To change is to face uncertainty, but also to give the company the means to become sustainable. Innovations have changed the way we live and what was indispensable yesterday is obsolete today. An innovation enters the market, a competitor with high-performance services enters the sector, you understand that for the survival of the company, it is necessary to change the business model. But you’re not alone and you’ll need to convince and implement changes by shaking up habits that require effort from your teams.
A difficult turn to take, especially as it involves employee and partner acceptance, which is not the least of the difficulties. Changing the business model remains a difficult but often necessary choice. It is a challenge for entrepreneurs to get this change accepted by their teams and partners.
Convince the teams
The change of the business model, regardless of the size of the company, requires the attachment of the employees. Leading teams to accept change, however, requires developing the power of persuasion and the arguments necessary for understanding. You will first need to present this change as an opportunity. It is necessary that every employee feels like an actor of the change and understands all parameters so that it can work in harmony. To do this, explain the situation: show that the company can still cope in the short term, but also that in the medium term everyone’s job would be at risk, for lack of understanding that adjustment was necessary. Finally, as the business develops, they will be the first beneficiaries.
Show necessity and opportunity
The innovation of the economic model very often encounters difficulties at the level of the people in charge of management, because it casts doubt on their role and the fear of losing their performance causes them to become inhibited. Attention ! They will influence their team members. It therefore seems essential to develop communication that enables every manager to understand the problems. You have to let them visualize the future and ask to come up with proposals, but also see the difficulties and ask what adjustments need to be made.
Show that the product is not the master
Examples of this abound. It is enough to browse the history of companies to show that changing the business model is an integral part of the life of a company. You can say that it is not only companies that have been around for decades, but also young companies that have not hesitated to change their business model and have become success stories. Domestic companies are a striking example of the changes: the broom transformed into a vacuum cleaner but also the creation of new products: the deep fryer, the microwave….
Overcome Reluctance
The most frequently mentioned reason has to do with professional skills, for example when we switched from the typewriter to the computer: people felt incompetent. They had been recruited on a professional skill that had taken them a long time to acquire and they were asked to acquire a new skill. The computer with its new functions showed that their knowledge was outdated. The stakes are so great that it is necessary to overcome this reluctance. Resources, such as training, for example, will have to be deployed to get those employees who are most directly affected on a daily basis over the psychological threshold of change.
To overcome fears
Another recurring obstacle remains the fear of loss of income. Indeed, the changes made may affect the company’s income, as before the implementation of the new business model, it will be necessary to leave what makes the company’s current wealth. This prompted Kodak not to take the digital turn, for fear of seeing its profits fall in photo film development: a catastrophic choice that caused the company’s loss. Even if the decisions made reduce income in the short term, the change should not be questioned. Entrepreneurs will therefore need to know how to highlight the enormous long-term economic potential that lies behind any development.