Stovepiping definition: vertical rigid management style: a rigidly vertical management style that discourages lateral lines of responsibility and hinders communication among individual groups within an organization. Encarta® World English Dictionary

Business Continuity Communication for Home Based Businesses and SME’s

Communication in Home Based Business and any family based Small Medium Enterprise (SME), with centralised structure in which all lines of reporting are directed to one person – the Managing Director (MD). Where, the various activities and departments do not seem to communicate with each other, can result in getting conflicting messages across.

If most procedures and policies in place are incoherent and inconsistent with Quality Management Systems (QMS) and good corporate governance, and are not strictly adhered to, can hence exacerbate the reporting process and make’s them ineffectual in directing, managing and controlling the enterprise.

Mostly, their knee-jerk reactive management focused on short-term financial gains rather than being proactive towards its market place scanning for events, trends and threats therein missing what lies over the horizon as such its’ business continuity in all areas is an issue and would have a finite end should a disaster strike.

Strengths:

1. Direct line to MD, rapid dissemination of business intelligence and decision making process.
2. On-going support from MD in evaluating risks and putting in place effective counter measures and associated processes and procedures.
3. Fewer channels of communication.
4. More autonomy in the way their departments are run.
5. Flexibility of time and resource allocation makes the business agile and adaptable to the changes in market environment.
6. Ability to impact and influence the business directly, by senior managers is an incentive to prove their potentials.
7. Standardised processes and procedures in place to maintain a small group of senior managers.

Weaknesses:

1. Succession problems and uncertainty could have an impact on the businesses resilience.
2. Focus rest on localised and reactive short-term profitability, a very bottom-line result oriented approach that negates its procedures and policies.
3. Conflict between personal goals and business aim/purpose heightens the competition of resources.
4. Major decisions are delayed if the MD is unavailable to authorise them makes the business vulnerable to partially self-inflicted failures.
5. Low retention of key workers, high turnover of senior managers leaving to start competing ventures this reduces continuity and impact on business re-business as the manager’s leave with valuable contacts and ideas.
6. Unable to plan for emerging threats and optimising on new opportunities due to 3 above.
7. Inability to build relations with local multi-agency since there is no continuity policy in place.
8. Stove piping between marketing and operations has kept some activities separate which should be complementary such as customer relation services and relation marketing, could have a detrimental effect on response capability in reference to incident management at various sites.

The difficulty in identifying them is the closed culture of the managements’ inner circle and lack of understanding of the real effects of emerging or forthcoming threats that are considered to be outside their remit. Hostility from operations and disjointed information processes made it difficult to identify these issues.

Separation of finance function increases the uncertainties and wariness of the companies’ future direction. Lack of understanding of what is being communicated – either through selective listening or ignorance makes it difficult for the strategic management plans to filter down through all levels.

Thus decision-making becomes more subjective and losses the strength found in being objective.

As a senior member of the management team most of the above has become more apparent with more studies into Home Businesses and SME’s Continuity, Security and Resilience, and clearer as we progress with the synergy work of building resilient Home Businesses and SME’s.

In conclusion, with immediate effect Home Businesses and SME’s should aim for a more blended response and a more forward thinking approach towards building a more resilient business policy across the board to enhance Home Businesses and SME’s core competences and provide a concerted and reliable response that will ensure its survival. Perceptions and value system could be improved by a cultural change.

Adopting a more Kaizen Matrix / open plan strategic matrix that will enhance a willingness to change, ensuring that self-importance is reduced, overlap in functionality is minimised, output is increase as collective and collaborative responsibilities are effectuated.

The matrix should encourage effective communication that will facilitate greater command and control of the businesses direction.

Communication and coordination will be increased, increasing the motivation of individual employees. The achievement of goals can bring a sense of commitment and satisfaction.

This in turn will foster grounds for a more robust and holistic approach to contingency planning and business continuity management through continuous improvement and true transformation of value.

Stay tuned in for more on building resilient Home Based Businesses and SME’s
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