I love solving problems!

About the Author:  Tim Rippon, MBCI, has been recognised by the BCI for his involvement and efforts in Business Continuity, receiving the ‘Continuity and Resilience Professional (Private Sector)’ 2015 Australasian BCI Award. Having worked in various industry sectors in a diverse range of roles, Tim has a far-reaching network of industry professionals with whom he engages regularly and from whom he is able to draw upon for advice and support. Tim has commenced writing LinkedIn articles to share some of his unique views and experiences. Tim recently 'activated / invoked' his Business Continuity Plan and now runs his own consultancy 'elasticus'.

Article:

Seems my whole life I have been a problem solver.

As a young child I enjoyed playing with Lego, building houses, trains, tractors, farm machinery, space ships. Often I did not follow the instructions and built my own monstrosities, occasionally a complete mess, often improving the design to meet my needs at the time. For example bigger wheels were required for an off road car, then came shock absorbers and a more rigid frame so it would not fall apart. I now see that I was very agile in my approach, by incorporating continuous design improvements.

These lessons early on in life taught me many great things, something I now see my young children learning when they play with their toys. Patience and never giving up were always key to a successful outcome. Being part of a team and working together is required, the occasional spat between the two kids results in one being upset, and ultimately damage and destruction of what was created occurs.

As the years go by I see the problems becoming more complex and the solutions being innovative in ways I previously thought were not possible. Words like start-up, stakeholder management, requirements gathering, needs analysis, funding constraints, resourcing, scope creep, all come into play.

The great thing is that there are some innovative solutions out there to solve problems.

Developing my new business over the past three years has opened my eyes to what is available at a very reasonable price, for the value returned.

For example I now have a fully integrated back office whereby my contacts are updated between my accounting solution, CRM tool, mailout facility, and general office solution for email, documents, spreadsheets and presentations. No overheads required in terms of servers sitting in a data centre with the whole solution being cloud based and information passed securely between the relevant platforms using a bureau type service.

Effectively I have engaged these suppliers to provide a stable and redundant platform. As a small business using third parties can be a very resource effective approach, allowing me to focus on deliverables required to run a successful business. I still own the risk from a security and resilience perspective, hence will need to respond accordingly should a key supplier fail, or a data breach occur, a calculated risk I am willing to take, as they have considerably more resources and infrastructure in place to combat these issues.

Solving complex problems is in my DNA and works well when done in consultation with others, many others. I am not the expert, however my wide network of contacts allows me to draw upon multiple views to solve problems. I learn amazing things from other people frequently and I know many of my acquaintances have learnt all sorts of things from me over the years.

So I put the challenge out to you. If you have a problem that is costing a lot of money, time, or effort, then why not have a chat to me. I may be able to help in ways that were never imagined.

I look forward to the day my children become adults and become astute problem solvers in their own right. I hope they can make the world a more positive place and do great things for mankind.

For more information, feel free to contact me directly or take a look at the elasticus website:

elasticus

1800 753 139

info@elasticus.com.au

www.elasticus.com.au