Software Team – Page 8 – Management Events

April 10, 2020

Online Connections: A New Normal For Online Events

Events are considered ubiquitous in most industries, especially those that focus on B2B. In-person events and conferences have always been seen as the most effective way to build and connect with other decision-makers.

However, the current global pandemic with COVID-19 has forced physical events to a screeching halt. But the temporary halt of physical face-to-face meetings does not mean the end of business connections.

We understand businesses still need to network and communicate with each other, even though we can’t be in each other’s physical presence. As such, we want to push the boundaries of business conferences by experimenting with online events.

Meeting and Engaging In An Online Space

Unlike web seminars, where it’s often one-sided in terms of engagement, online summits and online conferences can be highly interactive while giving a similar look and feel to physical events.

The current situation regarding COVID-19 has forced everyone to be stuck at home and many executives are struggling to find ways to expand their professional network. Without a means to network and communicate, many organizations are missing out on opportunities to establish business connections.

As such, online events are quickly becoming the means of communicating and networking for decision-makers and industry leaders. Given the bleeding-edge nature of this technology, online events can become the ultimate networking platform for many solution providers and businesses in the future.

Those unfamiliar with online events might be hesitant to jump straight in. Thankfully, today’s online conferences act similarly to conventional conferences and can be highly engaging.

Those attending these online conferences have the luxury of deciding which streams or sessions to attend. And with the help of modern technology, you can engage with speakers via polls, chats, and even live Q&As.

Sign up as a member of our Executive Business Network Aurora Live, to connect with leading CxOs across Europe all year round.

The Same Winning Matchmaking Formula

One of the key factors that make our events unique is our business matchmaking sessions.

With the power of technology, the same formula can be applied to our online events. While you might not be able to give a handshake to potential business partners, you can establish important business connections online through our digital events.

And yes – you will still get keynotes, speaker panels, 1-to-1 meetings, and tailored content pre-and-after the event. The only difference is that everything will be delivered to you online, at the comfort of your home.

Establishing Business Connections Anywhere

With online events, the notion of “being at the right place, at the right time” is out the window.

While the majority of businesses practicing remote working or work-from-home initiatives, online summits will be an indispensable outlet for CEOs, CFOs, and other high-level executives to network with each other while still getting the latest industry insights from thought leaders and influential speakers.

This Is The New (Online) Normal

It can’t be overstated how impactful the effects of COVID-19 has been towards businesses and major industries around the world. The scramble to transition towards digital communications and means of networking is now a priority for many organizations looking to adapt to the situation.

While there’s no denying the power of a meeting someone in person that can spark new ideas and opportunities through naturally engaging conversations. Due to the viral nature of COVID-19, the way face-to-face meetings are done will have to change, at least for now.

It will take some time before people are confident enough to be part of major physical events. However, just as one door closes, another (online door) opens and these online events will be the main outlet for people who are still keen to network with other executives and gain the latest industry insights.

April 9, 2020

4 Tips To Maximize The Benefits of Online Events

For many executives, online events can be quite intimidating as there are a lot of moving parts that they might not be familiar with. Especially if they’ve only ever attended in-person events.

However, entrepreneurs, businesses, and solution providers are exploring new avenues of networking and online conferences/summits can become the ultimate networking platform for many executives given the current circumstances regarding COVID-19.

If you’re a first-timer, it’s can be hard trying to figure out ways to maximize the benefits of attending online events. To help you out, we’ve highlighted a few tips that you can put into action and help make your online event experience a success.

So, are you ready to maximize to benefits of online events?

Tip #1: Managing and Scheduling Your Time

One of the biggest problems with attending conferences is finding ways to manage your time. While you might think that having a completely online event allows you to be a bit lax when it comes to punctuality, think again.

Timing (and being on time) is still important and since all presentations or keynotes will be digital, you can expect it to start and end on time. This is why, when you have access to the event’s schedule, you should manage and decide which speaker or showcase that you want to attend to beforehand.

Do a quick research on the speakers and determine which ones are more likely to give you insights. Set up a reminder in your calendar for their presentations and the meetings that you want to attend, but don’t forget to leave room for any other seminars that you might be interested in joining.

The flexibility of an online event also means that you don’t need to rush to an event hall and miss out on any keynotes from being late. Even if you’re currently working from home, all you have to do is just prepare your laptop and log in at the right time. So, there are no excuses to be late!

Tip #2: Actively Participating and Constantly Engaging

We know face-to-face networking is the most sought-after experience for physical conferences but when you’re in a presentation or keynote, all forms of communication are on-hold and the experience tends to be one-sided. This makes it hard for you to discuss with others until the presentation is over and the floor is opened to the audience.

With online conferences, some of the most engaging and informative discussions can occur during the online presentation as attendees can actively participate by talking directly to the speaker or with each other.

Since you’re participating in the discussion in real-time, the presenters themselves and the moderators can see and react instantaneously to your comments and thoughts on the presentation without disruption. This gives you plenty of opportunities to gain insights directly from the speakers themselves.

Tip #3: Constantly Networking With Everyone

Online conferences/summits have a much wider geographical reach which allows attendees from all over the world to join the event. With that, you now have a deeper pool of people that you can network and develop business opportunities with.

Many deals and profitable business relationships start over (online) drinks at a conference event and you shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet with like-minded entrepreneurs, investors, event speakers, and event organizers to pitch yourself as a potential business partner.

Be active and participate in roundtable discussions, or our Campfire, and discuss with your peers and the speakers on the keynote presentation. By doing so, you’ll gain access to insights and industry knowledge that you normally wouldn’t get in a typical in-person conference.

Talk and engage with other attendees in the chat during a presentation. Exchange emails and social media links when you have your online 1-to-1 sessions. Follow up with each valuable connection that you’ve made during the events and fully optimize your online networking experience.

Tip #4: Taking Advantage of The (Digital) Convenience

Since larger conferences tend to have multiple sessions overlapping or running at the same time, you often have to choose which sessions you want to attend. This is why you need to take advantage of the unique conveniences that online events offer by having the ability to attend multiple sessions at once.

And the process is as simple as having multiple windows open for the session that you want to attend, and just switching between them when you want to move between the different keynote presentations.

Of course, a big convenience that online events offer is to remove the logistical issues that you often associate with physical events such as traveling, accommodation, and just having enough time for 1-to-1 meetings.

While it’s by no means able to completely replace physical events, you have greater conveniences as you have more access to different sessions and more time to network with the right people.

Final Thoughts

Gathering like-minded people in one location is one of the most powerful aspects of conferences and while online events might not be able to completely replicate the same face-to-face connections, you can still maximize the benefits of online events by following our actionable tips above.

April 9, 2020

How To Optimize Virtual Networking

Networking in online events is vastly different from the face-to-face interactions at live conferences and forums. When you’re missing the essential human contact and full body language, you’ll need to rely greatly on your content, presentation, and most importantly, active listening skills to ensure a great networking session.

Here are some tips on how you can optimize virtual networking at digital events and organize an effective online meeting.

Impression

In any face-to-face meeting, the first impression you set is critical, and the same is true for virtual networking. But it’s not just about the way you’re dressed.

As remote working increases and more sales are conducted through video conferences from the home or office, the environment you are calling from, both physical and online, becomes a part of your impression. This includes the smoothness of the video call.

Aside from a professional appearance, you should also ensure that:

You are familiar with your laptop or computer settings to prevent any technical or audio issues that may arise during your meeting with the decision-maker;
The online conferencing program is tested and set up in advance so that you know how to navigate through the application. You should also make sure that the application allows file and screen sharing so you can easily share information with your client;
Your headphone, webcam, and microphone are all in working order for a steady flow of communication;
All pop-up notifications are turned off to prevent distractions and accidentally sharing confidential or irrelevant information with your client. You might also consider putting your phone and messages on silent or Do Not Disturb mode as opposed to vibrate, which can still be picked up by your mic.

To minimize other potential interruptions or disturbance, set your conference call in a quiet area of your home or office. Additionally, pick a place with a neutral background and good lighting to show a professional image of yourself.

Content

As Cvent puts it, “In a virtual setting, your content is your event”, and the same applies in virtual networking.

In online meetings, you need to capture the full attention of your client. Therefore, your content needs to be both engaging and powerful. And the best way to do that is to ensure your content is appealing and applicable to the decision-maker and presented in a concise and easy-to-understand manner.

Visuals

Based on an article by SalesFuel, a verbal-only approach in online calls leads to less engagement and recollection of your message. In fact, 87% of sales representatives either rarely or never used visuals to engage the prospects during their online meetings.

Make your remote presentation more engaging by sharing your screen, which allows you to show your files, links, images, and presentation in real-time. Brief and engaging videos serve as an effective tool to highlight key aspects of your presentation, ensuring sustained interest from your clients, especially during CXO meetings where time is highly valued.

If you are doing a PowerPoint presentation, make sure that the slides are clean with minimal wordings, and use high-quality images to avoid pixelation. Also, don’t be afraid to draw or write on the slides to emphasize certain points. Movement on the screen captures the attention of your audience and helps to maintain their engagement level.

Narration

As with every story, your sales narration should have a beginning, a middle and an end, with some elements of suspense.

Rather than presenting cold hard facts on your slides, tie them all together into a continuous and intriguing thread of information. Your content should encourage your prospect to think so consider adding some open loops with questions or concepts that will be addressed at the end of your presentation.

Tone is another aspect you can optimize for your online sales meeting. Keep your tone energetic and enthusiastic. Emotion can be contagious and leaves a long-lasting impression. So while your prospect might not exactly remember your words, they will remember your passion and how you made them feel with your presentation.

Active Listening

Active listening is a vital part for every sales, regardless if it’s done online or physically. While you might want to showcase your solution and all its benefits, listening to your potential client is the basis for a solid interaction and will help you to better understand their needs.

Try to implement these points for effective active listening:

Maintain eye contact – Look at your webcam instead of the screen. It might be a subtle move, but looking directly at the camera gives the impression that you are looking at your client and builds a stronger connection.
Positive body language – Even during an online meeting, you should be aware of your body language, including your posture, facial expressions, and hand gestures. Use these non-verbal signals to project confidence and attentiveness. Also, keep an eye on your client’s body language if they are on video. Their gestures and expressions will indicate if they’re getting distracted or losing interest.
Seek clarification – Asking specific open-ended questions helps to ensure that you have a clear idea and understanding of your client’s needs and pain points. At the same time, encourage your prospect to ask questions so you can alleviate any concerns they may have.
Listen for the meaning – When the decision-maker is talking, don’t just listen to the facts. Go deeper to find the meaning, and possible opportunities, behind their words.
Give your full attention – Avoid thinking of your responses while the client is talking. Your facial expression will show on the video call if you are not 100% focused on what they are saying. Furthermore, inattention can cause you to miss out on key points of the discussion.

Adapting to virtual networking may be daunting for some salespeople. But by optimizing your online sales meeting, you can discover new ways to better serve and communicate with your clients while gaining opportunities to assist new prospects looking for solutions during tumultuous times.

April 3, 2020

10 TIPS FOR PLEASANT AND EFFECTIVE ONLINE MEETINGS

Digitalization has given businesses greater opportunities to connect and interact. However, it’s hard to beat a live interaction and discussion with a peer or a prospect to achieve the best results for your business. With that out of the way, we know there are situations where effective online meetings are the most feasible option due to schedules, travel times, or other unexpected situations.

Of course, there are certain challenges when it comes to to successful virtual meetings (or working remotely) that in-person teams and meetings breeze by. One example is that a physical face-to-face meeting allows you to swivel your chair around and ask someone about their digital strategy and fluidly continue the conversation with another person. Remote meetings require attendees to be more intentional with the way they communicate since everyone is basically on their own (online) island.

Few organizations feel prepared for large-scale remote meetings, but you can take steps to make the experience feel productive for large-scale remote meetings for both attendees and your organization.

So, how do you get the most out of a successful virtual meeting?

To get the most out of attending or running a online meeting, there are some common practices that the attendees and meeting chairperson should follow to optimize each other’s time. Let’s take a look at some of the best practices that you can take to make your online meeting a success:

1. Be Prepared

Alexander Graham Bell once said, “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success“. With online meetings, whether it’s 1-2-1 or with a huge group, it’s always a good practice to make sure the agenda and preparations are provided beforehand, along with instructions on the online meeting solution. This will allow attendees to be prepared for the online meeting and be as productive as possible throughout the session.

2. Get (Online) In Early

Online meeting or not, it’s just good etiquette to be early for your meetings. But in an online setting, it’s best to be online early to sort out any problems or kinks (such as internet connection, screen sharing functions, webcams, etc.). Ask the attendees to log in 5 minutes before the meeting starting time to get everyone settled in.

3. Break The Ice

When connecting with new people, or in larger groups, the atmosphere might feel less interactive.. It’s times like these that you (or the chairperson) should take an initiative to kickstart the meeting with some icebreakers – make people smile or even laugh to get everyone loose and ready!

4. Outline The Plan

After the attendees are accounted for and once everyone has managed to catch-up and be prepared, it’s time to do the online meeting itself. Before the discussion, however, it’s best to clarify the purpose and goal for the meeting – this is to keep everyone on the same page and focused. With a concrete plan outlined, it’ll be easier for the chairperson to navigate the direction of the meeting.

5. Marking The Minutes

When everyone starts talking in an online meeting, it can be easy for some attendees to get lost in the conversation and not hear everything. Appointing someone to take the meeting minutes that’s shared after the meeting will help remind everyone of the main key points of the meeting. Ideally, the chairperson would be the one to take the meeting minutes but you can appoint anyone who is up to the task.

6. Leading And Steering Conversations

If you’re doing a 1-2-1 online meeting, you can easily keep track and lead the conversation. However, if you’re running an online meeting with a lot of attendees, you’ll need someone to keep everyone focused. The chairperson who runs the agenda should also keep the time – also be ready to park items if the discussion flows to the outside of the core topic – and get back to this separately with the people needed. That way, no matter where the conversation goes, you can always come back to the main topic.

7. Keep Everyone Involved

Online meetings offer great flexibility in that you can have as many people as possible in the meeting itself. But, if there are too many people in a meeting, you’re bound to have someone who’s not able to contribute as much or be as active in the discussion. Make sure that everyone is actively participating – those who do not comment, have the chairperson (or you) actively ask their point of view on the topic/discussion.

8. Actions, Decisions, And Conclusions

Remember that the whole point of an online meeting is to make it as productive and as efficient as you would in a face-to-face meeting. That means getting as much done as possible when it comes to the main topic that you’re focusing on. During the meeting, make sure the agenda items reach decisions, conclusions or follow-up actions – steer the conversation to possible solutions and outcomes.

9. Wrapping-up The Meeting

A good practice to have is to recap everything that you’ve discussed, 10 minutes before the meeting ends, to ensure that everyone is up to speed with everything. Start to wrap up with “what we decided today” and go through the things which need follow-up or action, by whom and when – make sure that a name and date are attached to each agreed item so that someone will be responsible for further action.

10. Following It Up

Hopefully, by the end of the online meeting, you and your attendees were productive discussions. If there are more things that you need to discuss, book follow-up meetings if needed and have it in everyone’s agendas. Make sure the minutes are shared so that everyone knows the discussion points for the next meeting.

Bonus Point: Thank-Yous To Everyone

After a successful online meeting, send a thank-you note to the attendees for having good participation and ideas in the discussions! Not only will your attendees feel grateful to receive a personalized thank-you note, but they’ll also be more encouraged to contribute in future online meetings.

Face-to-face meetings can be a powerful tool for businesses, but online meetings can be just as effective if you follow the 10 points we’ve listed out. A well-thought-out agenda, keeping the time, and making sure the momentum stays high with some smilemaking – you can have an effective, pleasant, and fun online meeting with a productive outcome!

March 20, 2020

Sergej Berendsen: Digitalization Through Facts And People

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, digitalization is no longer a choice – it’s an indispensable necessity.

For independent IT consulting firm, Metri, digitalization has always been championed by the company with hard facts as its base foundation. Sergej Berendsen, the General Manager of Metri, shares with Management Events on pursuing agility and digital transformation for business success.

Providing The Right Value

Decades after the arrival of the digital era, some companies are still researching and debating on digitally revamping their businesses. But for Metri, digital innovation is part and parcel of the company’s culture.

“Metri is highly digitized,” Berendsen states, “and has been a data-driven company from its incubation.”

As a provider of IT solutions, Metri’s mission is to utilize the effective combination of facts and people to come up with the right digital strategy that will create the desired efficiency, agility and value for their customers.

Berendsen explains that through IT solutions and fact-based principles, Metri helps clients to “further their digital strategy with IT benchmarking, IT sourcing, and data intelligence for application, portfolio and change management.”

Business Digitalization

Various industries have embraced disruptive innovations and digital transformation into their business strategy. However, the evolution is not just limited to large, global enterprises as even SMEs and startups are adopting new-generation IT strategies.

“Many of our customers can’t live without IT and their digital footprint is growing rapidly,” Berendsen remarks.

“Digital-first business models are more the norm than ever before.”

In fact, according to statistics compiled by FinancesOnline, “70% of organizations have a digital transformation strategy or are working on one.” This is further reiterated by IDC’s prediction that more than 50% of IT spending by companies will be focused on digital innovation by 2024.

But what do businesses need to ensure a sound and solid IT strategy?

For Metri, data is of utmost importance. Performance analysis, organizational structure, key figures, benchmark data – all these are necessary in order to improve agility and define IT improvements and optimum potentials for the company.

“Agility without facts and insights is like navigating in the dark.“

Berendsen further explains that, “More and more clients recognize the need for factual governance in an agile business world.”

The economic cost of implementing a digital strategy is also an underlying factor to consider, which is why Metri offers its IT benchmarking service, such as market price assessment of IT services and IT service cost study.

One example Berendsen cites is on the cost effectiveness of cloud technology. “Cloud is a great opportunity, but cost will quickly go out of control without proper cloud economics.”

Embracing Agility

To drive digitalization, a company must first become truly agile, which is the ability to respond rapidly to change. With new technologies continuously emerging, businesses need to establish change into the organization’s culture and routine to take full advantage of innovational opportunities.

“Agile will provide the greatest opportunity as a business game-changer.“

As observed by Berendsen, “Agile offers the ability to respond to the needs of the client, and as an enabler to embrace new technology and platforms.”

But many businesses are apprehensive about the transition into digitalization due to fear of making the first move or of failing in their transformation strategy.

On this matter, Berendsen comments that, “An agile, forward- and customer-facing, and learning-focused mindset is universal. However, in a digital world, one can fail faster, so one must (re-)act faster. Failure should be incorporated into the culture as a change to do better.”

Towards Customer Experience

The end goal of digital transformation for many organizations is usually to push ahead of the competition and to advance their operations. But few businesses realize that boosting the digitalization of their systems and processes can improve the services they provide to their clients.

By being agile and continuously integrating digital innovations into their organization, businesses can improve efficiency and communication, increase personalization, alleviate pain points, and provide more value. From robotics and automation to machine learning and cloud computing, having the right technologies and digital capabilities can lead to the delivery of unmatched customer satisfaction.

“Digital delivers nothing extra without proper use,” Berendsen states.

“The question businesses should ask is: What great customer experience can be delivered or achieved if you add digital into the equation?“

The push for enhanced customer experience can clearly be seen in Metri, where customer satisfaction is a top priority, and helping companies to get the best returns from their IT investment is the company’s core motive.

Leading The Change

Organizational culture change is a concerning factor for businesses launching digital initiatives. As the business landscape progresses towards digital transformation, many organizations have or are facing resistance to the transition from their workforce and even the management.

It’s critical, then, for leaders to design a comprehensive and well-planned digital strategy that focuses on specific areas that need to be updated, and to set realistic goals and expectations of the digital shift. Communication to the workforce is also key to building confidence and motivating them to take up the challenge.

“Focus on client and market needs, and define clear goals that are translated into KPIs and actionable plans.“

Berendsen also advises business leaders to,“keep discipline up in moving towards the goals, and build and measure team effectiveness. Remove impediments quickly and embrace failure.”

Aside from employee resistance, lack of management support is also a deterrent to innovation, and companies must seek to continuously improve their “leadership’s ability to change and improve themselves.”

“Too often, senior leadership will talk the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk,” Berendsen comments. “Change from below is often too slow and gets bogged down in the middle layer.”

He further advises, “Senior leadership can pave the way but they need to change as well.”

Beyond Digitalization 2020

It’s a common misconception that digital transformation is purely about upgrading technology. In truth, real digitalization is about organizational agility and adaptability. It’s about building digital intelligence and capabilities, and having a solid change management framework.

To keep pace with the changes, companies must be disruptive in their own right by efficiently harnessing data, people and technology for a successful and sustainable digital transformation.

March 16, 2020

Creating A Winning Momentum When Leading A Team Remotely

Sometimes, for various reasons, your team might need to work remotely; they may be scattered in multiple locations, travel a lot, or in exceptional situations such as now with the COVID-19. And working remotely requires a special sort of mindset. Especially with sales, having the right momentum and winning culture is essential to keep up as a leader if you want your team to win and stay focused together.

With the unexpected situation that COVID-19 has brought upon, many leaders and managers lack clear guidance on how to ready their team to remain effective and driven during a global pandemic event. To maintain that winning momentum, managers need to take steps that can maximize the effectiveness of remote work during these extreme situations.

Some best practices from us at Management Events – We have collected some actionable tips for you to get things going or boosted!

Tip #1: Prepping Your Weekly Rhythm

How you start and end your team’s week will dictate how your momentum goes throughout, so it’s best to set the rhythm right. Start Monday with a big sales team meeting to get everyone on the same page and then end the week with a wrap-up on Friday so the whole team will be aware of each other’s progress.

Tip #2: Kickstarting A Productive Monday

Monday meetings should be the time for your sales team to set their forecast and targets, share any general news, and give updates on any on-going projects and deals. It’s also a good time to touch base with team members and see how they are doing.

Tip #3: Setting up 1-2-1 (Virtual) Meetings

Keeping the entire team’s winning spirit high should be a major focus for managers and team leads but you should not overlook 1-2-1 meetings with each team member. Set a time for individual 1-2-1 virtual meetings for each member on dedicated time and pre-agreed agenda. Use this time to cover any important topics or catch up on individual progress. It’s a good idea to have a pre-list of topics to discuss or decide before having your virtual meeting.

Tip #4: Celebrating Your Team Wins

Just because your sales team is working remotely, it doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate your team’s winnings and milestones. If you’re using digital channels such as Slack or Teams, create a “deal-in” channel where people can post successful big deals and any moments that can be celebrated as a win by the team.

Tip #5: Making A Channel For Everyone

Working remotely, you miss out on the ability to socialize and bond with team members to improve teamwork. Thankfully, with digital channels such as Slack or Teams, you can create channels also for non-formal teams; to share news, fun stuff, or free-time activities. This will keep the camaraderie high between team members and encourages effective communication.

Tip #6: Encouraging Competition Within The Teams

Competitions (friendly or otherwise) can be a great way to motivate your teams, even they are working remotely. Meeting bookings, offer creations, first target–think what would trigger your team to work harder and achieve the desired outcome for the week.

Tip #7: Wrapping Up On Friday

Conduct a sales team wrap-up on Friday to close out the week with a big meeting so that everyone is aware of each other’s progress, successes, milestones, and on-going projects. If your sales team misses the forecast, discuss what happened and why, wrap it up, and start the following week with a clean sheet.

Tip #8: Welcoming The Weekend With A Message

After a week of hard work from the teams, send everyone a Friday greetings email to end the week. It can be something as simple as a short, written note from the team lead or manager to thank everyone, highlight any milestones, and to wish everyone a good weekend. This puts the team members in a good mood and stays energized for another week of productive remote work.

Bonus Tip: Keeping Up Productivity Through Digital Dashboards

Productivity dashboards offer a great way for leads and managers to encourage team members in achieving weekly goals and target forecasts. Asana and Trello are some of the more popular platforms that you can use to keep your team’s productivity on point. Of course, you can also your own custom dashboard to mark your team’s weekly progress.

Every team will probably have their own best practices (and some that did not work in remote work), still, it’s useful to assess the methods and routines now and then to see if it’s still allowing your team to keep your winning momentum going. Involve the team in the planning–what they wish to implement, how they can benefit from it or if they feel it’s not needed. Alter their suggestions if necessary and then take it into practice.

Before you know it, your team will be in the winning momentum, even if they are working remotely!

March 16, 2020

Decision-Making In Times Of Crisis

As a leader, how can you give clarity and make good decisions when the unexpected hits your organization?

The best way is to take one step at a time. First, take stock of the situation by talking with your team, advisors, and colleagues. If you’re the CEO, discuss with the board as well. Then it’s time for thinking, considering options and planning scenarios.

So how do you consider the angles and make the best decision possible?

Being Resilient

The two key factors of resilience, and bouncing forward from an unexpected situation, are flexible thoughts and social flexibility.

Having flexible thoughts means moving away from the usual ‘this is how it has always been done’ methods, and challenging your thinking to solutions which might even feel impossible. The latter key factor, social flexibility, stands for seeking advice with genuine intention to consider the inputs received, not to strengthen one’s own beliefs.

At the end of the day, decisions are needed to steer your team forward. Indecisiveness, especially during a crisis, drains and defuses energy for everyone involved.

Steps To Making Decisions During A Crisis

Talk with your team – Be honest about your concerns and insecurities, but present at least a couple of options that you have considered. Do they agree? Would they add something totally different? Why? Take time for these discussions.
Reach out to your network – The world is now full of leaders who are contemplating on various decisions for their organization. Peer support and acting as sounding boards to one another can be more valuable than ever.
Keep daily notes – Keep track of team meetings, discussions and the development of key items. You might start to find patterns or problem-solving sequences from the earlier meetings you had.
Don’t be afraid to alter – If the situation changes, you can always come back from a decision. It’s not a mistake to pull back from one if the outlook or future shifts, especially if a possibly bigger risk may occur when sticking to a decision.
Prioritize yourself – Your organization needs your leadership and presence. Sleep, exercise, plug off to relax your thoughts – quality decision-making suffers quickly when we are sleep-deprived, stressed and anxious. You’ll be doing your people a huge favor by making sure you appear on the morning video conference with a smile and greeting them with confidence.

Getting used to short-term planning with long-term recovery and success in mind is a new situation for many.

Keeping a diary of these weeks and months can benefit you largely in the future. New routines, practices, and in the best case, innovations will come out from this massive learning opportunity that all leaders of the world are currently facing.

Let’s do our best to capture the good outcomes of this situation while we fight the crisis!

March 15, 2020

Digitalization Disruption For Consulting 4.0

As the world undergoes waves of digital transformations, Wouter Aten, a Business Unit Manager for BAS Consultancy, talks to Management Events about the strategic development of the company during this era of innovative technologies.

In our interview, Aten provides deep insights into the shifts brought by digitalization upon the financial consulting industry and its customers, and discusses how BAS Consultancy is leading the change into Consulting 4.0.

1. Digital technology has disrupted various industries across the world, causing a shift even in the consulting landscape. How has digitalization changed your business and services?

When BAS Consultancy started out as a traditional staffing agency 21 years ago, the need for secondment, or a temporary transfer of a worker to another employment, mainly existed during moments when extra support was needed.

Such instances include peak loads, heavy backlogs, new projects, lack of specific knowledge, reorganizations, mergers, and any other reason which could cause discontinuity of the finance department.

While these situations are still the main reasons for organizations to hire personnel through secondment, the offer of secondment and its accessibility has changed drastically over time, mainly due to the digitalization of the world around us.

Social media, such as LinkedIn, and online job boards make it easier for customers to get in contact with multiple suppliers, and to perform a quick and effective benchmark before making the decision to hire a secondment from a staffing agency.

To efficiently deal with the fast-moving environment, BAS Consultancy has made the change from offering general finance services to providing specialized finance services. By doing so, we aim to deliver our service from a more expert position and deliver more value to our customers.

2. Digital transformation has also changed the requirements of customers in many organizations. How do you think digitalization has changed your customers?

Before digitalization took its prominent place in business and society, the ratio between operational and analytical employees at most of our clients’ businesses used to be evenly balanced. However, an increasing number of operational tasks are now automated and/or digitalized.

Through these changes, we also noticed a shift in the needs of our customers – when hiring temporary staff nowadays, our clients are looking for more analytical-experienced candidates, instead of candidates with experience on modern techniques. By hiring staff with this expertise, our clients enable themselves to take the first step into digitalization or create awareness on the many possibilities that digitalization has to offer for their company.

Aside from the changing needs in hiring temps, our customers are also showing increased interest in new technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA). In many cases, this interest rises after a customer discovers that a competitor is already using a similar technology.

The effects of implementing technologies like RPA on, for example, the accounts receivable/payable processes can be significant. Depending on the quantity of the incoming and outgoing invoices, RPA implementation can bring numerous advantages to these processes, such as error reduction, better efficiency, higher productivity, better accuracy, and lower costs.

3. Digital transformation has often been accredited with increasing customer experience. What is the role of digital capabilities in delivering great customer experience?

Digitalization can enhance the customer experience of organizations in various ways.

Communications, for example, will experience a boost by being more precise and easily accessible.This, in turn, will impact the convenience for customers by getting them the service they need quicker and more effectively.

Next to that, digital transformation also enables organizations to setup self-service options, which allow customers to be in complete control of their service requests. By implementing feedback options and utilizing the feedback, organizations are able to engage better with their customers and continuously improve their services to deliver on expectations.

4. Among all the technology-related trends, which do you expect to be the biggest game-changer, and what does it mean to your business?

When it comes to digitalization, all technology-related trends can be seen as a big game-changer.

As for what it means to our business – BAS Consultancy acts as a business partner in the setup and execution of digitalization programs, with a specific focus on finance and talent management. Our consultants are highly educated and able to advise organizations in their digital ambitions from a technical point of view.

Next to that, BAS Consultancy can deliver secondment services to facilitate an environment that enables the organizations to make changes without causing disruption, and in doing so, enabling them to maintain their talent.

5. As with every emerging trend, digital transformation has its own pros and cons. What do you see as the greatest opportunities and threats of digitalization?

The greatest opportunity of digitalization for our clients is the increase of revenues while reducing costs. Based on a research by McKinsey that was released in November 2018, companies working within the field of financial services could add up to 45% to their annual net revenue by executing a digital transformation. From the addition, 15% comes from enhanced product uptake while the remaining 30% is from reduced operational costs.

Meanwhile, the greatest threat can be found in the so-called ‘Digital Divide’. By taking big steps in digitalization, some companies are already far ahead of their competitors. While this will most likely add value in the short-term, it might be a downfall in the long run.

Digitalization is affected by various factors – income, education, geographic location, and politics. These factors may lead to a situation wherein digitalization leads to bankruptcy for the companies that do not have the power and/or capacity to make the same high-paced changes as their competitors.

On the other hand, it could lead to a situation wherein companies that have made big changes are forced to take a step back in their digitalization program. This situation might be inevitable to ensure not to lose the connection with clients and/or partners who might not yet be on the same digital level and to be able to guarantee the delivery of services as promised.

Another digital divide can occur when a digitalization program does not pay enough attention to talent management. Talent management strategies should evolve alongside the digital transformation of organizations to ensure that minimal disruption occurs within the organization.

6. In your opinion, how has digitalization changed talent/competency needs?

Before digitalization became a trend, organizations mainly focused on attracting talent with the right technical skills or specific educational background. Digitalization has changed this focus, whereby soft skills are being seen as the main point of focus.

This is a logical development as digital transformations require teams and employees to be able to tackle new tasks, perform interdisciplinary work, and work together with other departments.

There are a few soft skills we can highlight, which are crucial to have aboard:

Critical thinking – This skill helps to define and solve new problems that might pop-up during the transformation. Good interpretation of data is key with this soft skill, along with the ability to reason and draw conclusions.
Complex communication – Clear communication of complex changes is a crucial element. By mastering (complex) communication, employees will be able to explain the upcoming changes in a way that creates trust and ease in the transformation.
Flexibility and adaptation – Due to the uncertainties of digital transformation, your team needs to be flexible and adaptable to changing situations so you can focus more on realizing organizational changes, instead of managing change.
Productivity and accountability – For successful change, productivity and accountability need to be high within the team. By investing in the right people, you can build a team that thrives and helps move the company forward faster.

7. What are the biggest issues hindering companies from fully digitizing themselves or fully exploiting digital opportunities? What do you think should be done?

It takes big changes for an organization to become fully digitized. To get to this point, significant investments have to be made without a guaranteed or immediate effect on the ROI. This causes many organizations to sit back and wait to see how it works out for other organizations before they make the ‘leap of faith’.

To have more certainty when investing in digitalization, organizations must make strategic decisions on what element to invest in first. Many organizations start off their digitalization by focusing on organizational elements that have a lot of customer interaction, such as marketing and distribution.

This is a logical way of thinking, but this might not be the focus that will bring your organization direct results or the results you are looking for through digitalization. Drill down the organizational elements that you want to digitalize, research which of these items will add the most value to your organization, product or service, and start from there.

Additionally, governments and regulators can play a big role in encouraging and stimulating digitalization. By providing a general set of rules that reflects the values and preferences of the society, they can limit or even take away potential negative consequences that might hold organizations back from taking the step.

This, however, involves effort and change from the governments and regulators. Their current regulatory frameworks might be lacking agility to keep up with the continuously evolving technologies, and might be the first element they will have to re-evaluate before the world can become fully digitized.

8. As a Business Unit Manager for BAS Consultancy, what do you think it takes for a leader to lead the digital transformation? What important issues should a business leader concentrate on?

Expertise

To be able to execute a digital transformation, a good combination of talent and technology is needed. To create such a workforce, it is crucial to make sure the team is digitally literate and that training is provided to ensure that the right skills are present. If the expertise is not available internally, this might be the perfect moment to reach out to a business partner, such as BAS Consultancy, to obtain the skills that are needed.

Strategy

When executing a digital transformation, a solid strategy is the key to success. The digital strategy should focus on the technology used to improve business performance and the impact it has on the organization. Next to that, the strategy should set out the direction the organization will take as well as a tactical plan to achieve the intended changes.

People and Culture

Digital transformation is built on change, and brings a lot of uncertainty and discomfort to employees. While it might feel like a big threat to most employees, not changing might be the biggest threat to them in reality.

It is impossible for a leader to take away all the concerns of their employees, but a leader is able to lighten their worries through transparency and consistency. As the leader during a digital transformation, empower your employees through engagement, and give them a clear picture of what they are working towards and what’s in it for them.

Analytics

Information is becoming an asset for many organizations, and a good interpretation of your organization’s and/or customers’ data can have a significant impact on the way you are able to act on your customers’ needs. But where do you start? Nowadays, there is more data to collect than ever before, but if you fail to analyze the right data, it could lead to a disaster.

Before starting your digital transformation, make sure that the systems you are using now are future-proof and capable of executing the analysis you need to keep improving. Good analytics lead to better decision making, which is highly valuable to get the most out of the transformation.

March 15, 2020

Making Remote Teamwork Fun – Is It Possible?

The short answer: Absolutely!

However, for companies who are used to a socially active environment, working remotely might get challenging after the adjusting-to-the-new-environment period is over. And many factors can affect productivity and the winning momentum of a team when working from home.

One of those important factors is to figure out how to keep up the social and informal aspects–how to enable and encourage the “coffee machine talks” and other social contacts when teams go virtual.

For Management Events, we’ve implemented homeworking initiatives and discovered a few findings from the last weeks that our teams have put in place:

Check-in with teams every day – Each team has morning check-in and afternoon check-out where everyone dials in with video on to see each other and discuss plans for the day and on findings, learnings, and outcomes. Having a routine to see your colleagues again brings structure and care when working from home.
Morning check-in can start with “Let me show my crib” – a view at each team member’s home office, how it is set up, and sharing a routine from the day – many innovations can come out of a suddenly new situation!
Walking to work – team members who live in the surroundings of and easy access to nature, and are remote enough from other people–often go out for a 30-minute walk, the plans for the day are discussed while getting a good dose of fresh air.
Have Team Lunch on Zoom or Teams – sharing what was made for lunch, sharing easy and delicious recipes to cook from their home office. With Zoom or Teams, you can still socialize with team members by discussing how to keep healthy and enjoy the lunch break together.
Virtual Friday Bar – Wrap up the week over a drink from your home office, your balcony, sofa or even your garden – sharing weekend plans, saying thank you for the week and winding off from the office hustle. This can be just a 15-minutes chat to end the week together with a positive note!

Consider also establishing a virtual coffee machine or “lounge” in Zoom or Teams – a space where anyone from the office can pop by for a cup of coffee, chat about work or non-work related things and take a break from the routines. Sharing experiences of the new situation is important for all, to cope with the lack of seeing one another for some while.

And finally, make room to celebrate each small and big success during these times, share the good news actively and encourage people to congratulate each other in any of the channels and methods they see fits best! Virtual cards, flowers, and hugs will surely make the colleagues’ day!

March 14, 2020

Kan technologie HR menselijker maken?

In een tijdperk waarin technologie in alle aspecten van ons leven is doorgedrongen blijkt het binnen HR toch nog moeilijk om de volledige potentie van technologie te benutten. Vanuit de core HR systemen worden er steeds meer processen geautomatiseerd en soms zijn er zelfs hele moderne toepassingen, maar het blijft toch wat behelpen.

Het lijkt dat HR last blijft houden van een erfenis vanuit de tijd dat HR personeelszaken heette en vooral gericht was op de administratieve functies met betrekking tot het personeel.

Hoe kunnen we voorbij procesautomatisering denken? En is het mogelijk de medewerker centraal te stellen in de toepassing van technologie binnen het HR domein?

De effectiviteit van technologie wordt voor een groot deel bepaald door de intelligentie (kunstmatig of niet), gebruikte data en de gebruikerservaring of userexperience van de toepassing. Wanneer we de juiste mix vinden van die drie elementen kunnen we de beschikbare technologie echt gaan benutten.

Het voordeel is dat we binnen HR beschikken over veel data, misschien niet in elk bedrijf even veel en vaak minder dan we zouden willen. Maar toch, veel data. We weten heel veel van de medewerker en van zijn of haar tijd binnen onze organisatie. Als we dit combineren met een slimme manier om met die data om te gaan, kunnen we inschatten wat er bij de medewerker speelt. Zijn we vervolgens ook nog in staat om de medewerker te vragen wat zijn probleem of vraag is op een manier die aansluit bij hoe we inmiddels gewend zijn te communiceren dan begint het ergens op te lijken.

Vaak ligt achter een specifieke vraag van een medewerker een aantal procedures verscholen. In plaats van de medewerker te wijzen op de te volgen procedures, of nog erger, de medewerker zelf te laten bedenken welke procedures er van toepassing zijn kunnen we de medewerker helpen het probleem op te lossen.

Stel, een medewerker wil parttime werken. We weten dat de medewerker een leaseauto heeft, een opleiding volgt etc. Op de vraag ‘wat betekent het als ik parttime ga werken.’ Kan vervolgens vrij makkelijk op basis van data, arbeidsvoorwaardelijke en andere regelingen bepaald worden wat de effecten zijn voor de medewerker. Bijvoorbeeld een hogere eigen bijdrage voor de auto, het effect op bedrijfstijd die aan de studie besteed mag worden en de effecten op de verschillende arbeidsvoorwaarden. En dit alles zonder dat er verschillende gesprekken gevoerd moeten worden met verschillende HR medewerkers die voor deze onderdelen verantwoordelijk zijn. Op basis van deze kennis kan HR in gesprek gaan met de medewerker om te kijken naar zijn of haar wensen en meedenken over alternatieven. Misschien ligt achter de vraag om parttime werken wel een ander vraag, misschien is het maar tijdelijk en misschien kan het worden opgelost door verlof bij te kopen.

Zo kunnen we verschillende events in de employee journey bedenken die we kunnen herkennen en ondersteunen door middel van technologie en vervolgens in een volwassen en gelijkwaardig gesprek kunnen afhandelen. Dit geeft niet alleen een geweldige employee experience voor de medewerker, maar ook voor de HR medewerker die tenslotte ook liever problemen oplost dan procedures uitvoert. Door op deze manier te denken vanuit de medewerker, zijn we echt in staat om HR menselijker te maken door gebruik te maken van technologie.