What Issues Do Companies Face when They Grow?

Every company has a goal of becoming the best, outsmarting their competitors, and achieving maximum revenue as fast as possible. Companies lay down a set of resolutions for progress that will be a basic guide towards attaining the highest level of growth. Some of the decisions laid down are easily implemented while others are inhibited by issues faced by the company. Granet (2017) explains that company issues often range from financial problems, resource management, uncertainties, environmental issues, and regulations. Most of these problems cut across all small, middle-sized and large companies. The difference comes in when issues need to be handled, and solutions need to be found for the progress of the company. Every company needs to know how to get to the cause of the problem, analyzing the problem, and devising the most appropriate solutions. The management, therefore, has a crucial role to play in finding solutions. Leaders must display high levels of competency and professionalism to facilitate the future growth, sustainability, and relevance in the industry. While some companies may hold back when issues arise, others take it as an opportunity for exploring their potential by fixing problems that were initially unnoticed. Company issues are also dynamic and change with the environment (Granet, 2017). 

This study is relevant to entrepreneurs, managers and company employees. Managers will have a tool for practicing management in situations that prove to be difficult. This research shows a typical picture of business operations within and outside the organization. Entrepreneurs will find this fact to be significant before making first decisions. This study explains some of the problems a company faces during its daily operations. 

Regulation and Growth 

Company regulations are a set of measures that a company uses to protect the rights of employees on occupational health, safety, and for compliance with laws of a country. Regulations are essential in determining the relationship between countries in the same industry, operation of multinational companies and creating a sustainable environment for all kinds of businesses to thrive (Uzialko, 2018). 

Uzialko (2018) further states that regulation and compliance of the state laws have always been a challenge for most companies. Some companies see the rules as unnecessary, undesirable restrictions used by the government to kick the weak business operators out of the market. Other people argue that the government and other regulatory bodies should leave competitiveness and the forces of demand and supply to shape the market. The business environment is always changing, and the requirements of the laws are not going to end anytime soon. Uzialko (2018) uses a model to test the relationship between regulation and the growth of companies by analyzing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of countries between 1993 to 2002. The team found out that there is a definite correlation between the growth of a business and the regulation index. Policies have a direct impact on the behavior of investment by the company. Friendly business regulation has a positive effect on a company's productivity while unfriendly regulations deter effectiveness of companies' operation. The research emphasizes the need for countries to reform business regulations when designing growth policies by softening rules to appear less complex for smooth operations and survival in the market. 

From a recent report by business daily news by Uzialko, (2018), tax regulation changes, portable benefits rules, general data protection, affordable care act and paid sick leaves are some of the policies likely to affect most company operations this year in the majority of the world countries especially in America. He particularly emphasizes on the General Data Policy Protection (GDPR) because it is the newest policy in the European Union. With a lot of cyber-crimes in the world, a lot of regulation is being put in place to curb these issues and tighten worldwide network and data security as well. Company leaders should, therefore, be alert to significant developments expected. The policy is likely to develop across the world. Companies have no other option but to comply with the rules and regulations put in place by the government like paying taxes, paying customs duty and having trade licenses among others. 

Employability and Talent Management 

From research conducted by Nilsson (2011), talent management is an essential component of the strategies used by human resources of any company to ensure productivity. The study acknowledges Lewis and Heckman's (2006) conceptualizations of talent management which include a collection of typical functions of the human resource; 1) talent flows into the company and 2) a general perspective of talents that can be found in high-performance employees and high potential employees. Talent management is a vital component of a robust human resource team which is directly linked to the performance of the organization's success. Employability is a measure of competency and the ability an employee having the capacity to deliver when given an assignment under any circumstances. An individual's employability can be measured through general meta-competence and within the context of the specific profession. Talent possession is a significant factor in determining the employability of the individual. 

Strycharczyk (2017) argues that in the current world, Human resource managers find challenges in accessing the competencies of individuals, especially in a labor market full of learned individuals with high qualifications. Talent identification is subjected to predictive accuracy which is prone to biases. Identification of talents and competencies relevant to the job and matching with the appropriate talent package in a person is a big challenge. Companies should be flexible in selection of employees by focusing on competencies of their employees rather than the tasks needed to be done. Nilsson's study recommends construction, nurturing and shaping the workforce by an organization's human resource department rather than relying on outside environment to offer a package of a set of talent and skills that have been proved to be difficult to locate especially between short time frames. The study strictly insists on a long-term future-oriented mindset when securing and developing relevant talents to ensure the profitability of a company and long-term survival in the industry. 

In Strycharczyk's study on determination of employability (2017), pieces of advice are given on three key factors company employers can use to analyze an employee's employability. Employers need first to find out the kind of skills and knowledge they need in the organization. The second step is to find out the extent of the need by analyzing the gap in the human resource department. Lastly, employers have to assess how the measures taken will impact directly in the performance of the organization. 

Implementation of Innovative Technology 

According to a study conducted by Drach-Zahavy (2013), team composition is a factor promoting the creativity of a team and the outcome of the company's performance. The study used a moderated medium model to analyze the relationship between team composition and the responsiveness to the implementation of an innovation. This model sites that the nature of employees has a substantial impact on how they adapt to change. A team of creative individuals has a significant level of functioning towards the implementation of innovative practices adopted by the organization. Employees with a highly creative personality tend to help fellow team members in coming up with new ideas and implementing the plans available. Companies' human resource managers have a task of determining a personality in employees that will be more responsive to technological innovations in future. An employee-integrated system is essential in getting every employee on board and encouraging teamwork. 

The planning of the technology before its adoption is a significant factor that determines how best the result of implementation can be. From an example of different schools adopting the same technique but performing differently, Nilsson (2011) emphasizes the need to lay down strategies first before introducing new technology. Key considerations should be particularly placed on how the technology will be used, who will use the technology and appropriate measure of the progress of technology invention. Money is a constraining factor towards the implementation of the technology. Nilsson (2011) recommends a program that meets a variety of needs at the same time to save on unnecessary costs. Monitoring and evaluation is the key to a successful program. After realizing the cost implications of technological innovation, a company can make a decision either to go ahead with it or to abandon it. 

Fluctuations and Uncertainties 

According to Bloom (2014), uncertainty is the probability of the distribution of events commonly related to the concept of risk where there is a 50 percent chance of failure and a 50 percent chance of success. The study sites that uncertainty can be measured with a wide range of proxies. This study mainly uses the volatility of the stock market and the GDP in determining the levels of risks and uncertainties. Fluctuations have a pattern of rising highly during recession periods. Recessions have been proved to be the primary period for instability of the stock market, bond markets, and exchange rates. Businesses also experience cycles commonly known as shocks in operations. These shocks arise due to price fluctuations, wars, hiking of fuel prices and financial panics. The uncertainty is experienced most by companies in developing countries from the nature of their volatile GDP growth rate, stock markets, and exchange rates. Fluctuations can be both short term and long term. Uncertainties have a direct impact on the operations of the business. For example, investment policies from the chief executive officers and shareholders may tighten during bad economic times because most of them won't want to lose their invested assets. 

Uncertainties also have a direct effect on demand for a company's goods and services. Economic variations lead to the difference in the rate of spending by the consumers. With these fluctuations, it is always challenging for companies to recover after periods of recession. Decision makers are equally faced with challenges of providing employment or making important decisions on investments. Uncertainties also have a negative impact on equipment investment, research, and development. 

The study also mentions that uncertainty measures vary across countries. According to Hudon and Sandberg (2013) the wages and income volatility directly affect the operations of a company. During a recession period, the rate of unemployment is high, and there will be fluctuations in the level of income. Company workers experiencing this kind of variations change their operations to reduce company outcomes directly. However, In the long run, Bloom mentions that uncertainty may have a growth impact to a company in situations when the company's projects take longer to be completed or if the firm can expand to exploit great outcomes by insuring itself against uncertainties. 

Business Ethics 

In today's economy, the business faces a lot of challenges related to morality. Everyone is crazy about wealth accumulation regardless of the means. People are pushed more towards illegal means of wealth accumulation through theft, corruption, and lies. Company executives become victims to these issues, or sometimes they take part in them. Such habits cause trust issues and straining relationships between employers and employees, customers and company's stakeholders. The eventual result is a tarnish of the image of an industry (Hudon & Sandberg, 2013). 

According to Hudon & Sandberg, (2013), some of the ethical issues in most companies include taking advantage of some clients by selfishly earning extra from services rendered to them and goods sold. Most clients fall victims of such occurrences due to old age, illiteracy, and physical impairment. Hudon & Sandberg further highlight some of the unethical behaviors within the organization like drug abuse, sexual harassment, blackmail and in consideration of employees' welfare. 

In a separate study done by Flores and Chatziantoniou (2017), issues on cyber ethics are rising at a high rate. Employees can sometimes access social media platforms in the working places while they should be working. This habit is a total waste of quality time and resources that would otherwise be brought into more efficient use. In a well-networked business system, employers can easily monitor how their employees use the internet by mails, social media, browser history, and website. Some employers take advantage of this privilege to invade the privacy of their employees. In such cases, employers need to inform the employees of the presence of a surveillance system that monitors their move. 

In some companies, there are instances of favoritism of some employees or seclusion based on personal interest. This is a poor way of leadership that can give rise to bitterness, resentment and eventual loss of employees. Some leaders within the organization might act as poor role models by ignoring the company's rules. This habit demotivates the employees and may encourage more ill behavior within the organization 

The Question of Corporate Social Responsibility 

From a study conducted by Porter and Kramer (2006), there is a need for every company to serve the society within which it operates. The media has actively been on the forefront in reporting actions of some companies concerning social responsibility. This idea's Popularity is gradually growing in most of the countries across the world. The core characteristics of corporate social responsibility include voluntary action, preserving a set of business practices and values, beyond philanthropy and alignment to social and economic value creation. However, there have been disputes on whether the act is mandatory or not. Most company managers feel the responsibility should solely rely on the profitability of the company and no one should be forced. Kramer emphasizes that the act should entirely be a matter of a charity deed that can be a source of innovation and competitive advantage. If companies have a positive perception of CSR as and opportunity rather than a way of fixing the societal damage, this mindset will be the pivot to competitive success. 

Porter and Kramer further propose new ways to look at the relationships between the business and the society without interfering with the growth of the organization. The two recommend a framework to be used by individual companies to identify social consequences of their actions; to discover beneficial opportunities to the society and the company and to find out the most effective ways of undertaking the CSR initiatives. 

Organizational Structure 

Felipe A Csaszar's (2009) uses theoretical and empirical studies gives a relationship between the organizational structure and the performance of companies using a mathematical model. The choice of the organization design by a company has a direct impact on innovativeness, speed of operations and income. From the study it was concluded that decentralized organizational structures are more useful because they are open to accepting more projects, they rarely make omission errors but make commission errors. On the contrary, centralized organizational structures have lower chances of growth because of reduced communication levels. According to Felipe, designing the most appropriate organizational structure is always challenging to the organization. 

Internal Politics and Mismanagement 

Politics shift the attention from the core business to less important matters and thus exposing the company to competitors and external threats. According to a study conducted by El-Haji (2004). Office politics can be more dangerous in the organization because it sometimes involves deliberate disregard of the rules of a company. Company politics are a manifestation of self-interest, greed and power struggle. The most severe effect is that it splits the employees into two or more groups which are the most opportune ground for breaching organizational policies. The management of an organization should always be aware of possibilities of a rise in political players and be smart enough to counter them in time before damage is caused. Building a job evaluation framework in a political environment is challenging due to frequent chaos, divided interest, and management frustration. There is a possibility of a weakened management system and demotivation of employees. 

Conclusion 

In today's world of increasing technologies, upcoming markets as well as emerging consumer demands, organizations must surface too, out of the old markets into emerging ones if they are to thrive and grow. For some business, this implies reinventing themselves. While for others, it is simply seeking more creative methods and ways to ensure that their business remains relevant. Most private companies in the world are keenly aware of this aspect. They only don't view creativity and innovation as a beautiful thing to embrace but rather as an essential means of remaining significant in the game. This mindset is why more than 75 percent of the private business key leaders surveyed in the past decades are significantly making creativity a key priority. Creativity is the key to solutions of most problems nowadays. Businesses that continue to make this aspect as a priority are advancing faster than their non-innovating counterparts. From many statistical forecasts, creative/ innovative companies record a substantial revenue increase rate of more than 8 percent, compared to non-innovators that recorded only growth of 5 percent. 

From above discussions, it is evident that regulation is the main issue experienced by companies in their daily operations. Most companies in the world operate in an imperfect market where the government itself determines means of production, products, and channels of distribution. Companies cannot control this issue, and they have no choice but to comply. Like regulations, Fluctuations and uncertainties are also uncontrollable within the organization. The company. Every company within the same industry experiences the same level of risk. The only way to differentiate one company from the other is how they deal with issues of uncertainty and fluctuations. 

Responses to innovation, employability, ethics, organizational structure, internal politics and corporate social responsibility are internal and within the control of the business. Solutions to these issues can be easily reached out through organized meeting and consultation with experts. They are therefore short-term issues. However, companies do not need to be relaxed when finding a solution to short-term issues. Negligence can cause them to pile up and lead to long-term permanent problems that may cost the institution. Furthermore, Companies need to take all issues positively because they will always be there during most of their operation. Restructuring a company to include a department that forecasts future risks, analyzes them and finds solutions to issues is fundamental. Consultancy and outsourcing risk analyst professional can also be vital. Frequent audits are mandatory because they expose even the most hidden risks. 

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