The Secret to Success?

The fifth Nordic Business ForumRoad to Success took place last week and the theme this year was Forward. The first day was filled with inspiring speakers, like author and management researcher Jim Collins, the CEO of KONE Matti Alahuhta, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 38th Governator of California, who is of course best known for his movies. In their presentations, the gentlemen discussed about the reasons behind success.

The essence of the day was captured in Matti Alahuhta’s answer to the question of what was the most important reason behind the success of KONE. For Alahuhta, the reason was KONE’s ability to engage people, because it’s the people who make change into reality. There are many things that have an effect on employee engagement: rhythm, repetition, management’s ability to listen, feedback, individual’s ability to reflect on their own procedures and actions, support from the community etc.

I got to thinking, how is it even possible to promote success with business applications if one of the most important factors explaining success is how engaged people are at their work? I came to the conclusion that it most certainly is possible, but the answer is not solely in usability, which can either block or hinder the use of the application at work, but it’s not the actual reason to be engaged at work. Along with removing blocks, we should also think about the ways the application could make work a meaningful experience.

Do the business applications of your company provide your employees a meaningful work experience? Do the applications communicate your company’s goals? How about linking the goals to employees’ daily tasks? Do the applications give feedback for performance? Do they sustain the right rhythm and repeat important things regularly? Can they be used whenever and wherever with any device?

If your answer to any of the above questions is “no”, we’d be glad to hear more about your goals and challenges that you’re facing when trying to reach the goals. If you answered “yes” to all of the questions, we congratulate you and wish you all the best on your journey.

The leap from good to excellent is long to make. But with a right kind of business application, it can be made significantly shorter. It’s easier than just sleeping less, as Mr. Schwarzenegger suggested in his presentation.