Incremental and sustained improvements
The rapid nature of change in technology, especially since the 1990s, has contributed to a volatile reality for businesses attempting to stay on top of things. It isn’t only limited to technological advancement. There are new factors at play such as Environmental Social Governance(ESG) which put pressure on companies to change operations in some cases. As a result, executives are put in a position where the intuitive resolution can sometimes appear to be as drastic and rapid as the change taking place in the broader industry. It’s an understandable philosophy to adopt. Sometimes it is the right move too, but not always.
As described in this2016 article from McKinsey & Company, approximately “70% of complex, large-scale change programs don’t reach their stated goals.” The article goes on to explain several reasons which may explain the reasons for these failures. There’s an important question which arises here that is not obvious. With a company on a downward trajectory, a drastic overhaul may be the only viable option. The risks associated with such an overhaul are large and can lead to one of these 70% of failure cases. But what about a company that is performing well, and wants to further improve their performance and reach their full potential? SEAD’s step-by-step approach to integration offers a uniquely beneficial path forward for any business in such a position.
Implementation of rigorous changes to a business can produce a shock to the system. Employees can be overwhelmed with new procedures, things can get lost in translation, there may even be an identity crisis with regards to what the company is or wants to be. Still, sometimes when things look dire it creates a situation where executives feel they need to go for broke, even with the risks involved.
Turn to a healthy company doing well but feels that it can do even better. They use some technology, but they are not fully automating certain aspects of the business, employing their raw data to its fullest potential, etc. They want to bring more technology to their operations, but they don’t feel a crushing pressure to do so in a small amount of time since things are going well. This is an excellent position for a company who wants to apply new methods to their business.
Having the ability to integrate technology at a comfortable pace, the final results when looking back can be staggering and the ability for the company to absorb these changes and respond positively to them is almost guaranteed. It’s the best situation for both parties involved, SEAD and the potential client. What we are able to do is take time to assess the needs of the company and create a game plan where integration is done seamlessly. It gives time for employees to adapt to the changes, it gives developers time to work out any bugs, and the methodical nature of change prevents any sort of identity crisis for the business. Think of it more as augmentation than overhaul. It begins with the easy fixes, the glaring issues, where minor adjustments can result in big changes in performance. From there, each new step is preceded by a new assessment where SEAD and the client determine what next step is most appropriate and how it will be executed. What results is a low pressure transformation of the company where, looking back, performance has improved significantly and growing pains have been avoided entirely.
