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Creating Resilient Organisations

The following appears in "Implementing an Effective Change Management Strategy" by Neryl East, MA, PhD, published by the Ark Group in association with Inside Knowledge. While it might be admirable for organisations to strive to be resilient, change and strategic management specialist Teik Oh says resilience is not the end of the journey. Resilience is an element that needs to be embedded in the culture of the business. teik oh smallHe believes that can only be achieved if the organisation and its leadership demonstrate some fundamental behaviour that point to resilience. Resilience is not only important in the hard times or during change. It must also be demonstrated when business is going well. That can be a challenge for many leaders, who Oh says are generally suited to only one style of an economy. Many perform well when the economy is also doing well. Other leaders rise to the challenge when the economy does badly; Oh points out that it is relatively easy to think of great leaders who have turned companies around. However, they may not have been so successful when the business was back on track. Oh says resilience needs to be a constant, rather...
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Structuring Australian Indigenous Business Groups

stucturing Australian Indigenous enterprises can be categorised into three main categories:-
  1. Those owned and operated by Indigenous individuals or “nuclear” families where profits may be distributed to individuals;
  2. Those owned and operated by Indigenous “communities” or larger Indigenous cultural family groups that are operated for the benefit of the whole group and do not result in distributions of profit to individuals; and
  3. Those owned and operated by Indigenous corporate and service entities and Native Title Prescribed Bodies Corporate where profits may be distributed back to that particular corporation or service entity or its constituent corporate members such as the previously mentioned “communities”.
The second and third categories may be described as “social enterprises” or “social ventures” whether there is an intention to make a profit as a business, or whether the enterprise is a not-for-profit community service-delivery organisation. This discussion deals with the structuring of the second and third categories. The first category is clearly a private individual business model and structuring for that category will depend on normal commercial considerations as normally applying to small business, including the application of tax. The second and third categories are more like a combination of community organisations (that happen to run...
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Choosing, Implementing and Cascading Performance Measures

sign Implementing Performance Measures Determining what to measure can take considerable effort, but it will probably be less than one-third of the total effort required to implement an efficient and effective measurement system. Data collection and processing systems will have to be implemented to produce the measures; everyone will have to be trained in using the systems and measures; and as the measures are used, some problems are sure to be identified that will require changes to the system. Perhaps the greatest challenge faced when implementing performance measurement systems is changing an organisation’s culture. Using performance measures requires managers and employees to change the way they think and act. For most people, this is relatively easy, but for some, changing old beliefs and habits is very difficult. Overcoming such problems requires strong leadership to provide appropriate direction and support. The best measurement system in the world will yield few benefits if the right knowledge, skills, abilities, and values are not developed in a company. An organisation doesn’t just interface with a measurement system; it is part of the system. Developing and implementing effective measurement systems requires leadership, commitment, and hard work. Some investment is...
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The challenge of merging two corporate cultures

teik oh oldTeik Oh The most challenging change management initiative is the proper management of a successful merger between two organisations. While the actual steps and processes in themselves are not uniquely different or any more complex than any other business reorganisation, the cultural environment in which a merger takes place creates a very different situation. Unlike any other change management engagement where disparate groups at least work under one singularly identifiable organisation, a merger brings together two totally unique groups with different core values and working environments that need to go through the same change and emerge united. In a merger, while there are usually areas of “fit”, it is unlikely that the deeper indicators of corporate culture such as corporate history and corporate experience will have any but the most remote of matches. Mergers and acquisition transactions are usually entered into to gain advantages yet the vast majority of these transactions are done with scant thought on how best to maintain the strengths of both parties and indeed to use them to synthesise greater strengths. Accounting models are not the best indicators for merger success; in a merger 2 plus 2 rarely equals 4. The prime...
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