It’s 2016 – Time for The New Year’s Resolutions

Hey there! Today is the last day of 2015 and tomorrow will be the first one of 2016! I know, this isn’t a scoop, right?

But wait, HERE IS A SCOOP: Did you know that more than a half of the Sub-Saharan companies haven’t established the “Company’s Year’s Resolutions” culture?

So, we have assembled some resolutions we think to be good for your company, your client’s companies and/or partners’ companies.

For Management

• Set realistic goals for your company, people and machines included
  • Implement metrics, measure and tackle everything that’s not working
  • Rely on ERPs for management, they always make things simple, yeah !
  • Do not micro-manage: set goals as of the means, workload and planning
  • Do not make heavy reportings: structured and lightweight reports are easy to process
  • Pick a coach for your management team, very especially for the CEO and/or Chairman
• Make your company’s organizational chart
  • Know who is in your company and what they are there for
  • Show your customers and partners you know who they are supposed to work with
  • Categorize your customers and partners, and the activities done with each
  • Take care of your organized teams – Talent Management makes it all at all stages
• Promote your business and business values regularly
  • Invest in a modern/ new website. Well, when it has content and looks nice, it inspires!
  • Invest in a social media covers. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and kind aren’t just for competitors!
  • Publish about your Corporate and HR policies. Your employees and partners are just some clicks away, let them know what they can gain in working with you!
  • Participate in specialized conferences, forums and events. If you stay in your office, none will make efforts to know more about you!

For Finance

• Engage less credits and search for inner growth
  • Challenge your bankers and investors
  • Hire only those people who matter
  • Limit marketing fees: Happy customer is the answer
  • Pay off your previous debts first! Only States can live over-debted
  • Plan your budget: Don’t underestimate your costs, but neither don’t spend more than you have
• Know more about your SWOT, yes all of the 4!
  • Your product is your strenght, take care of it with R&D
  • Look at your competitors. Once you close your eyes, you’ll know more about your weakenesses
  • Opportunities and Threats are both in and out your current environment. African companies can be UBERIZED as well!
  • Look at the Consulting industry. Asking for assistance, help and consultancy is a Force. And most of all, it allows saving more than you spend!
• Assess your Operational Risks
  • Review and most importantly, challenge your insurance policy
  • Create an internal emergency fund. Better rely on external resources when your company is in good health, ready to manage
  • Rely on your data histroy. There’s much it can tell you. The most important being: How the company managed to be up to 2016, positively or negatively!
  • Establish a regular and clear activity reporting at all stages, most importantly those stages you think of only when it comes to bills
  • Hahah, this one is very important: Do your taxes early. There are many stories of successful businesses which closed in 2015 because of being late in paying taxes (local and Pan-African). Don’t figure on the 2016’s list! No, not just for that!

For Technology

• Get energy effective in your day-to-day Technology use
  • Use oil monitong and management solutions. This way you will automatically have metrics on your oil consumption (where, why and which activity).
  • Rely on green and solar power solutions as backup sources of energy. Prices are lowering and more and more companies invested in. Why not test? For your good and the good of the Planet!
  • Allow people to BYOD and even encourage them to get new and modern devices. Make your employees happier and more productive as they get into their comfortable working environment
  • I know for this one, many people will think our teams went just crazy but, seriously why don’t you test the REMOTE OFFICE. Allow your people avoid traffic jam and get happy while working from home or other specialized offices!
• Get smart, secure and assets-protected
  • Get all of your employees into the password management and 2 factors-authentication era. Of course, the second one may be needed only for those who need to access to highly sensitive data. You know who we are talking of, right?
  • Rely on more and more flexible solutions. The cloud is the African companies’ new shortcut to using more technology and thus gain competitiveness. World renowed cloud operators have initiated plans for Africa and if you don’t know where to start, Consultancy is there to help!
  • Backup your data and IT. Even when relying on the cloud to work, you will need a backup solution of your data and IT infrastructure, this includes your PCs, Laptops, smartphones and servers. If it looks hard for you to realize all that work, it can be good to hear that automated solutions exist and they get cheaper from day to day!
  • Be smart and do not accept (again?!) to be fooled. And so go your employees. No offence intended, of course, but your human assets are the weakest component in your computer’s defences. Prepare them to the massive quantity of scams, phishing, malwares that are heading to the continent. No doubt that in 2016 we will hear many companies attacked, work on insuring it is not you out there, reading this!
• Establish (Revamp) your IT Master Plan
  • Technology is evolving in Africa on the same pace (and sometimes, more rapidly) than it is outside the continent, so make sure you get all those new features and tech solutions in your IT Roadmap. Kick the tires on new technologies and get them to help you.
  • Get into the new age of the African Tech industry: Include more the apps than desktop software. People in your company are more mobile than you think and the 3G/4G mobile solutions implemented in the cities are allowing this. Mobile is the Future, not only overseas but in your country as well, yes in your company to get it up to the end!
  • Adopt strategy and technology that focus on monitoring, and thus on preventing than those which focus on maintenance. Your preference should go for automated solutions, which may be somehow expensive but remember, they may save your teams’ time and headaches, making them more productive on the other hand. Plus, this way you almost know what to fix when things aren’t going right!
  • Train your people as for the IT-related education. When we say, your people, we mean all of your employees, not only the IT techies. Of course, the trainings to be followed will range from basic knowledge (how to face Social Engineering, for example) to heavy ERP, core business (HR, Finance…), ITSM (IT support, Production enhancement) or Project (PMP, Prince2) related trainings.

Whatever your situation, one or more points in this list will be aligned with your current or soon-to-come challenges. It has been prepared with the contribution of our various teams and from all of the countries we operate in, including the ones who published it at 6 P.M on 31/12/2015 – La Saint-Sylvestre, as they say in French!

We seize the opportunity to wish you, on behalf of all of our teams, partners and our management, a HAPPY NEW YEAR, the 2016, with all good resolutions to make your business a successful one!

If you want to give us a feedback or just to say hello, you know what to do: Chat with us from the button in the left corner down or use our form here. You still can join us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

We look forward to work together with you in getting your business to the next level.

CONVERGENCIUM LTD. TEAMS