Organizations usually encounter problems while trying to overcome disruptive changes in the business sector, due to change in technology, innovations, customer buying patterns or products and services.
These disruptive changes cause several organizations to make responses in unanticipated ways. This may cause some companies to close down while others may struggle survive yet never regain their marketplace positions. Businesses usually thrive when economic conditions are stable and the business sector performs in predictable patterns.
However, when an unanticipated change occurs, the organizations are usually vulnerable as there is no full understanding of changes in the marketplace, as well as the threats that they bring. It may even be very difficult to adapt to these changes even after understanding with (Nierobisch, 2010).
The economic collapse and the global recession is one of the disruptive forces that our organization has had to deal with in the recent past.
We are a micro financing business enterprise offering financial assistance to small businesses as well as small scale farmers. Our services include; offering banking services, loans and marketing services for our clients. We offer loans to our clients according to their capability, market their products and offer banking services for them as well.
The recent global recession which almost led to our economic collapse greatly changed the way we conduct our business so as to survive the crisis.
The recession resulted in price deflations and demand contractions. It became difficult to maintain our market share as well as profitability (King, 2008). Most of the goods that we were marketing did not sell as much due to the reduced purchasing power of our customers.
Some of the products being perishable resulted to significant losses. We therefore had to reduce the prices hence incurring losses. Given the fact our clients had were expecting higher gains due to our past success records, most of them changed their attitudes and thinking about the business and some opted to withdraw hence jeopardizing our ability to remain viable and competitive as well.
To deal with this, as an organization we had to challenge the beliefs of failure and tried to restore the clients trust in us by the assurance that success will resume once the recession is over.
Several changes had to be carried out within the organization as well, despite the fact that this met with a lot of resistance. Some of the staff members have had to be laid off. Those with little experience have had to be replaced with those who are highly experienced.
Employees with multiple skills were given the first priority as compared to those with a few or one skill. For instance, during recruitment excises the candidate with marketing academic qualifications, computer skills and a driving license had higher chances of being selected as opposed to the candidate who only had academic qualifications.
Due to the mentioned disruptive force, as an organization, we had to act on time; we had to think strategically on our business model as well as the growth opportunities.
The organization used systems thinking to tackle the recession problem as the organization witnessed an overall overhaul in its operations. For instance the organization adopted appropriate technology and most of the work that was done manually such as record keeping had to be computerized hence reducing the workforce and ensuring efficiency.
Through the use of systems thinking, the management looked at the problem wholesomely and looked at the different relationships within the organization and the underlying patterns as well as root-causes of the symptoms and problems occurring daily within the organization (Senge, 2006).
From the experience, I learnt that any system is a collection of subsystems or parts which are integrated with the purpose of accomplishing one overall goal.
That system has different inputs that undergo certain processes so as to produce given outputs hence accomplishing the desired goal for that system. In the case of an organization, it is usually composed of numerous administrative as well as management functions, groups, individuals, products and services.
In the event that one apart of the system is changed, the overall system is affected. In the event of a crisis or disruption therefore, the different subsystems must be looked at in relation to the problem and their contribution to the whole system. The problem has to be tackled by tackling the subsystems.
References
King, S. (2008). Lessons from the recession: a management and communication perspective. New York: State University of New York Press.
Nierobisch, T. (2010). Disruptive Change and Corporate Response to it. Copenhagen: GRIN Verlag.
Senge, P. (2006). The fifth discipline: The Art and Practice of Learning Organization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.