The Great Challenges Every Business Faces, And How To Win Them All

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Most entrepreneurs have a mentor: somebody they can go to for advice when the going gets tough.

These mentors are there to help entrepreneurs when they encounter new and challenging situations, many of which they have no experience of.

One such mentor is Neal James, the managing director of a major consulting firm based out in Salt Lake City.

He says that navigating all the problems in business has actually become a lot trickier these days, He puts it down to the speed of technological change and the new complexity that it is bringing.

In the past, game-changing technologies like the automobile and electricity were adopted over many decades, but today, new general purpose technologies, like AI, come to market far more rapidly.

Here is some experience Neal has gained after working with a range of top Fortune 500 companies.

 

Integrity

According to Neal, businesses have never faced the kind of moral challenges that they face in today’s economy.

With everybody trying to compete on a global basis and on many fronts, the constant temptation is to cut corners and omit information to stay ahead. Just look at what happened back in 2015 when VW cheated on government-imposed emission tests.

It wanted its cars to appear a lot more efficient than they were to maintain its market share. Soon other companies, including Audi and Fiat were investigated with similar outcomes.

In such a competitive market, Neal says, one of the main challenges facing entrepreneurs is staying honest.

The chances of actually being found out are small, and the payoffs are large, so more and more individuals are choosing to deceive others to get ahead, calling it a part of “doing business.”

Neal warns, however, that if shady practices are uncovered, either by customers, the media or workers, the fallout can be enormous.

 

Uncertainty

Uncertainty in the global economy is another problem that business leaders need to concern themselves with.

Right now, things are chugging along rather nicely, but Neal warns that this state of affairs is unlikely to last forever.

We’re already in one of the longest economic expansions in history, second only to the expansion that came after Thatcher and Reagan got into power in the 1980s. And in just a few months time, it’ll be the longest that the US has gone without a recession in history.

You might think that this is good news, but as we enter uncharted territory, the likelihood that the economy will slip into global recession will increase.

Businesses, therefore, need to make sure that they are locked into long-term contracts with their clients, and that they will continue to receive services at reasonable prices in the event of a recession. With a contract management engine with integrated software, this is much easier than it was in the past.

 

Regulation

Finally, Neal points to the fact that regulatory change is happening at lightning pace.

First Obama crammed through thousands of pages of new regulations in his final days in office, and now Trump has promised to repeal those measures, as well as another 75 percent-plus of regulation in the following years.

Regime uncertainty is still a big issue for most businesses.?  Are any of these a big issue for you?  Share your thoughts and comments below now.

Cheers!

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