“Nothing ever goes as planned.” There is some nuance to that expression—either a plan completely falls flat on its back, or a simple lack of foresight causes a small hiccup.
In a business context, when a leader is asked about how his organization got to the state it’s in today, you often hear a variation of the famous Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote: “Life is a journey, not a destination.” It’s not about where we are today; it’s about where we’ve been and where we are going. This favorite sentiment from executives isn’t just PR-speak, but shows some real value in defining the goals of a business.
In a typical business presentation, soon after a strong introduction, a company’s journey is revealed through a detailing history which ties into the ambitious goals of the near future. These presentations feature key learnings and information of the past quarter or year. Lessons learned along the way end up as the result of the journey—not the destination—with a team of managers, analysts, and designers putting together a story fit to be shared.
But, how do companies answer the question, “Where is your company at today, in real time?” This questions the company’s work day-in and day-out, especially when an organization’s activities span the globe. So who is capturing the journey in real time? And, most importantly, how are we staying compliant?
We look to our enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to capture the life cycle of our products, the transfer of information, and the millions of details that regulations and relevant authorities require of us. (With the authorities, we can always skip the Emerson quote because they’re always focused on the journey.) Fortunately, today, while the topic of compliance is complicated, especially for multinational corporations, we can tailor platforms to the demands of recording and accessing every detail of a company’s activities with greater ease than ever before.
To read more about enterprise resource planning systems, check out this whitepaper: “Four Clues Your Organization Suffers from Inefficient Integration.”
