Why Business Change is the PERFECT Next Career…

Most people who know me, totally understand that I am passionate about business change. They know that my eyes light up when I am solving business problems, and that I get that focussed “bull in a china shop” look when a business is trying to implement change top down without adequate involvement from those who are potentially impacted.

However, what a lot of people don’t know is that I actually wanted to do business change before I even knew what the word for it was.

I remember telling a friend at 18 that if I couldn’t fix people (I had just been rejected in my childhood dream into study Medicine) then I was going to fix companies. I had no idea how at the time or even if it was actually a job but I knew I wanted to do it.

That desire persisted for the following 18 years and during that time I found and I fixed lots of different areas in varying businesses from recruitment agencies (my first job) to airports (my last non-Change job). Sometimes I was fixing processes that didn’t work, sometimes I was improving customer experience, sometimes I was introducing new systems and occasionally I was involved in restructures.

I just knew that change projects of whichever type were interesting and the rest of the role was mundane and something to put up with while identifying the next change. I was restless and unhappy with my career overall, even though I had days when I loved what I did, because I knew I could do more, achieve more and have more impact.

Then I moved into business change full time and realised instantly that this was my home. It was big enough to deliver enormous challenges and small enough to enable me to see the impact of the successful changes on the faces of the individuals.

But that is all about me, here are 3 reasons why business change could be YOUR perfect next career….

1. Business Change is full of variety, it involves an end to end journey and creates true impact

• Projects have a start and a stop which is marvellous because it means that every project is different and often you are doing several at once which leads to huge variety in your day to day life.
• Seeing anything from start to finish isn’t normal in a lot of business contexts. Often your role or even your whole department is just responsible for a piece of the overall puzzle. It is so refreshing and fulfilling in business change to see the entire journey.
• The job of the business change professional only ends when the change is successful and sustainable so you see the transformation for the individuals, for the company and often for the external customers too, this makes it so rewarding and worth all the hard work.

2. Business Change is additive to all your experience to date and you can move into business change from every conceivable background

• If you know a lot about your industry and you are passionate about its success, then business change means that you can help it get there with your new skills. It is an amazing feeling to give back to help an industry you love during troubled times.
• If you have moved between industries looking for challenges then business change is perfect because the large challenges come to you, and it is your job to ensure they are solved. You don’t need to be a sector expert to deliver great change and you can move sectors and even countries at the end of each change project.
• If you are a great leader or manager but don’t feel like you have up to date technical skills then business change is a technical skills base that absolutely builds on everything you are already great at and you supercharge your leadership and management in the process. It is on it’s way to being THE must have skill for future senior managers.

3. Business Change is flexible and additive to everything you plan on doing in the future

• If you are an entrepreneur whose business is taking a long time to get profitable then you can deliver business change contracts alongside your passion project and take the pressure off yourself financially while getting skills that you will use forever in your small business.
• If you are sure that you will be back in your favourite industry as soon as the economy picks up again then business change will tide you over and you can go back to your industry with more skills that can uplift your career.
• If you are new to business, maybe as a graduate looking for a first step or a returner to work then it is a great introduction to many different parts of a company so that you can decide where to focus your energies.

So if you have decided that business change could be right for you, then please direct message me, Emma Shenton, to hear more about my short experience “New Year, New Career” which is designed to help you discover if business change is a good fit for you. Don’t let lack of money or time put you off because it isn’t very expensive, and it is designed to fit around all the other things in your life.