Don't Rely on "The Government"
A study of any natural disaster (earthquake, tsunami, floods, landslides, hurricanes, pandemics, for example) shows that governments are necessarily slow to respond, even if they have the resources available to do so. Why is this?
The fact is that governments are made up of human beings and we know that we can’t predict every single disaster likely to occur. The best they can do is look at seasonal factors (i.e. rainfall, snow, hurricane season, earthquake areas) and start from there. Equally, they can stockpile equipment to deal with such disasters if they do occur.
When disaster strikes, the first thing that is needed is information:
- Where did it happen?
- How did it happen?
- What communications (if any) do we have with authorities (police, etc) in the area concerned?
- How many casualties are there?
- What supply routes are open (road, rail, airfields)?
- What supplies are needed urgently?
- Where are they warehoused at this moment?
- Is that warehouse accessible?
- How soon can we get them there?
- Who can distribute them?
- When will the next resupply be needed?
- How soon before we can get things “back to normal”?
There are countless other questions that need answers, so is it surprising that government responses are slow? We know what we need, but how can we get this information to the powers that be and how soon can they help, given that there may be others whose needs are more urgent than ours?
The one critical lesson from most disasters is that communication is critical. If “the authorities” don’t know what’s happened, where it happened, what supplies are needed, what supply routes are available and where supplies can be delivered, their response will necessarily be “patchy”. Added to this, if the necessary supplies or personnel aren’t immediately available (let’s say they have to be mobilised from other parts of the country or, indeed, overseas) delays are inevitable and people will suffer.
Now we look at our situation. If our homes and/or business are suddenly subject to a disaster of some sort (let’s take the happy scenario that things are in short supply), how long can we last? How long do we think it will be before “the government” can get things back to normal?
More to the point, what can we do to help ourselves “get by” until we see a response? This is what good management planning is all about.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Crisis Management, Leadership, Strategy
Does “Positive Discrimination” Work?
“They only got the job because they’re a [insert minority group description]”. Many countries now have “positive discrimination” laws.
These groups may be divided by sex, ethnic minority, religion or many other categories. In some countries, (e.g. Malaysia) there are laws to discriminate positively in favour of the majority “Bumiputra” group (a relic of colonial days).
The intention of positive discrimination should be to ensure that all groups that make up a country’s population are equally represented and have an equal “say” in mainstream life, politics, business and all the other aspects that make up our world. They are designed to reduce “income gaps”: witness the ongoing debate about women being paid less on average than their male counterparts for doing exactly the same job.
Singapore, with its Housing Development Board (HDB) scheme, which aims to ensure everyone has somewhere to live, insists that the ethnic proportion of residents of HDB developments reflects the proportion of those groups in Singapore’s population. Thus, we see Chinese, Malays and Indians all living in the same development. This may lead to some interesting frictions at times, but by and large it is accepted.
Is positive discrimination a good or bad idea? Done right, it’s a good thing, particularly at the beginning where a clear imbalance exists, and groups are being disadvantaged for no good reason, except the benefit of others (not what democracy is about).
Long-term, however, it may do more harm than good as certain groups come to see it as an entitlement. Contrast the right of women to vote in the UK and other countries. This is now seen as normal and we would think it an outrage to bar them. Women on the Board of Directors of companies? Getting there, but some way to go. As for equality of pay, they’re still paid less in many cases.
Is the situation improving at the rate it should be/desired? As my teachers used to say in my reports, “Could do better”. The sooner we get it right, the sooner we can stop positive discrimination as a privilege with the attendant risk that it becomes seen as an entitlement.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Leadership, Social, Strategy
How Long Can You Survive?
When I was a very young child (in the early 60s), my father was posted to a country where riots were common and a very real danger to personal safety existed. We had been advised to keep two weeks’ worth of supplies (that being the time estimated for the riots to either die out or be put down by the local security forces) and the means to cook them in the house. Since then, my parents always maintained a two-week supply of food wherever we lived.
This was all pretty basic, but they listened to advice and learnt from it. When storms in the UK in 1987 brought three trees down across our access road, we had enough to eat (and could cook on a simple 2-ring gas camping stove) until the trees could be cleared. We had to wait another 10 days for power and phone to come back online, but we didn’t starve, panic or suffer.
With the current pandemic, we’ve seen videos of people fighting over toilet paper and other supplies in supermarkets, many of which have now run out now run out of certain supplies due to “panic buying”. It made me wonder how long people could manage in our modern “convenient” world. We’re so used to having water at the turn of a tap, electricity at the flip of a switch, broadband internet and online ordering of groceries delivered to our doorstep and “telephone takeaway” that we’ve forgotten how to plan for ourselves. According to a report I read some time ago, the average American family has enough food in the house to last only three days, so the USA is theoretically three days from social unrest in the event of a disaster...
Now, how long could our businesses survive in the event of a prolonged downturn where no customers came in or ordered online (or did, but orders couldn’t be delivered due to a shortage of delivery drivers)? What does our business need to make it work?
The key ingredients to successful continuity are: Predict, Plan, Prepare, Perform, Protect
Predict:
What might happen? How likely is it?
Plan:
Have plans ready for predicted disasters. Update them regularly. Remember, there could be different types of disaster – each needs a different plan. These will revolve mainly around:
People:
The most important part of our business. They are the ones who deliver supplies, buy our goods and services, and make our business run. What would if, say, only 50% of staff could make it in? How do we communicate with them? What if they need to care for family members?
Parts (Supplies):
What equipment or supplies do we need in these cases? Is it available? Will it perish/expire? How quickly could we obtain more? Can we use technology (e.g. video conferencing) to manage meetings, etc? Is there any other technology out there that we could use?
Providers (Utilities, Hospitals, Police, Fire Brigade, Banks, Lawyers, etc):
Can we rely on all our usual service providers? For how long? How long can we manage without them? Do they have backup plans?
Prepare (and Practice):
There’s no use in having a plan and preparations if we don’t practice to see what works and what doesn’t. We don’t want to close down the business for a full day, but what would it be like if, say, only 50% of staff could make it in? What if circumstances (e.g. a curfew, etc) prevented them from leaving the workplace for at least 1 might (a bit extreme perhaps, but we never know…)
Perform:
If something happens, that’s when we put our plans into action.
If we’re forced to stay at home, as we were from time to time in the country I mentioned, how much of the above applies to us? Can we survive for (say) two weeks on our own stocks?
It’s never too late to prepare. Remember the old saying: “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance”.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610Labels: Crisis Management, Customer Care, Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
Keep It Simple
I recently saw a poster advertising a charity walk for a good local cause – the hard of hearing. The novelty about the walk was that participants would have to wear earplugs to simulate hearing difficulties.
It sounded like a great idea, a worthy cause and something that I, my wife and other friends could get together for. In all, everyone would get some exercise in the fresh air, should have a good time and raise some money for the hearing-impaired. What could be better?
The poster carried a QR code for registration. Great – they wanted to ensure as many people as possible registered. However, this was where things started to go wrong.
The instructions for registration required us to go to one location with payment at specific times (working hours, luckily) and to return two weeks later to pick up the official walk t-shirt. The problem was, it was only one location to register in an area where parking was notoriously difficult to find. For one trip, that might have been OK, but then to have to go back to collect t-shirts…?
The organisers could have set up registration points at different locations (they had the capability to do this), but it seemed that something else was driving the “single registration point”. It might have been someone’s convenience, control of cash and handing-out of t-shirts, we don’t know.
The three criteria for a positive customer experience are that the experience should:
- Be enjoyable
- Be easy to use
- Meet the customer’s needs
Registering for this walk would probably not have met any of these criteria (although we would have enjoyed participating in the walk itself).
It made me think: if I want people to buy, I need to make it easy for them to do so. I mustn’t make them wait in hard-to-find queues or go to out-of-the-way spots to take action. One only has to look at the process of buying goods on the likes of Amazon to see how fiendishly simple their process is to separate us from our cash.
Is it easy for customers to find your business? Is there sufficient parking and loading space (if needed)? Is signage on the premises clear so that people know where to go? Is the process of paying (or whatever it is that our business does) quick, easy and convenient?
If not, we need to rethink our strategy.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Strategy
