Old Ideologies, New Vision: How to Harness Both to Succeed in the New Economy

The New Economy. It’s fast paced and
constantly changing. Lifelong jobs are
a thing of the past; technology is at
the forefront of modern business, tech
titans Hewlett Packard and Compaq are
even merging… it’s a fragmented world
out there. So how does the modern
business thrive in this fractured
and ever-changing world? And how does
a workforce rise above the competition?

Combining ancient ideologies and
traditional values with new visions
and technologies may just be the answer.
Cheryl Rickman (http://www.webcritique.co.uk)
investigates.

The Changing Face of Business
Not long ago, words like mergers, acquisitions,
joint ventures, alliances and partnerships
were seldom used. With the changing face of
business in the New Economy, these words are
now part of everyday business vocabulary.

With many companies choosing to ‘work with’
other companies, a new breed of individual
and team is achieving pre-eminence. People
who can be trusted and always do a job well,
plus people and organisations who grow to
develop and produce optimum results. People
are, after all, a company’s best asset in
the fractured business arena. This is why
organisational behaviour and a company’s
people are increasingly being recognised
as imperative elements of a company’s success.

In developing and training their people,
businesses are investing in their primary
assets to deal with the changes the New
Economy.

Fusing Old and New to Survive the New Economy
Training and development is not a new phenomenon,
in prehistoric times when humans began to create
artefacts, they needed to teach others how to
use them. However, that was training in its
crudest form with minimal ongoing development.

Now, the need has arisen for increasingly dynamic
development programmes that actually deal with
transforming individual and organisational
performance via behavioural change. Also, with
each marketplace becoming more and more
competitive, businesses are striving more than
ever to rise above the rest. Ultimately those
companies that survive in the New Economy
will be those that translate transformed
individual and organisational behaviour into
transformed business performance.

One way to achieve this is to focus on an
organisation’s people: their values, skills
and behaviour and to combine traditional
values and ideas with modern and technological
approaches. Growth within the New Economy
is firmly rooted in the growth of behaviour
and ongoing development of teams and individuals,
within a working philosophy that combines
old ideologies with new vision.

Ken Buist, Founder of Transform People
International, (http://www.transformpeople.com),
firmly believes in this idea,

“At the end of the day it is their people
that will make a business work, it’s their
people that will make the business successful,
and this can only be achieved through having
commitment to common business goals, a unity
and spirit of purpose, and excellent
communication at all levels. My vision is
simple – to transform business performance
through a transformation of its people.”

Will the Real Aristotle Please Stand Up?
Just as personal and organisational development
are by no way new phenomenon, neither are
the ideologies that provide the basis for
some of the most dynamic and successful
training programmes that companies embrace
today. Ancient methodologies written by
Aristotle and Hypocrates BC still have
immense weight, as do the traditional values
of family and well-being. Aristotle, born
on a Greek colony in 384BC, defined the
three main rhetoric styles that together
form the ‘Art of Persuasion’: Ethos, Logos
and Pathos. Today these ancient ideologies
still have weight because, in business,
we are all trying to sell something,
even if it is simply ourselves, our
knowledge or our skills.

Transform People International (TPI) is one
example of a company that provides a
development programme that focuses on people
and behaviour, and combines old ideologies
with a dynamic and modern approach. They
combine old methods with new ideologies
to transform the way their clients work
and live. Transform People International
call this new breed of individual who is
achieving pre-eminence in the New Economy,
The Trusted Adviser™.

To help companies produce this kind of
individual, Transform People International
have created The Trusted Adviser Excellence
Programme™, which, according to Founder,
Ken Buist, “aims to transform people’s
attitudes and behaviour, helping them to
grow and be more effective.

In order to transform you have to change
thinking, and in order to change thinking
you have to provide insight and revelation.
In other words we don’t just aim to teach
skills but to bring about fundamental and
sustainable change.”

Says Ken, “Throughout history man has
needed confidantes, advisers and friends,
who will:
· Accept you just the way you are,
but challenge you to change where required
· Give excellent business advice but
allow you to come to your own conclusions
· Give sound personal counsel when
required, but don’t force their opinions on you
· Are 100% loyal without being sycophantic
· Continually look out for you, putting
your interests first
· Can be interesting and fun, yet serious
and empathetic when required.”

So, in order to help others deal with the
fragmented nature of the New Economy,
this company is combining old rhetoric
ideologies with the latest modern technology
and combining development of behaviour
with the key trait of trust. With more
and more companies merging and taking on
alliances, the need for trust is ever
important – Transform People International
see trust as a key methodology for
building business in tougher economic
climate. And the results of this focus
speak for themselves.

Bruce Davidson, Sales Program Director
for one of the world’s top three IT
companies says, “Over the past two years
Transform People International has
arguably made more significant difference
to how our Enterprise Account Teams
perform than any other area of training.
The fact that we have tracked in excess
of $1 billion added to our business
pipeline and have developed significant
new trusted adviser relationships is
testament to the power of what they have
helped us develop. Their program design
and delivery expertise has genuinely
transformed our operations with
tangible gains beyond expectation.”

Another programme that focuses on
Aristotle’s Rhetoric while using modern
technologies is the Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute Course, Writing to the World-Wide
Web (http://www.rpi.edu/). While its focus
is on writing for the epicentre of our
New Economy, the Internet; this course
examines Ethos, Logos and Pathos as its
main focus and fuses old and new to
create a winning training course.

Evidently, by focussing on individuals,
behavioural change and the notion of trust
and then combining old ideologies and new
visions, companies have a chance to thrive
in the forthcoming years.

Embracing Traditional Values to Achieve
Work-Life Balance
Another example of this combining of old
traditional ideas (in this case family
values) with new technology to forge winning
results is the work-life-balance philosophy
that both recent winners of the Lloyds TSB
Britain’s Best Boss competition share. Both
have strong family values and a strong
belief in the notion that a happy workforce
is a productive one.

Says Kevin Coleman of Swift Construction,
winner of this year’s Britain’s Best Boss
competition, “All of my full time staff
have children so, if they need to pick them
up, take to the doctors or attend their sports
day, that’s fine, as long as I have notice
for preplanned work. Staff members are also
free to bring their children in here if they
need too, no problem. Flexibility is crucial.

If people want to start later and finish later
that’s fine. I’m all for getting a job done
well with a happy team because this means
there are ultimately fewer problems and
the client is happy. In my experience a
happy and well-informed staff is a productive
one and this, in turn, leads to a happy
client base and plenty of referrals.”

This flexible attitude and focus on
traditional family values is fused with
heightened communication via mobile,
e-mail, phone or fax and has paid great
dividends for Kevin. In six years,
Coleman has achieved tenfold growth
in his highly successful operation.

Similarly, a flexible and holistic
philosophy is the linchpin of working
life at Aricot Vert, where the
previous years winner of Britain’s
Best Boss, Lin Arigho, is Directory.

At Aricot Vert Design Lin enables the
staff to remain focused on their jobs
while in the office, but free to take
care of family issues and appointments
if needs be. Again, the end result of
this philosophy is a happy working
environment in which the staff is
focused and performs well.

Says Lin, ““I see work and family as
a whole,” says Lin, “rather than having
a distinct cut off point between the two.
Work-life balance means making a life
choice so you pack more in but work just
as hard. It’s certainly not the easy
option. The rewards are that you see
more of your family and fit what you
want into your life and with a flexible
philosophy you get the most from your
staff too.”

It seems, therefore, in order to succeed
in the new era of modern business a focus
must be put on a business’s people – on
their trustworthiness, behaviour, skills
and growth. Additionally, the ingredients
for success in the New Economy are a
combination of old ideologies, such as
family values, work-life-balance and
the ‘Art of Persuasion’, together with
the use of modern technology and
communication advances.

Useful Resources to Achieve Success
in the New Economy
http://www.transformpeople.com
http://www.rpi.edu
http://www.trainingzone.co.uk
http://www.worklifebalance.com