Running a successful business is a team game. You can have the most qualified people, but this is meaningless if don’t work together. To ensure that your company is as efficient as possible, you must have functioning communication channels open with your key stakeholder groups, inside and outside of the organisation.

Holding a senior position doesn’t mean you have nothing more to learn. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. As a leader, it’s even more vital that you continue to develop your knowledge and skillset, so you can make better decisions, adapt to the changing wants of your customers and instruct those around you more productively.

Different structures work for different organisations. This sounds like a truism, but it’s important to remember that there isn’t a prescribed formula for an efficient organisational structure. Company size, industry and maturity will each affect the method of internal collaboration between employees and departments. Therefore, what follows are some suggestions of good practices, which I’ve found are beneficial to developing companies…

Ensuring your people, processes and systems are running to the best of their ability, sounds like the logical thing all businesses should doing, but it is surprising how easily this gets forgotten. Amongst the natural evolution organisations undergo as they scale, maximising efficiency can get lost, as new initiatives take up the finite resources and energy available.

In all markets, evolving to match developing trends in necessary, but this is particularly relevant in the energy sector. OVO Energy are a good example of this, who have designed their long-term strategy in alignment with a programme of continuing revision…

An established structure and strategy are important when running an organisation but developing new ideas should also be a focus. Becoming too comfortable, or reliant on the information and processes you already have can make your company sluggish in its reaction to changing circumstances, or emerging trends. This lack of agility can lead to stagnation, and beyond this decline. The most successful businesses challenge their current operations and invest in fresh initiatives to maintain or improve their performance…

The All Blacks rugby team has become synonymous with sporting excellence and commitment. They aim to demonstrate that their passion for the sport is unrivalled and intrinsically linked to the culture of New Zealand. However natural they may want this bond to seem, their success is not only due to a national obsession but is developed in their team philosophy and training…

If you want your business to evolve and improve, an efficient organisational framework must be in place to allow this. Proper consideration must be given to what will best suit your company and how this can be established. Structures that emerge organically can often be far from ideal, although they may seem to have developed to suit existing processes. Issues that could arise include:

Assessing the effectiveness of your operations can be great way to embrace the plateau by utilising the calmer periods of your business calendar…