Beware of unsustainable success

Growth isn’t always great, says Neil Glentworth of Brisbane based information management firm, Glentworth.

In Queensland, our mining sector is used as a light on the hill for the rest of the economy because of record levels of growth.

So far, the $1.126 billion invested in resource exploration last financial year represents a 23 per cent leap from the previous year. One may even go so far to say it’s dragging the rest of the state kicking and screaming into a new mining boom.

This is always good on the surface, with the mining companies pulling in further investment and boosting business confidence.

It gives flow on benefits, especially for professional service firms who rely on the burgeoning industry as their bread and butter.

It’s also a monumental shift for the labour force, pushing the centre of gravity and pulling people from all sectors into a promising career in resources.

However, one misconception is that this level of growth has no negative side effects.

Growth, without the right management and planning approaches can be unsustainable and result in loss of investment, staff and ultimately reputation.

If you’re going to grow faster than everyone else, you have to be smarter than everyone else to keep up with what your business is doing. 

Picture a car that is going so fast, the wheels are falling off – its great fun until something goes wrong.

The car analogy is a useful reminder that the resources sector needs to visualise when they see their forward growth forecasts.

But it’s not all doom and gloom – merely a message of advice. Make sure your wheels are on tight and you’ve got a spare before you take off on that hill-winding road trip called the mining boom.

Glentworth’s work with Queensland resource companies has given us experience firsthand how the bonds of information holding organisations together can struggle to keep going at business as usual.

This means corporate strategy, human resources, finance and communications are having difficulty keeping pace with the rest of the organisation down-stream.

A one-size-fits all approach fails to accommodate organisational nuances and unique features often found in organisations the size of our monolithic miners. The best way to avoid having to double-back and redesign systems around staff and process that already exist is to scope the scale of the information opportunity before the activity begins.

You wouldn’t put the wheels on half way down the road would you?

ABOUT GLENTWORTH

Glentworth is an information management specialist firm, who help organisations identify better ways to maximise efficiencies, minimise risk and ultimately grow their business value. By showing businesses how to unlock information from within, Glentworth gives them the tools and advice to make better decisions for the long-term.