Why businesses need to flip the coin of success and failure

Many companies, however, fail to use it to unlock emerging opportunities through effective allocation of resources. The fiscal budget, for example, is often used exclusively to restrict and limit spending, rather than support business growth. This resource “lockdown” can harm efforts to break free from a stagnant status quo. Here, the management needs to try a new approach and encourage employees to challenge themselves without fear of failing. There are a number of situations where managers can intervene when a discouraged workforce is threatening to bring the standstill or even retreat of a business. 

_ Start by talking about problems: 

In a meeting to find the solution to a problem, participants get bogged down in giving reasons for why they were unable to overcome the obstacles, such as being unprepared, lacking a dedicated responsible person, and so on. In this situation, the effective manager has to persuade the team to see a new direction for achieving the target. 

_ No one wants to take risks:

Taking prudent risks is a necessary part of running a successful business. However, performance appraisals often get stuck in the rut of the previous year’s results by using old performance indicators such as sales revenue, productivity level, headcount control, and so on. Instead, an individual should also be evaluated on their willingness to take on new challenges and implement new projects. 

_ Lack of management support:

Nurturing a proactive culture among employees requires a special attitude of support from managers. A positive reaction to requests raised by lower-level employees can help increase their ambition and empower them to attain company goals. Take, for example, a team of engineers that fails in its first attempt to improve the productivity of a production line despite spending a significant amount of money. The top management hears of the failure and delivers the message: “Keep trying. If it fails, it’s okay. Don’t get upset. Learn something from the failure and then try again. Don’t give up.” 

_ Not seeing the same big picture:

In a function-based organisational structure, each department tends to aim at internal targets while largely ignoring the targets of the company as a whole. But it is evident that the departmental key performance indicator (KPI) system causes negative side effects when coordination among different departments is ignored. Sharing KPI is one remedy in such a situation. 

 

Embracing a dare-to-fail attitude is important where tradition-bound organisations are slow to respond to uncertainty and rapid change. It can also help foster innovation, especially in research and development. For example:

A service company may seek new opportunities by exploring how to use information technology to enhance internal process efficiency and improve customer response time.

A government authority may survey private-sector opinion before arriving at a new process or adjustment to existing rules and regulations. 

A business may introduce new products through a systematic and minimum-risk approach that still opens the way to potential growth. Trial and error is another approach worth considering. 

Finally, it is important for businesses to consider instituting a self-challenging atmosphere where employees feel free to discuss opportunities and associated risks before crafting plans of action. No one can guarantee 100-per-cent success for any new effort, but the company can invest in a culture of using failures and successes to build knowledge among its workforce. Such a continuous learning process creates a net gain of success through achievement of long-term targets. 

 

Yanyong Thammatucharee is senior vice president for Accounting and Finance at Central Marketing Group.