2021: The Year of Reinvention

If change wasn’t an issue and disruption didn’t exist, you wouldn’t have to worry about much. You wouldn’t have to wonder what was going to happen next, and you could just run your business the same way you always have – with the same tools, the same processes, the same budgets.

It might be boring, but it would be consistent.

But we all know that’s not how life – or especially business – works. Especially this year. Change really is a constant, and if we’re going to get ahead of it (or at least keep up with it), we have to keep changing ourselves. We have to continually re-examine our business processes and procedures. We have to rethink our approach to business itself – and then do it again. We must always be on the lookout for new tools, new techniques, and new ways to sharpen the tools we already have.

We must continually reinvent ourselves, in other words, and commit to constant improvement.

Our willingness (or lack thereof) to continuously reconsider how work gets done is the key component to conquering the changes and challenges of business. If we close our eyes and ears to innovation because it’s too complicated, too expensive, too much to do right now, we will fall further behind – making the next round of revisions even more difficult.

So we work to stay ahead by finding ways to be faster, more efficient, and more flexible.

Often, this means examining business processes and stripping paperwork and procedure anywhere possible. Smoothing out these systems speeds up your work, literally unblocking pathways to productivity and profits.

Let’s get moving

Speaking of money, let’s take spending as an example.

Imagine if you could integrate spending from corporate cards, personal cards, purchasing cards, and cash (yes, cash) into a single, digital process, so you could see exactly what’s going out the door – all in one easy place.

Now imagine you could insert pre-purchase approval into the process – so you can see and control what goes out the door before it’s gone.

Then, because we’re really just imagining here, think about adding AI and machine learning technologies to push audit controls right up to the point of purchase.

At that point, you not only accurately and automatically see your spending, you’re able to stay on top of all the regulatory complexities that spending creates in the countries where you do business.

Okay, now for the good news

Yes, you have to continuously reinvent your business. Yes, you have to begin the move to digital if you haven’t already. Yes, you have to tackle spending in all those ways mentioned above just to make reinvention doable.

And the tools are out there.

Looking more closely at our spending example, we can take a page from this pre-approval eBook to see how approving purchases before they’re made helps you:

· Enforce company policies without having to be an enforcer.

· Gain visibility into spending before expenses are incurred.

· Ensure travel and employee safety.

· Get the data that keeps you in compliance while keeping costs under control.

These may seem like big changes, but they’re really just the updates that make true and ongoing transformation possible. Because when you know what you’re spending and where your budgets stand, you’ll always know what you can do next.

It's time to reinvent.