Organisations face a 70% chance of a major crisis within the next 5 years! A fascinating and very helpful report just release by PwC addresses the issue of crisis management, based on research involving over 2000 senior executives from 25 industries across 43 countries (download it here). As a result, their report is full of observations and advice on how to prepare, and even benefit from a crisis.
I really recommend each leader access and read the report, and consider its implications for your entity. However, a quick overview of some of the reports key points follow. The top 5 observations from the research are:
(i) Allocate budget to crisis management – before it hits;
(ii) Have a plan – and test it;
(iii) Adopt a fact-based approach – and don’t neglect key stakeholders;
(iv) Perform a root-cause analysis – and follow up;
(v) Act as a team, and hold to your values.
The report stresses that the chances of corporate crisis are growing, and will be played out more publicly, hence the need to have a plan of action now. Do yourself a favour, download the report, read it, and incorporate their principles into your organisation.
The role of the Board has changed, and it needed too. No longer is the board a group of old school cronies who get together a few times a year to catch-up on old times. Today’s board needs to be a massive strategic asset to the company, or risk falling behind in the market.
Deloitte recently published an outstanding paper on how the CEO can help shape the board into being such a strategic asset (read it here). They note that directors want to be more involved in strategy and discussions at the top level. To help with this, based on their research, following is a summary of their seven tips on how CEOs can engage the board in becoming a “strategic asset”:
The full paper is easy to read, and packed full of really useful information. So take the time to find out how to make your board a true strategic asset.
In August of this year, ABS student Craig Louwen represented Avondale University College at the 10th University Scholars Leadership Symposium, organised by Humanitarian Affairs Asia. The symposium was held in Kuala Lumpur. Craig self-funded this trip, joining with 1000 other students from across the world, and gave up part of his mid-year break to do so. Only students who demonstrate leadership potential, and who have a desire to improve society, were invited to apply. Despite the opportunity to draw from students across the globe, Craig was selected as a delegate, and attended the symposium which provided these student leaders with an understanding of key sustainable development changes. A series of talks by international trainers and humanitarian leaders, and presentations by Malaysia’s Prime Minister, the founder of community-building charity Sunrise Cambodia, and Hillary Yip who founded the language-learning software company MinorMynas at age 13, motivated these delegates to realise their potential as agents for change. Craig is confident the experience will prove to be a beneficial one, allowing him to grow in both skill and attitude, and with opportunities to interact with child refugees, the symposium encouraged him to “be bolder in making a change” for the betterment of society. Read more about it here.
ABS welcomed Dean Banks, Leadership and Professional Development Manager from South Pacific Division (SPD), who gave a talk to the students about the importance of writing your CV. He talked about the fact that students have about 60 seconds for a potential employer to engage them in their CV, and that it needs to be a summary of career to date, key skills and strengths, and should be prepared with attention to detail to improve chances of being selected for an interview.
He also answered the many questions about do’s and don’ts such as not including a photo, not including salary expectations, or religious, political or social affiliations. He also stressed that students should be truthful, logical & precise, and should draw attention to their values, accomplishments & contributions.
The students were given a workbook specifically prepared by Dean which also gave them an opportunity to draft their CV, with a CV Quality Checklist and CV Samples. The students really valued the opinion of such a well-respected Leadership & Professional Development Manager, and for ABS it strengthens our engagement ties with SPD and furthers our endeavours to bring outside real-world experts into the classroom for our graduating students.
To cry and change organizational culture (‘the way we do things around here’) can be like trying to turn an aircraft carrier around – it is possible, but takes a long time and loads of energy. So when an organisation does get into a change program, it is important to ensure you can reassure people that it is happening, and things are getting better.
How do we do that? By measuring the shift in culture. A great article about measuring culture (read it here) provides some great advice on tools that can help with that. Because as anyone who has tried to measure culture knows, it ain’t easy!
When looking at ways to measure your culture, the best tip in the article is to not spend too long trying to find the perfect metric, but instead to find something ‘good enough’ to start with and get doing. Be prepared to adjust along the way. While the article has full details with examples, the four types of customizable measurement they suggest you can use are:
While measuring the impact of a cultural transformation may be complex, it is achievable, and more importantly, necessary. Use the measures to encourage your organisations team that change is happening, good things are resulting, and we are in a better place.
Avondale Business School can help you with your change process, contact Dr Warrick Long to chat about how. [email protected] or 02 480 2168
ABS staff attended an open day at our newest Third Party offering at Sydney Business & Travel Academy (SBTA) in Sussex Street, Sydney. The course is specifically designed with International students in mind, and allows them to complete 2 majors (Human Resource Management and Marketing) in a 3 year degree.
Students who attended the open day were from Countries such as Europe, America and South America. The notion of offering the course in Sydney particularly appeals to International students who can easily find accommodation and employment in the CBD.
Students were also treated to a wonderful meal made by students from the Commercial Cookery course also offered by SBTA in their own commercial kitchens. It is hoped the first cohort of International students will begin their studies in Semester 1, 2020.
Two Avondale Business School academics (Lisa Barnes and David Wilson) along with about 20 Central Coast regional industry managers, leaders and owners attend the 1st of three sessions of the Innovation Leaders program held at the Business Hub, University of Newcastle, Ourimbah campus on Friday, August 23. The event was organized by the Australian Government, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science as part of their Business Entrepreneurs’ Program for 2019.
The theme of the program for the day was ‘Managing performance courageously’ and to bring out the best in individuals in the work place. Making difficult conversations, skills needed in making courageous performance conversations and managing feedback. The day’s proceedings were efficiently facilitated by Tim and Colleen with activities including group discussions, role play, debrief and group work. Sharing of fresh live in-the-work type experiences from industry and work related perspectives filled the room with awe during the sessions. Sharing in confidence were some of the highlights of the sessions.
As ABS academics the key take away for us from these sessions were the interactions made with industry based practitioners. Networking with some of the key regional industry participants and discussing on future collaborations for ABS students to get hands on work internship experience. Participating in such programs opens a great way to engage with people who come from other work areas and industries within the local region.
Last week saw the ABS team attend the Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation & Sciences sponsored Business Entrepreneurs’ Program. This program was entitled “Leading High-Performance Teams” and was designed to understand and bring out the best in teams to raise the bar on performance. The other attendees were from local Central Coast businesses including:
The first task of the day was called “Lost at Sea” where individual team members had to rank from 1 to 15 items needed to survive a capsized boat. Then the team re-ranked the items as a group. It is probably prudent to note at this point that we are academics and that should we have used our combined list we may not have made it out alive!
However, what we did learn is that as a team we are prepared to listen to each other, and understand different points of view and different perspectives. What we really got out of this exercise is that as a team, we are prepared to listen to options that as an individual we would not have even considered. We also realised that we offer a lot of diversity to our team. We are at different stages of our lives, come from different backgrounds, have different genders, ages, and experiences – all of this diversity means that we can offer lots of different perspective on the same issue, and together as a team come up with the best way forward for our business.
To be honest, sometimes you just need to get out of the office, take the team to somewhere different, and reflect on how effective we are as a team. One of the other exercise we did was to embark on a team leadership self-assessment. That is where we all ranked ourselves on issues such as communication, goals, participation and positive atmosphere. Our average reflected the issues we needed to work on, namely managing conflict and clear business goals. The day gave us time to reflect on our individual performance within teams, and our performance as leaders of teams.
So the day ended with our team being pretty happy at our cohesion and our ability to adapt to change, but not our ability to survive in a capsized boat – we are after all far too logical for that! We also came away with some new contacts for our students to take on internships in 2020, so also a great community engagement event for the ABS.
Avondale Business School Team
Does your job suck? Do you hate your boss? So that was the opening two sentences of an article sent to me by a good friend recently. The article is all about making your work more meaningful, and is by Dr Jenny Brockis (read it here), and is well worth the full read.
Using some great examples, Dr Brockis provides a framework for meaning at work, and gives some great tips, which should be read in full, but in summary point form are:
I would recommend reading the article in full to get the benefit of the context of these, and hopefully you will be able to enjoy a more meaningful working experience.
Honoured at the Avondale College Homecoming program this year was a former lecturer with the Faculty of Business & IT (as ABS was formerly known). Graduating in 1979 as a business studies high school teacher, Ron Day returned to Avondale College as a lecturer for a number of years before moving progressing his academic career at other universities. You can read more of Ron’s journey and citation in the 2019 Homecoming site (read more here).
Ron was greatly appreciated by all his students, and was known for going well beyond the extra mile to help willing students achieve. A number of former students now hold significant leadership roles in many organisations, including our own ABS member, Dr Warrick Long, who Ron taught high school accounting, economics and English to. Dr Long "blames" Ron for "making accounting so interesting I dedicated my life to it" and credits him with “instilling a love of learning and as a role model for my own teaching”.
Avondale Business School congratulates Ron Day on being honoured in 2019.
