TOP 10 BUSINESS CHALLENGES COMPANIES FACE AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM

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Let's face the fact: every company, from start-ups to enterprises up to the big brands, faces challenges. These challenges come in different shades and forms, which will be treated shortly. 

As businesses grow, they realize that there are some unseen challenges they may not have encountered because of their current levels. Some companies may not even realize the challenges until they are at their core.

In this article, we'll be taking a close look at the top 10 business challenges companies face and how they could overcome these challenges. 

These challenges cover everything from inflation and a downturn in the economy to accelerating technological advancements up to cybersecurity, and the way out will be discussed. 

So, whether you're a start-up, an enterprise, or a big brand in the industry, this article comes with some recommendations.

Let's quickly begin our journey into uncovering the business challenges companies face.

What is a Business Challenge?

A business challenge refers to any obstacle a company faces that hampers its growth and possibility of success. 

These challenges could be based on different factors, which every company must pay attention to and seek ways to overcome.

Top 10 Challenges Companies Face and How to Overcome Them

Every business, at one point in time, faces different kinds of challenges—it's kind of a normal occurrence. 

If these challenges are not countered by the requisite solutions, it will be an even worse challenge to see growth in the company. 

Here, we'll discuss the top 10 business challenges that companies face and how to overcome them:

Challenge #1: Inflation and Downturn in the Economy

According to the report made by the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF had downgraded its forecast for global growth by 2.9%. 

This report was given to support the citation on the rising risks of financial instability and recession around the world. 

As the years go by, the prices of products and services change because of certain factors that cause inflation and a downturn in the economy. 

These changes put businesses in a position where they have to make stringent decisions about how to grow.

In order to overcome this challenge, companies should establish end-to-end, actionable visibility of spending through the different operational processes they carry out. 

They have to look into ways of optimizing every single process carried out in the company.

Challenge #2: Increasing Customer Expectations

One challenge that almost every company that had scaled their business faced was how they could meet increasing customer expectations. 

Every day, customers walk into businesses to patronize them. When they do, they are not just seeking to make a purchase but also to gain an excellent customer experience from the company. 

Even for businesses that operate digitally, customers still desire a better experience. It seems that each day that passes raises the bar of expectations for customers, which they must meet.

To be able to overcome this challenge, companies should seek ways in which they can increase the value they give to customers, either through their products or the services they offer.

Challenge #3: Accelerating Technological Advancements

Since the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI), business processes are constantly being augmented. 

AI now takes care of jobs that humans could do. The development of 5G, the cloud, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are technological advancements that companies have to embrace. 

This would have to make every company seem like an IT company. This sounds great, right? 

But the challenge comes as there may not be skilled personnel who could meet this advance per time even as it accelerates, and it could cause a drawback to companies.

One way to overcome this challenge is for companies to re-design their processes and train personnel who can manage these ever-advancing technologies in the company's best interest.

Challenge #4: Coping with Market Competition

The competition that companies face in the marketplace is so great that, if not handled properly, it could be the reason a business fails. 

Every company strives to meet customers' demands as well as stay relevant through an operational excellence mindset, improving sales and marketing strategies, cash flow management, and the value they offer customers. 

Since the marketplace is not a perfect market system, companies are in constant competition with themselves to be the best and most sought-after. 

For instance, there are several companies that produce mobile phones, gadgets, and laptops. Due to the competition, they all try to increase the value they render to customers.

To overcome this challenge, companies must have unique value propositions and also increase the value they give to customers. 

They can also improve their sales and marketing strategies and customer service.

Read also: Simple guide on how best to conduct market research for your business

Challenge #5: Uncertainties about the Future

A great number of businesses have this unspoken fear about their future. Though many businesses may have systems in place to sort out this kind of challenge, many don't. 

Sometimes, companies, especially the executive board, may have thoughts on what they must do to stay relevant in the business world. 

The uncertainty of what the future holds for their company may be a challenge, but it certainly has a way out.

To overcome this challenge, companies could hire professionals who are able to study all-important market trends and make excellent predictions that can help actualize the company's short-, mid-, and long-term goals.

Challenge #6: Preserving a Good Reputation

Many times, businesses are perceived as either favourable or not, viable or not, mainly through customer reviews. 

This gives them an online image, which invariably translates into offline perception. 

In a bid to meet customer demands, companies may shift their focus to improving their products or services, which affects how customers make reviews about them. 

The company does all it can to preserve its reputation, which is as important as the company itself. 

Although there are many companies that fall short of preserving their reputational history, this is not to say there's no way out.

To overcome this sort of challenge, companies must be aware of platforms where customers can share their views on their experiences with them. 

They should also be responsive to either positive or negative reviews, making it clear what their companies stand for. 

Also, companies must learn to promote themselves and their employees through reviews from employees, as this will help preserve the companies' reputation.

Challenge #7: Retention of Employees

This seems to be a serious challenge that companies face. Many companies have seen employees come and go over time. 

Sometimes they lose capable hands for different reasons. The main reason companies hire employees is to find the best fit for the job. 

After they do, they offer training to these employees and educate them properly about the positions they are to fill. Doing this really takes time and resources. 

But, after all these, employees still get to change jobs really often, which could affect the operations of the companies they leave, their resources, and their general output.

Companies that intend to overcome this challenge must learn to appreciate the efforts of their employees, supply them with very appealing benefits, and offer them a competitive salary for the positions they occupy.

Read also: Are you struggling with Employee Retention? Here are 7 Best Strategies that could help you

Challenge #8: Data Analysis

The amount of data companies gather from different sources about customers' experiences with businesses to help them improve has kept increasing over the past decade. 

In the last two years, there's been a surge in over 90% of data input by companies. 

This increase is based on the increase in all processes companies are involved in to get as much data as they can for their businesses. 

As a result, the cloud for storing information was developed, but this poses more challenges to companies as they now have so much data that they must analyze before coming to a particular decision point.

To overcome this challenge, companies should utilize proper tools. There are powerful business intelligence tools that are capable of extracting valuable information from the raw data they've gathered. 

With a custom ETL (extract, transform, and load) system, data scientists could get the most value out of the extracted information.

Challenge #9: Cybersecurity

In the last two years, cybersecurity has been one of the biggest business challenges many companies have faced. 

With the increase in users' personal information comes the risk of data leaks when it's not handled properly. This makes businesses a main target for scammers and hackers. 

Some of the areas of threat that companies need to watch out for from hackers include the fact that hackers are exploring new ways to hack companies' databases. 

Also, with the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), there would be so much user information to play with, and companies would risk attack from hackers.

To overcome this business challenge, companies must implement very tight cybersecurity measures that counteract the schemes of hackers and scammers.

Challenge #10: Balancing Quality and Growth

One of the goals companies have is to be able to deliver quality products and services even as they grow, but often times it doesn't work as planned. 

As companies grow, they expand into new markets and broaden their scope of activities. 

This implies that huge investments in workforce, office spaces, and operational expenses would have to be made before a significant profit could be seen. 

Now, what happens if their expenses outweigh their revenue? There is a high probability that they will reduce the quality of their products and services.

To overcome this business challenge, companies should clearly understand their growth criteria and what they want to achieve. 

When they speed up their growth processes too quickly, their customer experience may weaken and operational inconsistencies may rise. 

So, it's best to approach this challenge with ease rather than consistently seeking instant profits.

Conclusion

It's a known fact that every business, at some point in time, faces one form of challenge or another. The good thing here is that there are ways to overcome these challenges. This article has presented the top 10 challenges companies face and the requisite ways to overcome them. 

As a corporation, an enterprise, or even a start-up, you need to take these challenges seriously and begin applying the stated ways to overcome them.