Is navel gazing really a bad thing? What if the labor market doesn’t improve? What if a parent of the team you volunteer to coach doesn’t like the amount of playing time for their child? What’s the next pandemic look like? What if, what if, what if?? Do you know where the next big risk to your business is going to come from? Do external risks receive the same or more than internal/market risk? A business owner recently remarked that he finds himself spending more time asking What IF questions relative to his business than ever before.
Is he wasting his time? Navel gazing is defined as: a self-indulgent or excessive contemplation of oneself or a single issue, at the expense of a wider view. Business risk management is defined as: evaluating, prioritizing, and addressing the risks involved in any changes to your business operations, systems, and processes. It acts as a guide in decision-making and planning in the event of an emergency or an opportunity. Business risk management is the same general exercise as Navel gazing to a large degree. Excessive contemplation? With the current pace of issues and change what’s excessive? Maybe not all the time but I think it should be more than once or twice a year. Tough to say in todays environment. Who really envisioned COVID or the ramification of COVID? What is the next major business interruption going to look like? Interruption for some but not others? COVID had an extremely negative impact on some businesses but was highly profitable for others. What’s the bottom line, hire Carnac The Magnificent (that’s an old people’s joke) or develop a good process?
Risk assessment/management should be an essential part of any SMB Leader’s job. In my review of the Risk Assessment tools that are available today I don’t think they have been updated since the 90’s. They have important things to look at and measures to put in place but what has changed do they really understand today and your business?
Think about all the new risks that have come about just in the last 5 years, labor shortage, pandemic’s, cyber hostage, social media terrorists. Opportunities are not going to take down your business but there is more than one risk’s that could. Do you know what they are? What would you do if a small group of people found their next cause was something related to your business, and you found them picketing in front of your business while they are busy posting on social media with a TV stations truck parked at the curb? That’s not the time to figure out what you are going to do about it. How would you handle a disgruntled employee or ex-employee on social media? Like it or not we have those type of people roaming around.
What if the labor market doesn’t improve? You think it’s tuff to staff now, what if it gets worse? I was in a T-Mobile store the other day, big signs all over, $1,000 signing bonus for new hires. Paid soon after hiring.
I think most SMB leaders have the standard risk management tools in place with a yearly review. Is that review cycle sufficient in today’s environment? I don’t think so. Risk management today is not just a paper and pencil review at the end of the year of what you have in place.
First of all, I would challenge you that it needs to be quarterly. Second, it should include other people not just yourself and not people that you would probably think should be involved or have involved to this point. Your youngest employees probably have a better handle on what’s happening in the social media world than your insurance agent or any ‘old farts’. If I want to know what’s new and happening, I don’t ask my son I ask his 13-year-old daughter who’s on Tik Tok all day long.
Who outside of your company can you buy a cup of coffee to get their views on what trends are going on and where they are going? Talk to an educator in a Senior High School to get a handle on what the next labor force wave is like. If I was running a business that required manufacturing/IT/Mechanical skills, I wouldn’t just talk to Vocational Colleges and would seek out high schools that are providing those study tracks for students. Some businesses are now offering summer internships and part-time work to high school students who are interested and taking course work in those different fields. Upon graduation they are offered a job.
You have to be just informed on U.S. and World trends as you are on your industry. As you are out and about you need to listen, watch, and connect the dots as it relates to your business. It’s important to think about the questions you need to ask yourself first before you look for the people that ‘kind of’ provide answers/information.