With just one day to go until Christmas, we find ourselves at the end of another year. We hope you have a great break and are looking forward to an exciting 2019.
Here at BIE, we’ve been taking a look back at the most viewed blog posts from 2018.
In case you missed any, here is a recap of the top five.
5. 7 skills needed to keep pace in business transformation
Business transformation is everywhere. Our 2018 survey revealed that 80% of organisations are going through a transformation of some nature. But successful business transformation requires knowing when to take action and how to keep pace during the transition. And in this blog post, we looked at what it takes to achieve that.
One of the most important qualities required is commercial thinking. Recognising the need for change is easy, but figuring out what you need to do and where you need to be is more difficult. And once you know what change needs to take place, you need emotional intelligence to manage the actual transition. The ability to identify the emotions and reactions of others is critical to effectively motivate and engage employees through change.
To learn about the other qualities required to keep pace during business transformation, read the full post here.
4. 7 steps to setting up as an interim manager
Interim management is a rapidly growing industry, with more and more people choosing it as a career choice. But making the leap from permanent to interim can be daunting. How do you make the move? What are the financial and legal considerations you need to make?
In this blog post, our consultants put their heads together to give you their key considerations and pointers for setting up as an interim manager. We covered all the essentials, from how to create a Limited Company, to how to get your accounts and paperwork in order, and how to successfully promote yourself as an interim.
If you’re looking to make the move to the world of interim management, you can find more details about how to get set up by reading the full post here.
3. The 4 qualities of transformational leaders
In this blog post, we looked at the key qualities that transformational leaders possess, and why they are so important when driving business transformation.
Most of the technical aspects of business transformation, such as governance and stakeholder engagement, can be to some extent learned. But the real gaps are around genuine leadership qualities - the type that can empower, motivate, and win hearts and minds.
Transformational leaders need to be able to convince and inspire people to join them in their pursuit of the new vision for the business. Even more than that, they need to get everyone thinking proactively about improvement and innovation. And as people may fear change, they need the emotional intelligence to connect with people and make considered decisions.
To learn more about what makes a transformational leader, read the full post here.
2. How to land bigger and better opportunities as an interim
This blog post, by Emma-Claire Kavanagh, came about as a result of a request from two of our newsletter subscribers, seasoned interims who wanted insights into how to be proactive with their career management and how to secure bigger roles.
Emma-Claire emphasised how important an interim’s personal network is in finding and securing new opportunities. You need people that know and trust you, who will have enough confidence in your ability to put your name forward and vouch for you when new opportunities arise.
However, she also points out that building relationships isn't just about showing up to every networking event, it’s people with genuine relationships with both colleagues and recruiters who have the best chance of landing the best opportunities.
For more details, you can view the full post here.
1. Business innovation: pros and cons of the Fast Follower approach
Innovation has been a big theme in 2018, with today’s highly competitive commercial landscape meaning most businesses need to look for new ways to drive revenue.
Here at BIE, we’ve explored in a number of blog posts how organisations are increasingly finding success in taking a more proactive approach to innovation. We also released our Innovation Healthcheck tool. If you haven’t already, you can access it here to find out how well equipped your company is to respond to threats and opportunities across your sector.
In the most viewed blog post of the year, we explored the fast follower approach. The fast follower approach allows organisations to avoid the mistakes of others before them - The fast movers - and then adopt best practice for a customer community already familiar with the innovative changes.
We discussed some of the pros and cons of the approach. The biggest benefit being that you get to observe and learn from the mistakes of those before you, and the potential downside being that if the fast mover succeeds, then you’ve missed out on a great opportunity. We also looked at some of the big-name fast followers - like Apple, Google, and Facebook - who have reaped the rewards of observing the mistakes of their predecessors.
There’s a lot to be said for the fast follower approach, but what does it take to be successful? Read the full post here to find out.
We’ll leave you with these thoughts, and look forward to seeing you in 2019!
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