THE YEAR THAT WAS 2017
If one were watching South Africa as a fictional soap opera it might be entertaining. But living in South Africa 2017 has made the truth seems stranger than fiction, and if it weren’t so tragic it might even be amusing. The business environment has been like living in the upside down world and at times it has been difficult to know which way is up. Yet remarkably, when I observe the other businesses we engage with I see profound resilience, great innovation and brilliant diverse relationships. South Africans, divorced from the political circus that has become our daily dose of new disbelief, are able to shrug off the politics, embrace each other, and dig deep for another day.
We chose to thrive at Omnicor in 2017. We forged ahead with our plans as if our future was guaranteed. We refused to despair at the crumbling political and commercial environments. We know that one way or another 2018 is on the way, 2019 is around the corner, and before you know it, it will be 2020. Perfect vision. We cannot but be the best we can be; driving new technological miracles, forging relationships with new clients, building our internal teams to enhance our delivery, playing with ideas to stretch our offering and focus on the future. We invested in our business. Perfect vision.
FUTURE PROOFING
The future is unimaginably exciting. Technology is creating opportunities that we never dreamed of 5 years ago. But technology alone is not enough. If you went to a hospital that had perfect technology run by cold efficient staff, you would rather not go. Similarly, if you had the option of a hospital occupied by the best-intentioned and well-motivated staff, but no technology, you would also probably avoid it. For businesses to succeed, they require great machinery run by great people. Clients need human contact. They need someone to listen to them, to offer advice, to guide their thinking and tell them it is all under control. While we have worked massively hard investing in our business with pioneering technology, we would rather be known for the warmth of our people and our dedicated customer service.
BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS AND INNOVATION
Amongst our highlights in 2017, we delivered our most comprehensive Women in Leadership Development programme to date. We have added a massive validation to our assessment offering by introducing Quality of Hire and Likelihood of Development features. We have partnered with 2 new test distributors to expand our assessment range on RoleFit. We have delivered a highly effective set of Team Development sessions from our Coaching space. Our embedded 360 technology, Illume, got an entire facelift with several new features allowing clients to run their own 360 evaluations independently of us. In the Climate Survey (Talent Engagement) space we finessed our offering by extracting additional factors from tool, and re-factor analysing our instrument to ensure its psychometric properties are world-class. Our automated Exit and Onboarding survey reports were reformatted to display new types of information and to enhance the intelligence mined from the data. Our automated profiling system found a home with several clients as we enhance the technology to encourage e-profiling. The business grew globally into the USA and the UK, working on projects that left the customers describing the service as exceeding all expectations.
These are but some examples of our continual striving for improved excellence. Our team of software developers and business analysts devote every day to pushing the envelope to address client expectations. We learn every day from our clients when they request us to find ways of automating their business needs. Every year we write 1000’s of lines of code to innovate within our existing digital services and in creating new ones. We have big plans for 2018, and we can’t wait, not only to make you part of them, but also to partner with you, so you can help us shape the future together. I don’t really know how our business will look in 2020. I know we’ll be doing things better, faster and more cleverly than we are now. I know our staff, as always, will bend over backwards to help you. But I’m fuzzy on the details of exactly how that will look. I know it will be both painful and exhilarating getting there, and we are looking forward to sharing the journey with you.
Author: Dr.Hilton Rudnick MD of Omnicor | http://omnicor.co.za/ |
