‘5 Ideas’ for Business Innovation in America
Author’s note: This marks the first installment of the ‘5 Ideas’ series, which covers practical and common sense approaches to achieving efficiencies in business, technology, and more. The ideas and opinions expressed here are those of Ronald Lewis alone and are not to be considered expert advice
1. Detach the workforce: In a nutshell, the benefits of teleworking is still a pipe dream in American business. Why? It’s quite simple: We fear losing control of our workforce. It’s all about having physical oversight, which is largely non-existant when a majority of the workforce are remote workers. However, this is 2006, not 1950. It’s time to fully embrace the telework model, rather than speak about it. While it’s true that we’ve made great effort in the last decade, it still isn’t good enough.
We are now living in the Internet age, where employees can be engaged via instant messaging, e-mail, groupware tools, and more. If managers are so desperate to ‘micro manage,’ then consider PC cameras for ’scheduled monitoring,’ although such a thing is downright silly.
Imagine the benefits: Increased employee morale and loyalty, greater productivity, and greatly reduced real-estate liabilities. Just these three benefits alone are reasons enough to deploy more remote workers. The technology is here, and readily available. For a good example, consider the open source software development model. It’s telework at its finest.
2. Trim the fat (in management): American businesses are experts at cutting their workforce — the meat and potatoes of any operation. Ford just recently announced their accelerated ‘Way Forward’ plan, but what about the ‘drag’ in management? Talk about being inefficient! A million hands in the cookie jar, are a million reasons for trouble. It shouldn’t take a village to execute important decisions in business.
By creating a leaner management team, companies become more agile and responsive in their respective market and/or industry. That’s a great advantage in a highly competitive world.
3. Be open: Let’s face it: American businesses are poor communicators, especially the further you climb the company’s ladder. CEOs are probably the most inaccessible of the bunch. Hey, let’s cut the malarkey, will ya, and get down to knocking down the roadblocks — once and for all. American businesses should focus on the human aspects of the operation, and engage everyone with an open door policy.
4. ‘Flexforce’: The traditional 9-5 regimen is boring and lacks innovation with regard to scheduling resources. Shouldn’t the workforce feel like partners, rather than laborers? Instituting a tiered time system for groups of people (based upon senority, of course) will promote an entrepreneurial spirit, which will enable a healthier workforce — and bottom line.
5. Compassion: There isn’t a greater gift than showing your workforce you care about their well being and success. Communicate your appreciation often via e-mail, bulletins, intranets, etc. Praise the achievers, and encourage the imperfect. It’s a simple recipe to prevent workforce defection.
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