Contemporary businesses are like fast cars and can become dangerous if you’re only focused on keeping up with the pace.
Factors such as technological advancement, consumer taste pattern and behavior, turbulent and unpredictable business environment, intense market competition, innovations and economic and public policies have made business management an uphill task where entrepreneurs are constantly kept their toes.
These factors have a great deal of influence in business management practices and survival.
The big question is: How do businesses keep up with this modern and demanding technology-rich era?
Here are five business management practices you shouldn’t ignore:
- Transform Your Employees
Your employees are your business representatives and ambassadors. Their actions directly and indirectly affect your business. It’s your responsibility to train and inspire them to behave in a manner that positively contributes to set goals (there should be a visible growth from a passive to engaged worker).
A report by the University of Saint Mary stated that alienated workers don’t care about successfully performing their jobs. All they care about is getting a paycheck and advancing their own interests. The first thing a manager needs to do is find out how to make employees care about the company’s vision. Engaged workers aren’t only more enthusiastic and productive; they also become less passive, taking responsibility for their performance and attracting fresh talent to the company.
- Have a Great Talent Management Plan
Successful businesses thrive on their efficient talent-management plans. How have you managed and improved the talent in your workforce? You certainly need to have a clear goal, communicate it effectively, have an effective performance appraisal system, and provide training, mentoring and guidance. Also, have an efficient internship scheme to encourage brainstorming and innovations.
A report by the Economic Times shows that, gradually, modern-day entrepreneurs understand the ever-increasing importance of talent management practices as this can set the stage for earning high dividend in the long run. In fact, the startups or the well-established firms that fail to acknowledge the potential of aligning its key business strategies with that of its talent management schemes, often find themselves in great trouble down the road. It not just leads to huge wastage of precious resources of the organization but also make it a fit case for failure in multiple ways.
- Engage in Personal Development
Time, material and financial resources invested on making yourself better in term of seeking new knowledge aren’t a waste. If don’t see it usefulness in your businesses today, kindly be patient for the future. How can one engage in personal development?
It’s not surfing the net looking for the top smartphones, best vacation destinations, latest car models, top watch brands and latest clothing designs. It’s simply doing the essential things in due course. For instance, registering and attending seminars, conferences, symposia, and workshops, academic institutions for new ideas, insights, and knowledge about your expertise. Also, newsletters, blog-posts and info on social media sites are useful too.
- Focus on Customers’ Experience
What’s your customers’ perception of how your company treats them? This is an essential question in today’s business world where customers’ perceptions in a marketplace build memories and feelings that affect their behaviors and loyalty.
Studies show that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience; 73% of buyers point to customer experience as an important factor in purchasing decisions; 65% of buyers find a positive experience with a brand to be more influential than great advertising; and that by the year 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.
You should at all times strive to achieve service excellence. This will certainly make a big impression in the heart of your customers. Also give adequate room for your customers to express their opinions on the quality of your products or services. Truth is, consumers always have something to say about your business, your products, and services, such interaction and effective feedback mechanism can help you achieve service excellence.
- Keep Up With New Tech
It’s somewhat amazing to see new technologies springing forth daily. The disruption of digital tech has brought about all kinds of new business processes, tools and platforms and changed how businesses operate. Nowadays, having a websites isn’t just enough, tools like Search engine optimization (SEO) has become instrumental to increasing the search engine traffic and attracting the right visitors.
Studies show that 77% of American’s own a smartphone; over 230 million U.S. consumers own smartphones; around 100 million U.S. consumers own tablets; 79% of smartphone users have made a purchase online using their mobile device in the last 6 months; 80% of shoppers used a mobile phone inside of a physical store to either look up product reviews, compare prices or find alternative store locations; and an estimated 10 billion mobile connected devices are currently in use.
Quite an increasingly number of people are using smartphones for online transactions. This implies that your websites should be optimized for mobile users. A good business app is also a necessity. Also, leverage on the social networks to reach a wider market.
Richard Agu is a researcher, entrepreneur and freelancer, passionate about entrepreneurship and self-development. Currently, Richard writes for Entrepreneur.com, Goodmenproject.com, among others. Follow him on Linkedin.com by clicking here now.
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