9+ 2019-2025 trends in business and management that will keep your company modern

The latest business trends that make your company modern

Before you, a list of 9+ most common solutions and trends, answers to 9+ of the most common problems that made my clients stand in front of the wall before I started working with them. Sometimes they were problems with employees, sometimes with finances, sometimes with communication or products. Check if your company or department is facing these problems and if you implement solutions to them.

Some of these solutions are not AI-like innovations. But it turns out that many companies still do not have it at home, still for many it is a novelty that can be incomprehensible. Therefore, despite the fact that some trends have been around the world for years, are still crucial, are still innovative, the company will not survive without them in the long term.

This is not a complete list of all the elements that are critical to an organization, but there is a lot of it anyway. There is something to think about!

In some processes I participated as a project leader and chief advisor, in some as a trainer who prepared people in terms of competences. Partly as one of the consultants who supported the project team.

TREND 1: DESCRIPTION OF ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES VS Who is responsible and accountable for what

It is often the case that as the company grows dynamically, there are more people. Due to the dynamics of the projects, it is becoming unclear who does what and is responsible for what. This creates problems with salary clarity, bonuses, and career paths. People lose motivation, managers get confused and don’t know how to reward. The department comes to the second one and it is not known who to talk to about the new project.

The solution is:

• job description – what the role is
• description of responsibility – what the role is responsible for
• job evaluation – that is, determining which positions, roles are important, and which are more important and adjusting the levels of financial remuneration to them

This is not an innovative trend that is the spirit of our time, but still a novelty for many companies that they have never heard of.

Lots of companies are doing these things and there is clarity on paper. The next step is the process of exchanging information between departments through workshops that help understand the findings in other departments. Some organizations introduce mobile applications that allow you to see all these descriptions drawn up. This facilitates internal communication between departments. You know who to send and who to call about what.

I have personally suggested these actions to my clients many times. Technically it’s simple to do, but you have to get people involved in making them want to do it and show them how they should do it. In some companies my suggestion was to start discussing these descriptions and findings as there are companies where the descriptions themselves are dead and useless.

The effect that the company achieved after introducing these actions: Order, greater clarity of action and more efficient communication.

Questions that initiated important changes in one of the companies that you must ask yourself are:

• Do you have an organized job description, responsibilities and job evaluation?
• Do you use descriptions to improve communication and streamline project delivery?

TREND 2: CHANGE MANAGEMENT VS People’s resistance to change

Any change can create fear, doubt and resistance in many teams. This can lead to a revolt of key employees or their departure. The problem is not the change itself, but the lack of proper communication and the lack of preparation of people for this change on the mental and competence level.

The solution is management and top management learning of change management, strategic psychology, mediation and business diplomacy. For this to be possible, HR must be close to the management board and work closely with the PR and marketing departments. HR itself must also mature and strengthen its approach and competences.

Personally, I participated in many projects in which we prepared teams, but also entire departments for changes. Sometimes it was a single performance, sometimes 2-4-day workshops, sometimes more than a year’s 1in1, group and online meetings, which allowed to educate employees, support them in changing their beliefs, freeing them from fears and doubts. These were also mediation processes between directors or departments that encountered conflicts in the process of change that had to be resolved.

A very important element that helped leaders in change was the passage through the Academy of Change Management and the Academy of Agile Leadership – these are two programs that develop the competences of change management of leaders and management boards, and also develop strategic projects and decisions that are to make the organization will be agile, modern, efficient and more effective, and at the same time caring for people and relationships.

The effect that the company achieved after introducing these actions: Increased level of Emotional Intelligence in leaders. Greater knowledge of how to plan changes. Less worker resistance. Greater level of respect and trust in the company.

Questions that initiated important changes in one of the companies that you must ask yourself are:

• Do you have change management skills in terms of strategic psychology in the company?
• Is people’s resistance blocking your changes or causing a drop in motivation?
• Do people’s mentality and attitudes limit your development?

TREND 3: AGILE PROCESS MAPPING VS Chaos in Projects

Describing positions is one thing. Without describing the processes, a huge communication chaos arises, which results from the fact that we do not know what the project implementation path is, what the production and sales process looks like, as well as arrangements between the management board and other departments.

The solution is to describe the processes, the so-called mapping processes, i.e. detailed action paths as well as main procedures and rules. Thanks to this, we can have a picture of how decisions and information flow throughout the organization.

The contemporary challenge of companies is not only to describe them, but to update them. Without introducing the philosophy of Agile and the Lean Management approach, describing the processes does not make sense. Why? Because something that we described in January 2019 may not be valid in May 2019. Here we have to constantly optimize processes and grind. That’s why we call it agile process mapping. You need to reserve time in the calendar!

I personally helped some companies describe their processes. In others, I helped optimize them. Change in still others. There is one conclusion from all these contracts: it is people who create processes and their quality depends on the cooperation of teams and departments. If the information exchange and openness are not taken care of, the description of the processes will be an artificial creation in Excel.

The effect that the company achieved after introducing these measures: Greater efficiency in project implementation. Save time. Less frustration in communication between departments.

Questions that initiated important changes in one of the companies that you need to ask yourself are:

• Do you have mapped processes?
• Are you updating your processes?

TREND 4: STRATEGIC VISION VS Where is the company going

A serious problem at the managerial level is the lack of clarity in the heads of directors and managers as to the direction in which the company is going. What are the visions, strategic goals. Many leaders of even large companies still do not see the point in communicating this to top managers. They got where they went without having a vision or talking about it. But what they don’t see is that they may not go any higher now and may start losing their best people if they don’t share where they are going in terms of image, finance, market, sales. Talking about the annual target is not enough anymore.

The solution is that the board and / or directors work on different dimensions of the vision and then start to systematically communicate it to the employees. Just as marketing is responsible for informing customers about new products, the management board in cooperation with other departments must start communicating in which direction the company is going. Working according to the Change Value Process methodology, we always work out 10 levels of Vision. One vision is not enough anymore, you have to look at multiple dimensions. Why? Because short blank passwords are not the solution. To enter a higher level of Leadership you have to go deeper and look wider.

I could describe many things in this topic, but one of the key conclusions in strategic work is to mobilize management boards and owners to spend more than 5 minutes on it and convince them that it is not theorizing, but will actually translate into real changes in the organization. Sometimes you have to grab them tight and guide them through a specific process of extracting and describing the strategy for it to influence people’s motivation and results.

The effect that the company achieved after introducing these measures: Greater clarity of the direction of the company’s development among decision-makers and managers. Greater inner peace and confidence that the company is going in the right direction. Greater sense of influence and control over what is happening.

Questions that initiated important changes in one of the companies that you need to ask yourself are:

• Do you have a clear vision for the short and long term?
• Do you have a financial, human and image vision?
• Do you communicate her?
• Do your principals understand your vision and are able to replicate it?

TREND 5: 90s VS IT DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Many companies have computers and some maintenance software. But they are starting to grapple with outdated CRM programs, old systems for file exchange, internal communication. The usual “let’s update” approach doesn’t work.

You have to look through the prism of “Digital Transformation”. The IT director’s simple glance is not enough. It takes a person who thinks strategically, business and knows many IT solutions and has a high level of Emotional Intelligence to be able to talk to people who will be affected by the change of all IT systems to which they have become used to over the last 10 years.

I have not personally been directly involved in the digital transformation for my clients. My participation was focused on improving the communication of the IT department with other departments in one of the companies. The IT manager was not able to transparently and efficiently talk to other departments, which meant that both sides did not understand each other and the projects stood still. In another company, the beginning of the digital transformation began with the fact that together with the management board at a strategic workshop, we created a vision of an application for communicating with clients. This would be so innovative that an additional person would have to be hired to create a new parallel IT department. Several companies that I know have decided to undertake such activities. This is the only way sometimes to push innovation forward.

The effect that the company achieved after introducing these activities: Accelerating activities that used to take a long time. Greater ease in the flow of documents, greater order in documents and procedures. The image of the company among employees and customers began to improve and strengthen as it began to be associated with a modern company.

Questions that initiated important changes in one of the companies that you must ask yourself are:

• Do you have a digital transformation department?
• Do you have an IT director who can look strategically, broadly and in business terms?

TREND 6: STRATEGIC MARKETING VS Backward Marketing

The times when the marketing department is focused on creating advertising and simple promotion are long gone. However, many companies are just maturing to have a better website or Facebook account, not to mention understanding what the business and customer really expect. The marketing department used to be the errand boy for the sales department. The sales department was the most important. Now, if marketing departments aren’t above or at least alongside sales, problems arise. Marketing has already become a key strategic department for the company a few years ago. He analyzes the data, he creates an idea for the existence of the company in the mind of the client. If not, the business is aging and customers are moving away from the brand.

The solution is to develop the marketing department towards strategic marketing. The marketing department has to analyze data, lead to sales conversion, take care of the company’s brand and the brand of key people in the organization. There is PR under marketing, which must be consistent with the assumptions of the entire organization. Marketing brings out the “soul of the company” and tells about it.

Personally, in the last 3 years I have participated in the development of strategic thinking of several marketing directors, as well as in changing the mentality of employees of these companies. It turned out that not only marketing specialists had to train marketing departments, but I had to work with these organizations on mental change and greater openness to new ones. The directors themselves had to start thinking more business and focusing on the company’s results, not on making advertisements.

The effect that the company achieved after introducing these actions: Increase in sales and improvement of the company’s image. More effective marketing campaigns. Development of people’s competences.

Questions that initiated important changes in one of the companies that you must ask yourself are:

• Does your marketing department think strategically?
• Does the marketing department analyze trends and stay ahead of them?
• What is the brand vision – not business, not financial, but marketing? What is a brand and who do you want it to be?

TREND 7: EMPLOYER & PERSONAL BRANDING, SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY VS Poor image, difficulty with recruiting

The cooperation of marketing, PR and sales is a key issue. The second is the conscious building of the brand image and the personal image of key people in the organization. But be careful! The point is not for the marketing agency to “make an image”. If only someone from the outside posts on the company’s fanpage, employees are not involved in what is happening in the company, the company does not exist in various social media channels, it will increasingly build distance and dryness in relations with customers.

The solution is to involve management boards and directors in building a brand. This is done in many ways. It is people who create the brand, it is people who create the image, credibility and trust. One of the main activities that employees of various levels can use is social media, but also the broadly understood internet and technology. The company’s image is influenced by IT applications created by the IT department, as well as by how employees run, for example, their personal or industry blog.

Interestingly, when I introduce the SMIT (Social Media, Internet, Technologies) project in several companies, not only does the customer’s perception of the company change, but the employees perceive the company for which they work differently. They are more involved, they think more modernly. This approach “detoxifies the company”, which means that people’s approach and mentality become innovative, people are more open to changes and new solutions.

The effect that the company achieved after introducing these measures: Increased employee motivation and their involvement in the company’s operation. Positive reception of social media activities by employees and clients.

Questions that initiated important changes in one of the companies that you must ask yourself are:

• Are the employees involved in building the company’s image?
• Are key people in the organization promoted on social media channels?

TREND 8: MAPPING STRATEGIC FACTORS VS Chaos in the heads of management

Even if there is a vision and a strategy, the current challenges create chaos during and after meetings. Everything is clear, but there is a hustle and bustle in the head. This mess later spills over to others around and below.

The solution is the systematic mapping of strategic factors, that is, the main elements that you need to focus on month by month, quarter by quarter. Interestingly, my personal and consulting experience shows that even the most important assumptions and projects can slip away from us. Until the leaders are surprised how it is possible that they have forgotten about it.

The effect that the company achieved after introducing these actions: Order in the heads of leaders. A greater sense of concentration on the essentials. Better communication with managers who finally knew what to focus on.

The question that initiated important changes in one of the companies that you need to ask yourself is:

• Do you focus on specific things that influence your strategy and vision? What are they?

TREND 9: TESTING AND INNOVATING VS Sticking to the Past

As I wrote at the beginning, the list of challenges and solutions is long. In point 9, I would like to point out that we need to systematically observe, test and introduce new products to the company. Not all at once, because it is impossible. In addition, not every novelty will suit us and will respond to real problems. Some companies innovate by force, follow the trend, but they are not deliberate decisions. No extreme is good. You have to balance not to go to the extreme.

Therefore, take a look at the list below for various trends, methods, and ideas worth being interested in. Not to implement immediately, but to at least think about it. Often this is why companies hire me – because I am an information hub for them, a mine of experience and help in choices and decisions. The role of advisers like me is to broadly understand business, people, markets and methods. Our role is to help you conduct strategic analysis. This is why I run this blog so that the leaders are always up to date, ready for change and the future.

A separate book may be published about each of the following points. The point is not to be a specialist in it right away, but to keep your finger on the pulse and at some point introduce appropriate projects and changes:

• If you want to be the best leader or have such leaders in your organization, develop: Emotional Intelligence of employees, i.e. Inner Leadership – the workshop: Leadership Mindset and the book Ściana

will help you in this

• If you want to improve collaboration between departments, enter: Project management
• If you want to sell more, develop the philosophy and methodology: Customer Experience
• If you want to motivate employees and facilitate recruitment, learn about the assumptions: Employer Experience , and thus the idea of ​​ Work-Life Balance
• If you want to improve communication in your team in line with the latest trends, take an interest in Socialocracy
• If you want to learn about non-classical management methods, get to know the idea of ​​ Turquoise organizations and the assumptions of Holocracy
• If you want to have a higher level of creativity in your organization and solve problems faster, learn about the assumptions of Design Thinking
• If you want to improve processes and organization, please see Lean Management
• If you want to exchange information and news in the company more efficiently, think about programs such as Intranet for Facebook or Slack
• If you want to make better decisions, look for methods and programs for automation, reporting the results of activities and projects