Business Challenges
Some challenges that impair business expansion today.
Strain: A Driving Force or Destructive Burden?
Business is all about growth, and growth almost always brings strain. In business planning, it often feels like the world resets at the end of each fiscal period, creating a new landscape based on figures from the previous period that should be improved in the new period (the new world)—be they financial figures, customer metrics, employee metrics, or project milestones.
While this growth expectation drives the advancement of the organization, the team, and the overall business, it also creates varying levels of stress on the overall system, which we call 'strain'.
Organizations can thrive by managing this strain efficiently, so it becomes a driving force to secure growth rather than an uncontrollable brake that slows down or even paralyzes teams to the detriment of the business. Connecting employees with the organization’s purpose, deploying tools to identify early signs of excessive strain, and maintaining open communication channels with frequent touchpoints are crucial.
Adapting the team—and if necessary, the period objectives—when strain becomes a destructive force is critical to the success of organizations.
Blueprint: A Compass for Success or a Ball&Chain holding you Back?
The organizational chart (OrgChart) serves as the blueprint of a company, outlining its structure and the formal relationships between its components. However, one of the persistent challenges businesses face is the gap between the OrgChart and the reality of how work gets done and how employees interact. This gap often reveals inefficiencies, misalignments, and missed opportunities for empowerment. In many organizations, the OrgChart is treated as a static document, updated only after significant changes occur in the way the business operates. This delay creates a disconnect: while the actual workflow evolves to meet the demands of the market or internal growth, the chart lags behind. This misalignment can confuse employees, hinder decision-making, and slow down operations as the formal structure no longer reflects the company’s operational needs.
A quick test of organizational efficiency lies in the complexity of the OrgChart. If the structure is simple and straightforward, and easily understood by everyone, it’s likely the company operates efficiently, and with clear roles and responsibilities. On the contrary, a highly complex OrgChart—filled with double lines, dotted lines, overlapping roles, and multiple reporting layers—suggests the presence of inefficiencies. In such cases, the formal structure (the blueprint) is at odds with how the company actually operates. Employees often resort to alternate pathways, informal networks, or even redundant reporting lines to get work done, further complicating the organization’s dynamics and frustrating everyone involved.
At its core, an organizational blueprint should be a tool for empowerment. It should facilitate decision-making, enable processes, and support employees in delivering value. Unfortunately, many companies fall into the trap of designing structures that prioritize checkpoints and controls over empowerment. While oversight is essential, an overemphasis on control can stifle innovation, slow down execution, and erode employee engagement. To address these challenges, companies need to regularly review and update the OrgChart to reflect the realities of how work gets done, simplify the structure to ensure clarity and reduce unnecessary complexity, and empower employees by streamlining processes and minimizing bureaucratic control layers. By aligning the formal structure with actual operations and focusing on empowerment, businesses can create a more dynamic, efficient, and responsive organization. In the end, a well-designed blueprint is not just a map of roles and responsibilities but a catalyst for success.
Leadership Cultivation: A Pillar of Growth or Source of Frustration?
In the dynamic landscape of modern business, the quality of an organization’s leadership team is critical for growth. A business can only grow as much as the quality of its leadership team, and cultivating strong leaders is essential for ensuring sustainable success in the long run.
Companies often make elaborate plans and design tools for leadership development. Yet, when the need to replace a leader arises, many organizations struggle to place a well-fit candidate. This highlights the challenge of truly preparing future leaders for their expanded roles, despite all the resources and effort invested.
The C-Suite bench is particularly crucial, as the entire organization and external stakeholders look up to these leaders as the embodiment of the company. When there’s a long unfilled gap at this level, employee morale and faith in the company’s future can waver. Formal training programs are valuable but insufficient on their own. Effective leadership cultivation also requires practical development approaches like shadowing, day-in-the-life exercises, and, most importantly, professional coaching and mentoring.
Effective leadership is about more than management; it involves inspiring and guiding a team towards achieving collective goals in often unclear environments with unexpected problems frequently surfacing. Leaders should set the organizational culture, influence morale, and drive the strategic vision while being genuine. Their decisions shape the business trajectory, and their ability to adapt, innovate, and inspire others can propel the company forward.
Investing in leadership development programs is crucial. These programs focus on honing essential skills like strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, and communication. Mentorship provides emerging leaders with valuable insights and guidance from experienced leaders, fostering a pipeline of capable leaders ready to step up.
Ultimately, business growth is linked to the strength and quality of its leadership team. By prioritizing leadership cultivation, businesses can build a foundation for sustained success, drive innovation, and navigate ever-evolving business challenges.
Driving a business without this is like driving a car without a spare tire; if you have a flat, you either pop the spare in or start looking for help to get your tire fixed, knowing you will be late to your destination.
Engagement: Aligning stakeholders in ever-shifting environments
Life sciences companies can only ensure sustained success in an evolving industry landscape by excelling in engagement. Yet, the industry faces multifaceted challenges in maintaining effective engagement today, in three distinct areas:
External Engagement:
- The complexity of external engagement lies in identifying and connecting with the right stakeholders, including regulators, healthcare providers, payers, patient advocacy groups, and policymakers. Crafting a comprehensive stakeholder map is essential, yet maintaining its relevance is an ongoing struggle, as stakeholders and their priorities evolve. Each stakeholder is unique—what resonates with one may fall flat with another. For instance, a data-driven presentation may appeal to regulatory bodies, while a narrative approach might better connect with patient groups. Even within the same category of stakeholders, there are individual nuances where, usually, one size never fit all. Establishing and nurturing rapport with these diverse audiences demands continuous adaptation and cultural sensitivity.
Employee Engagement:
- Keeping employees motivated in a dynamic and high-pressure environment is a significant challenge. Rapid technological advancements, regulatory shifts, and competitive pressures often create a demanding work atmosphere. Cost optimization measures, though necessary, can impact morale. To foster engagement, companies must focus on clear communication, opportunities for professional growth, and recognizing contributions. Transparency about organizational decisions and creating spaces for dialogue can help employees feel valued and aligned with company goals. Leaders should lead by example for a supportive culture that emphasizes collaboration and inclusivity, even in challenging times and most importantly, change champions among staff should be identified and on-boarded to support the change with a grassroots approach.
Engagement of the Leadership Team:
- One often-overlooked, yet crucial aspect of engagement is that of top leaders of the organization. Senior leaders face pressures both as the front face for external challenges and in aligning company objectives with staff expectations. They often find themselves navigating a delicate balance between meeting organizational goals and addressing the concerns and needs of their employees, particularly during times of strain and change. Companies should pay special attention to engaging their top leaders as they are sometimes neglected, relying too much on their seniority for resilience. Leadership alignment is critical to organizational success; leaders need well-crafted tools and clear avenues for collaboration, consistent communication, and access to peer networks. Without proper leadership engagement, organizations can not manage external or internal engagement.
Alliance Management:
A Powerful Tool with Delicate Balances
Alliance management is a critical success factor for businesses operating across diverse geographies, particularly in international markets. Strategic alliances open doors to new opportunities and enable market expansion, but they also bring a unique set of challenges that require careful attention and proactive management.
The foundation of any successful alliance lies in its formation. Creating the right setup, establishing clear rules of engagement, and defining governance structures from the outset are essential steps. These elements not only ensure alignment but also provide the framework for managing the alliance effectively over time.
However, once the alliance is operational, the journey often becomes more complex. Numerous factors can disrupt equilibrium: changes in partner management, shifting market conditions, or evolving global strategies can impact the balance of risks and benefits, sometimes unfavorably for one partner. In extreme cases, external or internal shifts—such as a principal company deciding to exit a market—can threaten the alliance’s very existence. The potential sources of conflict are as abundant as the benefits that partnerships can bring.
To create a sustainable alliance, a win-win approach is paramount. Partners must share rewards and risks proportionately to the value and contributions each brings to the table. Transparency, trust, and a commitment to mutual benefits are the pillars that keep alliances resilient. Even when challenges arise, partnerships built on these principles can weather difficulties and get back on track.
For principal companies seeking to expand into new markets, forming and managing partnerships effectively is not just an operational task—it’s a strategic necessity. The right partnership, established with care and managed with diligence, is a streamlined pathway for achieving sustained growth in many international markets.
