- Executives, boards and the C-suite can’t transplant their duties to remote working as seamlessly as other parts of an organisation would.
- In the face of the lockdown period and the COVID-19 pandemic’s long-term impact, executive teams and business owners should prepare by modernising how they access information and metrics for risk, strategy, execution and reporting.
- e-SEK combines its business management acumen with digital tools, providing top-level management to keep their fingers on the business pulse.
Remote working has shifted from a convenience for a few to a material reality to almost all employees. Yet those managing organisations find themselves short of methods to do the same. e-SEK (www.esek.co.za) offers a combination of business expertise and leading digital platform tools to overcome this challenge.
Running a company from a distance is not as simple as having access to video conferencing software and shared documents. These elements are not enough to include the many variables that influence strategy, risk and the executive mandate. Such technologies are well-suited to the operational layers and even the mid-management sphere. But if executives, the C-suite and the board wish to remain effective – and grow more so – they need additional capabilities.
“Modern remote-working tools are very function-driven, and those functions mainly centred on specific communication and collaboration activities in a group,” explained Denice Manganye, e-SEK’s principal consultant. “They don’t cater to the broad church of information, deliberations and inter-dependencies that happen at higher levels.”
The disadvantage of non-digital executive tools
Specifically, the critical management information that an organisation produces is still delivered manually, through bloated and slow-to-generate reports and face-to-face discussions of those revelations. While digital tools have been revolutionising other aspects of a corporate hierarchy, at the top, things remained hands-on.
This approach is not particularly effective. For example, an annual report is worth far less than a consistent, trustworthy stream of business information. To put it in an example: it’s much better for a business to see its daily sales on the day, or even in real-time, than to wait for weekly or monthly reports. Faster reporting and analytical features accelerate the business.
Such logic makes excellent sense on the work floor and has been vigorously pursued in different projects. But even though similar systems are available for executive teams and boards, the comfort of using less effective yet established techniques have been tough to overcome.
That, though, is no longer the case. Through enforced remote working, executives now need similar systems to help them feel the pulse of the business. They need clarity: business information captured, aggregated and collated into a single version of the truth. The fact is that organisations not doing this are already at a disadvantage, even though they haven’t noticed it yet. Now, with the ongoing distancing challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, such a weakness is a threat.
Business excellence through executive dashboards
e-SEK helps create a culture and environment, reinforced with digital tools. These give executives, the C-suite and board much faster and more accurate business information – even at a distance. We leverage the combined talents of our enterprise experts with digital platforms, walking the road with every customer organisation to develop an executive approach and toolset that empowers in that unique way digital tools provide.
“If I can offer a simple example, look at how reporting to boards works,” Manganye explained. “They would wait for a report to be summarised and generated, then have it presented to them. They don’t access a dashboard that tells them the status of what they wish to examine. If they want to drill down, they have to ask questions to the presenter of the report. But if they use a digital platform, formulated to fit with their requirements, they can call up and examine company metrics as they need.”
This is what e-SEK provides: dashboard-level insight into a business, from an executive vantage. The board example can be applied to the C-suite or any key decision-maker role. e-SEK enables organisations to run remotely effectively: open your laptop, browse to the dashboard and find what you want.
Examples include board governance calendars, board resolutions and corporate performance information and data. Executives can also monitor the performance of strategic initiatives, and activities such as monitoring strategic action items can be delegated to different executives.
Executive remote-working capabilities offered by e-SEK include:
Online performance management platform for executives;
Online performance management platform for employees;
Online performance management platform for strategic project management;
Web conferencing services in support of corporate governance structures in any organisation (ie, board meetings, executive management committee meetings and operations management committees);
Establishment of remote working executive governance structures and protocols; and
An online file sharing and collaboration platform, enabling board committees to carry out common corporate governance tasks, such as submitting documents for approval by board members.
Under normal circumstances, the e-SEK approach is a significant booster of competitiveness and efficiency. In the current situation, it’s the most effective way to run an organisation remotely and maintain accountability, excellence and productivity.
The benefits of remote working are growing evident as it becomes a way of life for many organisations. Even if the world returned to normal, it’s unlikely we will forego all the gains realised during the lockdown period. But whereas employees below the executive layer have many options to match their needs, those above it need much more rigorous and encompassing systems to enable their remote-working capacity.
e-SEK provides this capacity through its enterprise expertise and technology acumen. Contact us today and learn how to help your executives, C-suite and board excel in a true 21st-century fashion.
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e-SEK
e-SEK provides guidance and tools for businesses to better manage their strategy, execution, risk and reporting. We believe that the re-thinking and review of an organisation’s fundamental business are becoming increasingly critical to ongoing value creation and profitability and sustainability. It is essential to have a sound and organised framework to guide thinking through the process of formulating a ‘fresh’ business design that incorporates all the critical elements that drive and enhance organisational growth and sustainability. At e-SEK, we combine top business experts with proven best-of-breed digital technologies to modernise organisations and help them excel.