The rate of technology change is putting pressure on our organisations. Our managers are faced with a world of consumers who now live and communicate intricately through social media.

Todays managers are not the new generation of tech savvy, internet ready entrepreneurs who dine in the world of web 2.0. Todays managers are the career managers who are a life-time in the making. It takes tens of years for the majority of leaders to reach CEO positions and even longer to brew a good director. Now there are exceptions, but in the majority the web, the tech, the social media probably scares the crap out of a lot of our senior managers. I definitely don’t say this as criticism, the new generations of kiwi’s, younger than me, have seemingly magical technical abilities and Internet savviness way beyond anything I could comprehend.

So what happens to management and governance in New Zealand when technology outpaces the ability of our leaders to keep up? I expect that a correction is on its way at some point. It may already be happening. Those organisations that allow younger leaders to reach CEO, governance and positions of influence sooner than their competitors will take a new advantage in this brave new world. These leaders will not replace the old guard or the old boys network. Organisations will always need a wise experienced head at the helm, regardless of age. More so, I think tomorrows leaders, out of sheer necessity to keep up with technology, will have a better chance of being heard earlier than ever before.

So senior managers, keep a close eye on the company intern, they may be just one more tweet away from chairman of the board!

Some people don’t like plans because they feel they are restricted to particular courses of action. Planning often takes a considerable amount of time to do; it can be a difficult and meticulous job. However, here a few important reasons why you should consider creating a plan for your business…

A plan takes valuable business knowledge from every functional area of an organization and makes it freely available in a way that can be communicated and understood.

You can make better use of opportunities if you are prepared for them. Think of planning as a way to prepare for opportunities. A plan measures the difference between the present and the future and identifies things to do to make the future of your choosing more likely.

Planning helps people to share in common business goals and for those goals to propagate and decentralize into smaller areas of specialty. The larger you organization the more important this concept becomes.

People are the most important part of an organization, but the vast variety of personalities at work makes it difficult for everyone to naturally coordinate activities towards common business goals and directives. Planning helps people to understand their role in the organization and their relationship to other people and their roles. Planning makes organizations flexible because once a plan is set it acts as a vehicle for a change in attitude or direction to be communicated and implemented no matter how large the number of people.

Plans overcome variations in mood and behavior, and provide direction in times of pressure. Plans work well when situations and decisions become too difficult for an individual to manage.
No ones perfect, sometimes we are faced with difficult decisions which we struggle to find the answer to. A plan provides a great reference back to a time when we were thinking more clearly. Mission statements, values and goals can be used as a basis by which to judge the merits of choices in decision making.

A plan is a statement of identity, it says that we are this because of these reasons, it shows what we are and why. A plan takes ownership from one individual and gives it to the entire organization.

If people don’t buy into the plan it won’t work. An organization that has strict control over the behavior of its employees through a centralized command structure will be more effective in implementing a management designed plan than a free choice organization. The more freedom you give employees to make decisions the more necessary it is to involve them in the business planning process. Likewise if you are going to reward and punish people to behave the way to you want them to, in order to do the things you want them to, then don’t bother asking them to sit down and talk about a plan with you.

In conclusion, when you strip away all the tangibles from an organization you are left with value that is difficult to measure and protect. This value is in the form of knowledge, education, expertise, brands, ideas and plans. All the things that you can do to make this value more tangible the stronger your organization will be. A plan is a great way to capture and communicate value.

There is a lot of talk from governments about businesses expanding to become exporters. There are many business people with a massive interest in growth. Scale and perspective are critical elements to business growth.

We need to identify those business owners with the will to change. We will save a massive amount of time and resources by communicating directly to the people with the most leverage to build bigger and better businesses right now.

My theory is that many business owners will only grow their businesses to the scale of the vision with which they can comprehend and can consider realistic. If we can expand this vision, and show what is more realistic we can raise the bar in New Zealand.

We then need to show these people a perspective of what their business may look like at a larger scale. What new benefits will it bring to the customers, the employees, the community, the managers and owners. When business owners get exposed to new examples of scale and a perspective, how things can look at a new level they can perceive and plot a plan for change. We then need to jump start momentum by injecting these businesses with some key stimulant components. Equally we need to take away some key business inhibitors. All in all we then have laid a foundation for growth.

One way that this communication plan, for business growth in New Zealand, could work is to show how big businesses were once smaller businesses, medium businesses and so on. We then could help small businesses owners to see that big businesses were once small businesses and there is a success pathway for this change.

These ideas are not new I recognize that. There is room for improvement for business to gain access to knowledge, support, and media appropriate to their scale. For example, my local paper has one page dedicated to business and 80% of this is dedicated to interest rates, the reserve bank, and big business stories. If we can get business communication in perspective we can bring about big changes in this country.