision and the direction. By sharing business processes and responsibilities, you could restructure your company into a very powerful one where the “process ownership” and responsibilities can be divided among your employees (how ownership is shared and who gets to set the rules in each process). This is the new concept called “Empowerment” because everybody in your company will be responsible for the business of the company. They share a destiny with the company, they follow the vision and the direction that you share with them. To do that, your new company will have to develop strong inter-organizational collaborative skills to design, develop, implement and manage shared business processes. This will generate the capability for the company to grasp market opportunities rapidly before others. With the new economy, new market, several new methods are emerging in managing people, teams and organizations and it will change the way company do business, not locally but also globally.

Business owners can no longer rely on past experience to manage their companies but they must become leaders who promote changes, spur innovation, unify people across disparate groups and be role models of adaptability. Those who cannot reach that higher level of leadership will not be successful in the highly competitive global market. Companies that invest in developing talent will find new opportunities and grow, while companies that do not invest in skilled workers will face new risks and potential failure. Companies that invest significant efforts into developing strong teamwork will enjoy greater access to highly skilled workers. For example, well known companies such as Microsoft, Google, IBM, Toyota, or Intel always have advantages in getting the best people because highly skilled people wants to work for better management companies. Companies with visionary leaders always set the rule in the competitive market while company with people who follows the rule will never take the lead. An active leader recognizes and cultivates the potential of every asset within the company and knows how to leverage them for additional opportunities, will be the most successful business owner in this global market.

Prof John Vu   

Carnegie Mellon University
Original source:http://johnvublog.com/?p=97