Changing Times

May you live in interesting times! How true this Chinese Proverb has become in our lifetime. Not only have we seen phenomenal changes in the last three decades, but these are also impacting our everyday life, the way we do business and our very future. If you have been keeping an eye on the stock market, you would have seen big business react to the current economic climate and certainly seen what's happening in the resources industry. As a process engineer that grew up in big resource companies, I know what happens during these times: Restructuring...a buzz word that strikes fear into the heart of every worker, and puts a smile on every investors face. Why would you ask. Well, this generally means less fat in a business and more profit to the investor. How do they do this? The business is critically evaluated by internal and/or (or both) external teams that identify opportunities in the business cost structure that's not adding value to the bottom line. These opportunities are ranked, evaluated and then implemented and tracked. There are numerous techniques that can be used to restructure any type of business - just point your search engine to "restructuring process". What is important is to know that restructuring works in any size business and just about every business can be improved by the same process.