Operations Management: What You Need to Know in 2021

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StrategyDriven Tactical Execution Article | Operations Management: What You Need to Know in 2021Operations managers have a tough and challenging role, particularly in 2021. As we move towards a ‘new normal’, businesses are facing unexpected obstacles. As a result, innovation and ingenuity is more important than ever before. If you’re working in operations management, or you aspire to become an operations supervisor, take a look at some of the challenges you’ll be facing in 2021:

1. Supply Chain Uncertainty

There’s no doubt that supply chains were significantly impacted by COVID-19. Although firms were quick to respond to the upheaval, many companies remain concerned about the vulnerability of lengthy supply chains. However, the competing demands of globalization mean that long supply chains are often essential or advantageous.

Operations managers and supply chain managers can overcome this particular challenge by partnering with leading logistics firms. Choosing a logistics provider who can offer a wide range of transportation, such as HLOGCAM, ensures a variety of supply routes can be accessed at short notice. In addition to this, using more than one mode of transportation enables companies to have greater control over the speed at which their goods and shipments are moved from one location to another.

2. Cost Cutting

The on-going impact of the coronavirus pandemic means that millions of companies are slashing their budgets. After a year of disrupted cash flow and trading restrictions, it’s not surprising that firms are being forced to rethink their expenditure. While reducing costs and maintaining productivity has always been a key objective for businesses, it’s fast becoming a critical aspect of their long-term survival.

Within operations management, personnel are going to be under pressure to maintain or increase productivity while minimizing inputs. To achieve this, there is likely to be an increased focus on automation. By introducing new automated processes, for example, managers can maintain their operations with a reduced staff. In addition to this, automation can positively impact efficiency, which, in turn, will optimize productivity without substantially increasing costs.

3. Increased Sustainability

Although most companies will face financial and practical challenges throughout the year, environmental concerns will still be highly relevant in 2021. Indeed, the reduced emissions and carbon footprints seen at the height of the pandemic, when entire sectors were brought to a standstill, have highlighted the environmental impact that industry has.

As a result, there is public and governmental pressure on businesses to reduce emissions further. In order to achieve this, operations managers will need to ensure sustainability is a key issue during every decision-making process. By weighing the environmental effects against the financial impact of a new process, for example, operations managers can find solutions that meet a company’s needs without increasing the firm’s carbon footprint.

Building a Career in Operations Management

As you can see, operations management is an exciting area to be involved in. For current and future professionals, the competing priorities, emergence of new tech and practical demands ensure that a career in operations management will continue to be challenging, thought-provoking and, ultimately, highly rewarding.

Services You Need To Protect Your Commercial Property

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Commercial Properties|Services You Need To Protect Your Commercial PropertyLooking after your commercial property takes a lot of work. Many responsibilities require your attention, and the to-do list is forever expanding.

Though the pandemic has inspired an uptick in virtual work environments, this does not mean that commercial environments will be flushed down the toilet completely. There will always be a need for them in one form or another. If you are heading up a business that cannot do without a base of operations, then looking after said base should ever be high on your agenda.
Still, certain services can ease the pressure here somewhat. Here are the ones you need to best protect your commercial property.

Water Damage Restoration Services

Commercial properties can suffer significant water damage from plumbing-related malfunctions or turbulent weathers. Depending on your location in the United States, you may be more susceptible to floods and storms also.

Still, there is no problem here that companies like PuroClean cannot fix. Armed with a flurry of positive customer testimonials, many of these comments specific how quickly this firm perform their services in times of crisis. They also use the newest advancement technology systems to clean, disinfect, and dry all your property, eliminating moisture across the board. Not only this, but they specify in mold removal, biohazard cleanup, and fire damage restoration services also, making them highly diverse in their respective field.

It is always a good idea to have the number of such services on file in the event of an emergency. Water damage can be incredibly damaging, as its presence can rot your commercial property inside and out. When these types of problems start to arise, dealing with them in a timely manner is absolutely essential, getting your company back on track as soon as possible.

Pest Control Services

Pest control is an incredibly important aspect of maintaining a commercial property. You will need to be ahead of the game here, as the mere sighting of any unwelcome beats is enough to cripple your reputation in the eyes of customers and clients.

Unfortunately, depending on your location and line of work, sometimes the appearance pests might be inevitable here and there. For example, rodent sightings can increase exponentially as soon as restaurants shut down, and during the pandemic era, this is obviously unavoidable to some degree. Therefore, pest control services can just help keep a lid on things, whether you are working at the commercial property or temporarily closed.

Ensuring that the workplace is both clean and tidy is the first solution to your pest problems. Make sure all bins are secure, and never at risk of overflowing. Still, everything that follows after that can simply be down to luck. Use expert services, like pest control frisco, and any problems that do arrive will be handled immediately.

Security Services

To truly protect your commercial property, you need to ensure everything is in good order even when you are not around. This is where security factors into things, enabling you to oversee everything that takes place in your workplace.

Security services can provide a plethora of technologies and staff members to help things along here. For example, at your request they may be able to deploy security guards and guard dogs. CCTV systems, hi-tech sensors, and a myriad of other resources could also be designed and strategically installed for maximum efficiency. There is really nothing like it.

The highlight of these types of services though is that the security they provide runs round the clock. 24-hour measures against any potential threats or concerns can be highly beneficial, their presence alone a deterrent against most common criminals. In the end, with these services nothing goes unnoticed on your premises, and you simply cannot put a price on that fact.

How to ensure your international expansion is as smooth as possible

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |International Expansion|How to ensure your international expansion is as smooth as possibleBusiness expansion is rarely easy but expanding internationally is something else entirely. Once you’ve reached a certain peak, however, there can be few places to go but up, out and across the sea. If you think your business has reached that domestic plateau and is ready to go international, there are a number of challenges you’ll first need to overcome.

Underestimating the cost

You’re going to want to assess your capital and ensure that everything is in its right place so it is as smooth a process as possible, but you also want to make sure it’s a process you can actually afford. In this case, external help from a corporate finance team who sort international expansion preparation on a frequent basis could be the best opportunity to reduce the chance of anything out of the ordinary occurring.

Language and cultural barriers

While expanding between countries like the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia should be more straightforward, if you want to expand outside the English speaking world then you’re going to need somebody on your team that is at least bi-lingual. Because Google Translate can only get you so far. And that’s before you even get started on the cultural considerations. You need to examine and understand the culture of the country you are wanting to expand into and ensure that your business appreciates by the common cultural barriers that could implement and restrict your business.

Research the local competition

Just because you’re at the top of the food chain in your home country, that doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t have strong competition from more established local players when expanding. Don’t just assume you’re going to touch down on foreign soil and have the same kind of power and influence you do at home. Be cautious, build working relationships with local businesses beforehand and arm yourself with as much local knowledge as possible.

Tax and compliance

Particularly in a post-Brexit world, tax, feed and tariffs can be a massive barrier for younger domestic businesses to overcome when trading overseas. For this, what you really need is somebody on your team who understands the specifics and complexities of local legal requirements in all of the countries you plan to deal in. It might just be a case of ticking the right box but the penalty for ticking the wrong box can be a pretty severe fine.

Hiring locally

Finally, while you might be tempted to “put your best people on it” and send them across to run your new global venture for you, it’s likely they will not be taken seriously by the locals. You’ll need a decent foundational team of locals from the get-go who understand how it works in their country. At least while you’re still learning the ropes. And international business expansion is always going to be a learning experience above all else.

5 Benefits of Using Recruitment Agency Services For Businesses

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Recruitment Agencies|5 Benefits of Using Recruitment Agency Services For BusinessesEmployees are a business’ biggest resource – they help you plan out processes, make sales, perform the function of marketing, handle finances, and whatnot. Essentially, anything that needs to get done is handled by your employees – they are your team, your support system and your biggest assets.

Handling human resources is a very crucial task that requires special attention and a lot of monetary resources – whether it be hiring, training, managing payroll or running internship programs, human resources are a crucial function of a business that can only be handled by experienced professionals.

Especially when it comes to recruitment, we actively see a disparity between graduates complaining about not getting jobs and employers complaining about the poor quality of professionals.
Companies that specialize in recruitment, also known as recruitment agencies, bridge this gap between job seekers and companies looking for employees.

If you are a small business and are looking to hire top quality talent to make your company rise to new levels of success, you should opt for the services of a recruitment agency. Listed below are five benefits of using a recruitment agency for any business:

1. Recruitment agencies help you identify talent

Recruitment agencies help you identify top talent and act as an intermediary between talented individuals and companies that are looking for talent. Depending upon your requirements as a company, recruitment agencies help you find the individual that fits right into your dictated fields by using their well established network.

2. Recruitment agencies help you negotiate salaries

Due to their extensive clout, recruitment agencies have access to all sorts of graduates and seasoned professionals, they have a high bargaining power in terms of deciding packages for your potential employees. If you require an experienced professional but are limited in terms of the package you can afford to pay them, a recruitment agency would be able to find you the ideal candidate based on your benchmarked pay scale. They act as two way negotiators and also address concerns from your potential employees, something that the employee themselves wouldn’t feel comfortable doing.

3. Recruitment agencies conduct interviews on your behalf

Recruitment agencies help minimize the time, money and effort you would have to spend in the recruitment process and do almost all the steps of the recruitment process for you. This also includes conducting interviews and performing background checks of potential employees. Interviews specifically consume a lot of company resources in which you have to invite, schedule, conduct and report the events of the interviews. Recruitment agencies specialize in such endeavors and hence are able to get everything done quicker.

4. Recruitment agencies help you understand industry trends

Since recruitment agencies have a lot of expertise and they literally spend all day hiring and recruiting, they are very well aware of all the intricacies and requirements of the recruitment process. They are fully aware of industry trends, new designations, employment technology and have significant industry expertise to help and guide you in the recruitment process. If you are a new company with no idea, recruitment agencies can actually help you plan out the number and intricacies of the team you would need to build.

Recruitment agencies are a great resource for big and small businesses both – they are specialized in all aspects of the hiring process, are aware of the required certifications, skill sets and academic backgrounds that exist and what not. If you are new to hiring, recruitment agencies can truly represent to be the encyclopedia of human resources for you, and can even give you consultancy if need be. Businesses, irrespective of the scale of their operations and the industry they operate in can make use of the services of a recruitment agency.

Amazing Business Essentials You Need for Your Startup This Year

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Startup|Amazing Business Essentials You Need for Your Startup This YearWhen you are trying to run a successful startup there is a lot that you have to get right as a business owner. It’s important to hit the ground running, as well as to take strides that are going to help you achieve success right now. Being a small business owner in 2021 involves a fair amount of evolution and planning, and there are a lot of things that you can do that will help you to play a role in this moving forward.

Trying to improve your business as much as possible is one of the best ways of being able to take things to the next level. There are a lot of factors that you need to bear in mind if you want to take your company forward in style, and this is important. Trying to get these elements right is something that you have to figure out, and these are some of the key essentials you have to make sure you work on when it comes to improving your startup this year.

Change Your Marketing

Marketing is one of the most important parts of the business process, and there are a lot of factors that you need to keep in mind with this. Transforming your marketing to try to make it more relevant to the modern world and the changing tastes of customers is really important. There are so many ideas you can use that will help with this, and you need to try to make sure you come up with some of the best possible marketing ideas you can use to help improve the process and make the right decisions right now.

Improve Your Efficiency

One of the best things you need to make sure you get right as a business owner these days is coming up with ways of being able to boost your efficiency. There are plenty of techniques that you can do to help you improve this, and it is sometimes necessary to make changes to the way you choose to run your company, as this can make a big difference to how efficient you are. Look at ways of being able to do things more effectively, and there are a lot of ideas that will play a role in helping you to achieve this moving forward.

Boss Your Finances

It is important to be able to do as much as possible when it comes to improving your financial situation, and there are plenty of things that you can do to improve this. One of the best ways of being able to take the right steps to help you improve your financial situation is to hire an accountant. Bringing in bookkeepers to take charge of the money and budgets your business has is really important, and there are so many ideas that you’re going to need to make the most of as much as you possibly can. Understanding the importance of your company finances and keeping them in check is so vital, and this is something you need to work on as much as possible.

Stay Ahead of Your Rivals

Keeping ahead of your rivals is so important in 2021 when you want to develop any kind of success as a modern business. There are so many things you need to keep in mind, and coming up with ways of being able to achieve this right now is so important. You have to make sure you think about what you can do to get an edge on your rivals as much as possible, and this is something you need to make the most of right now. Getting an edge on your competition is so important as you need to be able to find a way of helping improve your business and attract more people to the process. Business success is all about marginal gains, and the more you can do to make the most of this, the better it will be moving forward right now.

There is a lot that you need to be aware of when it comes to starting a business for the first time, and this is really important to get right. Try to come up with some of the best ways of being able to improve your process as much as possible, and there are a lot of ideas you can use to help you here. Trying to help your business stand out and be more of a success is really important and there is plenty to consider here.