Posted by Paul Anderson
How prepared are you to survive in this New-Age Business Landscape?
It’s an uncertain world where businesses operate on fluctuating norms. To defend the market position and remain competitive, businesses need to stay on top of the change.
Leigh Buchanan Editor-In-Chief, Inc Magazine has brought forth the viewpoints of Management Expert Ram Charan on this issue. Below given is our take on this topic along with selective pointers (paraphrased) from the Inc article. Take a look –
The present business landscape is uncertain like never before. With new technologies coming up in the horizon every day and consumers becoming both fickle-minded and finicky – companies need to be agile or be ready to have their market destroyed and get thrown over the cliff.
That’s the thinking that we all have developed in the last four to five years.
BUT shockingly the scenario has changed!!! Learn how:
Now simply being agile will not do. Instead of waiting for change to happen and then embracing it – companies need to initiate the change. Instead of being change embracers, they need to be change creators.
Understand – Gone are the days when responding to the changes kept a business on top. Today to sustain being on the threshold of success and growth – businesses need to anticipate the oncoming external disruptions and pioneer those. This is the new business imperative and right from the small and medium-sized business entrepreneurs to CEOs of the world’s largest corporations—need to adopt the tactic. C-level executives need to develop this ‘perceptual acuity’ to see the imminent developments around the corners and implement them in the best possible manner.
Of course companies will face challenges taking up this new role. It will require a severe change of business processes and operations. The age-old business conventions will break off.
First, the C-level executives will have to bypass the silos and come ‘up close and personal’ with the customers. Preferably, a zero-distance relationship where the leaders interact directly with the end consumers to stay abreast of their present preferences and plausible wants and needs! The objective is to keep an eye on all the people who are creating change: the catalysts.
Second, a keen technologist mindset will be required. That’s the best way to move fast. In fact that’s what most successful firms have been doing since decades. Example: General Electrics (GE) who has garnered the leading position in the market by being the pioneer in new-age machines, sensors and software.
While technology has forever ruled the roost of business – there has been a clear distinction between companies who have embraced this and the ones who haven’t. However – today it’s not really a question of whether a company wants to be technologically savvy or not.
Not venturing into latest enterprise software development as per the process requirements will only take the business down the hill.
The question is: Whether you want to take that risk?
It’s easy to be Technologically Driven
Getting in the frame of technology is not as difficult as it seems to be. Some of the CEOs (to the fast growing small and medium-sized businesses) are the best examples who’ve made their business large with a few simple technological measures.
Let’s say: keeping a tab on every process/department to figure out the existing loopholes and then reaching out to the best software product design & development service provider – to solve it.
What is important to note is that these business entrepreneurs do not have an inherent technological side. They just hire the resources and discuss their raw software product ideas with them. It is these professionals who align leading technologies to your business needs and eventually deliver a software product that overcomes your business bottlenecks and takes your business forward.
Leigh states – Decades ago, it would take a business fifty years to attain a global fame and credibility. But digitization and technology has enabled companies to upscale in months. And the businesses who have paid attention to these two areas have been the real gainers. Looking at these several live case studies, every organization is hell bent on understanding the capabilities of the technology and what can it do for a business. That’s precisely why you get to see so many seminars and webinars taking place. The objective is simple: networking.
Every size and type of businesses is creating broad and informed networks inside and outside to interact with business and technological leaders across the world. That’s the best way to stay abreast of the technological developments, right?’’
Final Key Takeaway
Jeff Bezos has commented that every Monday morning he sits with his team, and discusses “What can we do better for the customer?’’
That’s exactly the attitude that businesses need to have: i.e. the urge to serve customers better by knowing their changing preferences and embracing the leading technology to deliver that. They cannot do away by merely concentrating on their own realm. The key is to look beyond the company – globally and in different industries to perceive the developments and continuously improve the business.
Holding weekly sessions with employees to talk about the seeds of change that will/might dominate the future business landscape is a welcome idea. Activities can range from simple discussion on any spotted anomaly to even presentation on potential structural changes. Practicing this regularly will not just keep the owner on check but also make the team members know what to look for and become familiar with it.
