My reflections on the commercial landscape – new challenges, similar solutions

The beginning of December is, for many, the beginning of the run up to Christmas. I try to put this off for a few more days as I have a birthday to fit in before 25th December! But the signs are everywhere, from adverts, to Christmas lights and merchandise on-line and on the shelves of retailers. Some organisations quieten down in December, but many are ramping up for a peak trading season and/ or preparing for a year end and a new financial year.

Over the last couple of years so many organisations have been forced to embrace unprecedented levels of change and would dearly love to just have a pause, to take breath. As we go into the New Year though there are so many massive economic and socio-economic changes coming our way which we need to continue to work on or start to work on.

So many clients are having issues finding great quality colleagues for their businesses, as the employment market has bounced back more quickly and more strongly than many feared. I think this will be a problem for the medium term, as do many leaders I talk to. In turn they are looking at ever more radical solutions to improve productivity. This will make them a more sustainable, strong business going forward but requires structured thinking, courage and effective execution to get there.

All have been faced with a huge increase in energy costs over the last few months, this may well ease in the coming months, but this level of volatility has not been seen for many years and businesses are looking for ways to work in such a volatile market. Again, this requires clear, structured thinking and sound execution.

On a related topic “The Green Revolution” isn’t new, but COP26 brought it to the front of mind of many more businesses and consumers. The ongoing legislative programme to underpin this will accelerate the need for many changes in the way organisations operate and again clear thinking and effective execution will be vital.

The common strand I have tried to pull out here is the need for clear, logical thinking about the plan that suits your organisation taking into account the many stakeholders, both within and outside your operation, understanding the implications of the latest technologies and your customer’s needs and then a robust delivery plan with the level of sponsorship and experience to bring well thought through plans to life in a sustainable way. If you don’t resource these key activities effectively you may well be heading for a big problem.

If you want to discuss this any further please contact me, and, in the meantime I hope you have time for at least a brief pause and time to chill over the holiday season.