Future-proofing your organizations

There is a very important question that constantly plagues the minds of responsible business executives. It is a question that, as considered by many, a crucial one.

How do you future-proof your business organization?

Future-proofing is minimizing the possible strains of future. This is an important aspect of running a business; this is business survival.

We have watched businesses take over other businesses in the same field, we see newer ideas challenge the previous ideas and win. We see constant dominance of innovative ideas over the old ones. We see change.

Things are rapidly changing, we are moving fast towards the age of technology dominance. And those that can’t keep up, fall.

The answer to this is to simply adapt to change.

Those who adapt to change fare better. They develop ideas that adapt to present, ideas that can change with the changing society. These ideas can future-proof a business.

Companies invite me to speak on creativity and innovation. Gary Hamel is right when he says: “Many business organizations run by business executives are hostage to heritage, imprisoned in precedence and are allied to apathy.”

These are strong words from an author and a business consultant who has been around for years. He has seen the demise of top organizations not because of the economic recession, but because of their inability to adapt to change.

How do you build a company that can change as fast as change itself? This is virtually impossible because the company would have to be years ahead.

But look at successful companies today. They may not have been inventive in all things original but they definitely are adaptive to change.

The benchmarks are few:

1. Google

2. Amazon

3. Apple

Apple is now going through immense challenges and currently the favorite punching bag of business speakers who hate their current decisions. But somehow, I do think that Apple can regain its reputation as a cool tech company if they focus on more inventive ideas.

These companies have shown the ability to change and adapt. They only did two things:

1. Transforming their ideas

2. Inventing new ones

They did it without performance slop. And let me remind you one thing: THESE COMPANIES ARE RELATIVELY YOUNG.

They still carry with them their revolutionary sense of spirit, led by visionary leaders.

Google did not invent the search engine; Yahoo and others dominated it before Google did. Apple did not invent the iPod, the portable music industry was then dominated by Sony Walkman and the Mp3 player was first introduced popularly in the market by a brand called ‘Rio’. I brought one and hated it for its poor functionality. Laptop dominated the PC. Amazon entered the scene when Barnes and Nobles and Borders dominated the book industry.

If you are young, you have no recourse but to challenge the incumbents with a revolutionary idea. And once you become successful, you have to maintain it.

Also, let me remind you that the problem with change is that it can cause discomfort, because well-paid, high status business executives and decision makers do not want to be dislodged from their comfort zones.

When competition for ideas becomes competition for turfs, the decline begins. In many failing business organizations, you see same things happening:

1. Competition becomes internal – executives protecting their turfs and sucking up to the chief.

2. There is visible lack of leadership skills because they simply lack leadership training.

3. They want everything ‘in-house’ and so there is in-breeding of ideas and deprive themselves insights from external sources.

4. De-motivated employees feel that they are not going anywhere.

These are the signs of a business organization that is on its danger trail.

Challenge your people to change, welcome ideas especially from the young and forget turf-protection. Channel energy towards exploring new products, offerings and possibilities.

Train your people to become ‘change junkies’ and get your leaders to be so inspiring that ideas will flow and fly constantly.

(Spend two inspiring days with Francis Kong learning leadership and life skills as he presents Level Up Leadership on June 24-25 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel. For further inquiries contact Inspire at 09158055910 or 6310912 for details.)