People make the difference

We believe that people, more than any other asset held by the company, are the ultimate drivers of business success. A people-ready business not only recognises this but proactively centres its operations, tools and culture on getting the most out of this critical resource; building capacity for great service, productivity, growth, competitiveness and employee morale from its people.

Recent research carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) on behalf of Microsoft shows that 78% of UK business leaders, when asked to name their most important asset, replied unprompted: ‘people’. This is great news, but by itself this realisation does not make an organisation a 'People-Ready Business'.

Indeed, in the same survey, only 39% of those questioned said that their IT strategy was designed to get the most of out their people. This is a significant variance, especially given that 91% of respondents agreed that IT has helped people to work better. So why are UK organisations not putting the emphasis on getting the tools and infrastructure in place to support what they say is their most valuable asset?

A people-ready business aligns its culture, leadership and tools around its people. The leadership provides people with a vision and values that they buy into and fervently support, the culture provides them with an environment that they want to work and excel within, and the tools provide the framework that allows them to excel and innovate.

Being people-ready is extremely relevant to the UK and our businesses. It becomes perhaps even more relevant for us when you consider that, according to the Office of National Statistics, as of December 2005 an incredible 82.5% of the UK workforce are involved in the sector that is most focussed on the engagement and interaction between people – the service sector.

It's not just the service sector that the concept of people ready business is relevant to, however. All industries benefit in different ways from putting people at the centre of their operations and thinking.

So how can you tell if you are on the right road? How can you gauge whether you are people-ready? A people-ready business creates, and invests in, a culture and infrastructure that empowers and enables its people to drive the business forward. This infrastructure is based on having the right tools in place – the tools that allow you to answer ‘yes’ to all of these questions.

• Can your people access company information as easily on the road as at the office?

• Do they have access to information they need to make the best decision every time the pressure is on?

• Can they give customers instant answers, no matter whether the question is about?

• Can they track financial information, such as inventory, customer orders, payroll and project schedules in real time?

• Do all your IT systems share a common look and feel to simplify ease of use?

It is this infrastructure that gives people the support, resources and mandate they need to act intuitively, respond decisively and invent imaginatively.

When individuals realise their potential, your company realises its potential. That realisation is what separates what we call a people-ready business from an ordinary one. Are you People-Ready?

Managing Director, UK; VP, MS International.