Change Management and Your Business

When people talk about change management, especially in the business world, they are talking about an IT process. But what are you managing with IT in your business ? Today, you are probably tracking everything electronically and there are very few businesses larger then the single store Mom and Pop shop that don't. Even then, most small businesses all run everything electronically, that is just the way it is now. So how does this tie into the Business Management Solutions? Change management in this case will be about your assets and the ongoing tracking, maintenance, replacement and procurement of them.

Information Technology Management is a fundamental part of business process. It does take on a mind of it's own sometimes and is usually dealt with as a separate entity. But you have to consider that your entire business relies on the IT infrastructure, software, servers, computers and other components to operate. This is only a small portion of the change management that I am talking about... Yes, you still have to manage the IT assets, but there is a lot more to it. Assets for a company include everything from the carpet on the floor, the building foundation, the people that run it, the management, shareholders, cash, equipment and all the processes that inter-relate between them all.

Now, how do you plan and accomplish change in a business that has to worry about all those assets and functions at the same time. This is where managing change becomes a key part of the business. Lets look at change management on a full scale view and how do you successfully transform your business and improve it. If you want to be successful in today's market, you need to keep changing. You basically have to keep moving with the market and in today's global, fast paced market, you don't have a lot of choice. Now, this likely won't apply to the small , single store, family run businesses, but it might still be something to consider. The customers are a part of that fast paced, computer connected, instant information world and you will need to keep up to them, if not try to keep ahead of them in order to maintain your business for a long time.

The most difficult part of change, is the human side actually. Replacing and updating you physical assets, like computers and equipment is easy in comparison. The equipment usually performs the same job or improves the output, speed, etc. But when you ask the human to change something... that is a little harder. Most people , as a group do not like change, they prefer to keep things status quo. Why? because it is familiar and stable. As soon as you ask people to change jobs, functions, roles, thoughts, you run into resistance. This is where the proper management of change really helps. The alignment of the company's culture, values, people and behaviors will produce the desired results.