How to Save your Job. Here is what you can do to skip the lay off list.
Simple steps to avoid being laid off in 2021.
Is your company downsizing due to the COVID-19 Pandemic? Are you at risk of being laid off due to restructuring? Is your job being replaced by automation applications, or new technology?
Did the company you work for get acquired and suddenly your job is no longer needed?
If you answered yes to any of the questions above, then read on. This article will help you be an indispensable asset to the company you are working for, where they cannot let you go. In fact, this article will show you the way to elevate your career to a new level in the company, where you would be considered for executive level position. It will show you how you can double your company’s bottom line, lower operating costs, and improve quality standards in products and services.
Read on to find out how to save your job from being removed, to being elevated to a new career level.
Current State Today
What does Disruption, Digital Transformation, Digital Technologies have in common? The main objective of all these topics, is to leverage innovative technologies in order to improve the company’s bottom line. That is the only reason why companies are investing in digital transformation and disruptive technologies. The objective is to leverage new technologies to:
- Improve quality of products/services
- Reduce cost (operating expenses)
- Increase market share
- Reduce customer churn (customers leaving to the competition)
- Reach new customer markets
- Expand regionally or internationally.
If you are at risk of being laid off due to downsizing, here is one thing you can do to save your job.
The Problem Canvas
The problem canvas is a tool used by entrepreneurs for startups, where they define the problem their startup is solving, and how their solution is measuring up to resolving that problem. Venture Capital investors also use the problem-canvas to understand clearly the size of the market due to the problem’s impact and hence determine the potential market demographic for the startup.
Here is how you can use the problem-canvas to save your job: Create an Excel sheet or Google Sheets file that looks like this:
Column 1 — State the Problem
Column 2 — State the Impact of the Problem
Column 3 — Value Gained for Solving the Problem
Column 4 — Possible Solutions
1. Start with the first problem and write down two to three lines describing the problem in the first column, example: Issuing credit cards for new customers is taking seven days to complete.
2. In the next column, write down the impact the problem has on the company, example: Customers are going to competitors for new credit cards. Losing market share.
3. In the next column, Value Gained for Solving this Problem — Example: Increase market share by acquiring new customers hence improving revenue in Credit Card transactions.
4. In the next column — Possible Solutions — Write down in your view what are the possible solutions to solve this problem. Note: do not thing about the “How” or “method of the solution” simply thing of the solution that will solve this problem. Example: allowing customers to issue virtual credit online, using the online banking app. Or, issuing credit cards in 2–3 days to beat the competition. Think of the best or optimum solution to solve the problem.
5. Go down the list and enter the second problem and repeat the process above.
You should end up with a list of 4 to 6 problems. Then look at the problems that have the highest impact on the company. Solving the problems with the highest impact will give you the highest reward :-)
The next step is to share the list with your manager and get his/her feedback. Sometimes your superiors may have additional input about the problem that you may not be aware of, and so expand the first column — State the Problem. Each row should be a maximum of 4 to 5 lines, try to keep it simple as possible. Then share the list with other department heads, or other managers. Think of how the problems impact them and get their agreements (buy-ins). The more other coworkers agree with your list, the stronger your case will be In front of the management. And the more likely your list will be given priority.
Here is an example of a Problem Canvas from students during one of the courses that I do conducted:
Let us dive into the details of this Problem Canvas. The Impact of the problem is obvious, because our company is issuing credit cards in seven days to our customers, and hence our customer are getting their credit cards from our competition because they are issuing their credit cards in three days. Less time to serve the customer. Hence the impact is less customers for our company.
So what value will the company gain for solving this problem, higher customers, higher market share, potentially higher revenue as a result of those newly acquired customers.
In the Possible Solution(s) column, the best possible solutions is to issue credit cards in three days or less, to match or be better than the competition. Or provide a better innovative solution that is unmatched, allow our customers to issue Virtual Credit Cards on the spot in the online application, so they can use it for online purchases. From this point when you share this sheet with the senior management, they will most likely be convinced of the solution and then they can start looking for ways to implement those solutions by searching for vendors, by hiring consultants, or by doing a test on one of the solutions to see the result. With this approach you have a clear way on how to address the problem, and with the management buy in you can solve the problem as you showed them the doorway to the solution. And this is only one problem, imagine if you do this for six of your company’s biggest problems.
Here is another example of a Problem Canvas for a global payment service provider:
If you notice which one has the highest impact on the company? It would be number 3. Due to the Impact being a “security risk that could impact the environment”.
Once you share this with your management, chances are they would agree that solving this problem is a priority due to the potential risk it has on the company. This way they would give you the green light to go ahead and pursue a solution to the problem. By sharing the problem canvas with your peers and managers, most likely they would have other solution ideas that can be explored. Once you get buy-in from your peers, and you approach your top management, you can say:
“I spoke to John from Data Analysis on this, and he agreed we have to give it a high priority because of the risk impact it would have. This is in open flame that can cause havoc on our environment which can impact our customers experience. “
Once you have a clear Problem Canvas with 4 to 6 problems, and you highlighted the ones with the highest priority, then the next step to analyses the possible solutions. Different technology stacks can be applied to different problems, there is no one technology that can be applied to every problem. For example, blockchain technology is great at addressing problems related to fraud, counterfeit, quality standards, transaction settlement, and transaction processes. This is due to the nature of the technology’s architecture.
Open API technology is great at addressing problems related to data redundancy, data repetition, data procedures, transaction data related to multiple systems, and data repetition. Based on the problem defined you can approach consultants who specialize in this technology, and within one hour they should be able to tell you whether you need Blockchain, Open API, or AI (Artificial Intelligence) to resolve your problem. With Blockchain, there is a Blockchain Analysis document that will show you whether you need blockchain or not for your problem.
In the next article I will go through how to address a problem with Open API’s since it is the easiest to start with and it is based on the Fintech Open API Course held at BIBF — A financial technology training institution, which can be found here:
