Many small businesses want to, and always will remain small. Other businesses start small with the dream of growing big, sometimes very big. Pizza Hut, for example, began as a local pizza kiosk in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, and today counts 13,300 restaurants in 87 countries. Apple Computers was launched in a garage. When small businesses grow into giant organisations, or sustainable and profitable ones, it is never by accident. There is always passion, focus and driven people behind their success.
We identify new, significant and sustainable pockets of growth for you to focus on.
The Kera WAY uses a combination of tools to quickly identify the organisation’s level of readiness to achieve its business goals (Team Readiness Scorecard). With the team competence profiling (Team Management Profile), the team assesses its strengths and comfort zones and identifies points for development. We then leverage this human asset to develop or clarify the Strategic Roadmap that will drive the team towards profitable and sustainable growth. In addition to evaluating the skills and development process within the organisation, we conduct a detailed analysis of the organisation’s environment and competitive positioning. The team will be empowered by this Kera WAY of working. After these exercises, the organisation will be able to realise its vision, step by step, in a pragmatic way. Business results and growth will follow.
The world around us is VUCA. Volatile. Uncertain. Complex. Ambiguous. This concept was invented by the American army to cope with an ever-changing, complex environment. It finds all its meaning in the business context. A profitable business model can be challenged at any time, endangered by a new player who reinvents the rules of the game on the internet. Impermanence, and the necessary changes and adaptations that follow, are a reality for the managers of today.
We accelerate your transformation process.
The Kera WAY will transform your employees into change agents. Our online Team Readiness Scorecard tool provides a quick and simple diagnosis of the current situation in your business. From day one, we involve and listen to all the people. We believe that this is a key element of success. The Team Management Profile individual reports and team mapping single out the best resources to drive change, and identify weaknesses within the team, so that that these changes can happen on time and within budget. Finally, and most importantly, with our simple Strategic Roadmap exercise, we help your organisation design a compelling vision that will become a powerful source of inspiration for the company. We agree on short-term deliverables so that your organisation and all its people are promptly set to work. The Kera WAY uses either Chan Kim’s Blue Ocean Model or Simon Sinek’s WHY to set up a path toward competitive change.
It doesn’t matter how talented and energised you are: if you cannot manage your projects, you will struggle to achieve success. Very often, external factors or limited resources do not constitute the true danger for your deliverables. Poor communication and misalignment on final goals are usually more harmful. This might mean that your project does not start on time, as key decisions are taken too late. Having to constantly work and rework something drains your scarce resources.
We get team aligned to deliver big projects with the expected quality.
The Kera WAY underlines that every project should not be managed in the same way as it is about people, management competences and styles. The right expertise must be given where it’s most useful and susceptible of making a difference. We always propose to start by making sure that the whole team is headed in the same direction, toward a common goal with clearly defined processes, roles and responsibilities. The Team Readiness Scorecard achieves this without any loss of time. Contemporary projects often bring together people from different horizons. Internal and external IT workers. Business analysts. Project managers. Business controllers. A Team Management Profile workshop brings these managers together, allowing them to acquire a better understanding of team competence profiling. As a result, all team members are able to appreciate and respect the team’s diversity. Instead of being seen as a weakness, diversity is recognized as a key asset. Very often, it will also be necessary to translate a complex business project charter into a compelling, simple vision, with clear business objectives and milestones that have desirable added value for the team’s contributors. The Kera WAY achieves this through a Blue Ocean exercise or sessions around Simon Sinek’s WHY. For your business to succeed, considering what is beneficial for the company is as important as taking into account individual incentives and benefits. Talented individuals who understand this will enjoy the entire process of change and deliver results beyond all expectations.
Nobody will be surprised to read the following in academic or business publications: “Human Capital is the most valuable asset to any organisation.” Together with intellectual capital (product patents, designs, process technology,…) and good will, Human Capital is an intangible asset. A question that all businesses must address is: are we paying enough attention to this great, potential asset? In dividing our time between mergers and acquisitions, take-overs and sales, do we spend enough time understanding and evaluating the Human Capital at our disposal? As in large project management, the problems that emerge after 6 to 12 months are not linked to business processes or financial surprises, but to people and communication. We too often have a misguided perception of the quality of the managers and employees who run our organisation on a day-to-day basis. As a result, we take the wrong decisions and lose precious business time, as well as money.
Mergers & acquisitions. Take or handovers. We give you the confidence that the right people are in the right place, doing the right things.
The Kera WAY will save you time and money. Our quick Team Readiness Scorecard online survey provides you with an accurate evaluation of your organisation’s maturity and processes. It’s a question of days before you open your eyes to these realities. The Team Management Profile tool helps you make sure the right people are in the right place, and identifies development or re-orientation paths objectively. Managers are efficient and take pleasure in their work when they are able to use their preferred management styles. To run a business, you do need visionaries, but also organisers, doers, hunters, farmers, and controllers. The Kera WAY also pays attention to the project that you propose to the new organisation. We help you transform a bank-authorized business plan into a compelling story that will give energy and fuel to the team. Working with Chan Kim’s Blue Ocean Model or Simon Sinek’s WHY will make your project pragmatic and action-oriented.
“Pivot moment” is an expression that is often used by start-ups. It refers to a radical and often unpredictable change of direction that is due to unforeseen market or environment circumstances. Today, not only start-ups, but also high-performing and senior managers must cope with unpredicted circumstances and need to consider pivoting dramatically to move on with their career. One might have the wisdom to say: “In every failure, there is opportunity.” Or: “The failures of today are the foundations of tomorrow’s success.” Or, perhaps: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” But in case you haven’t quite yet reached this degree of letting go, it is useful to find a partner who helps you understand what your next professional challenge will be and how you can best prepare for it.
We help you manage the pivot moments of your professional career.
The Kera WAY leverages similar tools and methods as the ones used to identify business opportunities. This time, you are the focal point in the exercise. Together, we identify your WHY: what Simon Sinek defines as the energy that drives your passion and pleasure at work. Ad hoc, we run through your Team Management Profile report to make sure you are aware of your strengths and comfort zones. We then pay special attention to the tasks and roles that are less natural for you, the kind of work that gives you less pleasure, requires a higher consumption of energy and probably has only an average productivity. It is essential for you to be aware of these issues when you make an important pivot in your professional career. Together, we agree on a frame of about ten mentoring sessions, with concrete deliverables at the end of the program.