Should divisions, organisations and cultures merge?

The latest news on the street is that the British economy is finally becoming more stable; there are more jobs out there than there were this time last year, people are becoming more confident in their spending and finally the sun is starting to shine. After the major crash of 2008, it would seem, at first glance, that we are finally starting to get back on track.

But what affect has the flailing economy had on our view of how business should operate?

In difficult financial times businesses often go into panic mode and look at how they can improve business through short term gains. This typically comes in the form of cost cutting and more often than not this means making services more efficient and streamlined through cutting staff and combining services. But to what avail?

I’m a firm believer that in good times even the most shrewd businesses can over hire and over spend and thus when times are hard there is always some surplus and easy ways to cut costs, but at what point is cost cutting too much? When do companies start to suffer through ‘over-efficiency’?

One of the first things that they teach you when you learn about business is the importance of creating a USP – Unique Selling Point – a business needs to offer something original to get noticed in the market. Original ideas come from original people. When we combine services, divisions, departments and organisations, the originality of cultures and brands can be lost. In many mergers and acquisitions, this behaviour is even encouraged. The reason for this? It’s expensive to grow different businesses under one roof. Managing a business with various cultures and siloed departments is no easy task.  It involves creating many different business and reward models, duplication of effort and information, and can create divides between people. On the flip side it can foster creativity, enable new fresh ideas and it can give organisations that all-important USP.  

So, should we really concentrate on combining services, amalgamating departments, squashing differences so that we can be more efficient? Or, despite the expense and management challenges, shouldn’t we be celebrating our differences and individuality to achieve longer term success...?

Can you affect your own future?

It's been a while since my last post as I've been going through a bit of a working life transition. I currently work as a junior consultant in a medium sized Central London consulting firm and I have worked here for 18 months. During that time I have taken on a few different roles and experienced many different environments. I've laughed, cried, cursed and rejoiced, sometimes all in the same day! But, just this week I decided it was time to call it a day and move to pastures new. I start my new role in a month today, but more on that later.

Starting something new has made me take a step back from my experiences of the last 18 months and review what I did and what I learned.

When I first started at the company I was filled with excitement and hope; it had taken me 3 years of studying, living on the breadline and having very little life to make the first step in changing my career. Off the back of my MSc dissertation I landed a project role within HR working on rebuilding their performance management system. I couldn't believe my luck, it seemed like my dream job!

The role was a temporary role, 6 months initially and I thought it would be a great first step in the right direction. Looking back, it was! It certainly helped me get my new job.

There were good and bad points to the role, as there are in any job, but it taught me two main lessons: Lesson 1, you can affect your relationships with others, if relationships ever seem difficult, don't be quick to judge what others are doing wrong, take a look at your own behaviour first; can you affect the relationship? Lesson 2; don't let difficult situations make you forget what you love and why you started the journey in the first place. 

My contract was nearing an end and I knew I needed a new job so I started looking both internally and outside of the company. The first role that came up was internal, a junior consultant. I was excited, I thought it was an amazing opportunity. Unfortunately, consultancy is not for me, but again, more life lessons were learned!

There are many reasons consultancy isn't suited to me right now; the extensive travel, living in hotels and out of a suitcase and the lack of career guidance (at least in my experience) are my main reasons. It's a tough life being a consultant; I hold my hat off to them. You have to deal with constant change and uncertainty and you have to learn to build your own career path and network. These are great life skills, don't get me wrong, but they are hard ones to learn. Right now I've realised that I need a little more stability and direction in my life than a consulting career can offer although, never say never; I may return one day. That was lesson 3; learn to listen to yourself and your needs. You know deep down if something is right for you.

I certainly wouldn't change my experience, I have made some great connections and having found it difficult and somewhat alien to work in this environment, it has made me realise how important it is to be confident in my abilities and to follow my heart and dreams.

This leads me nicely into my new role. I'm about to start work in the organisational development field, an area I've been interested in for years. I'm ready to grab it with both hands.

So, to my opening question; can we affect our own future?

I strongly believe we can. I've had some difficult experiences but I'm big enough to realise that experiences are a two way street. Things happen to us but it’s how we deal with them and move on that matter. This is a relatively new life lesson for me and is something I’m learning both in my working and personal life and I believe it’s something I’ll be learning for a long time yet!