What lies ahead, just around the corner….

What lies ahead, just around the corner….

It is with tentativeness that I write about the transitions that we are journeying through. Tentative: because so much has been written about it already and would this article just be one more to add to the clutter?

Let me share what I am witnessing:

Emergence of new business models – newer organizations are emerging with low ‘brick and mortar’ presence. Processes are being re-written and transformed rapidly to enable fulfilment at the touch of a few buttons. Viola! need is satisfied. 

Consumer insights – traditional segmentation is giving way: Consumers are not this and that. They are this, that and more. Studying cohorts of consumers and using predictive analysis is now the new ways of target segmentation. 

Re-defining Assets – gone are the days, when assets were visible: towers, buildings, etc. Today most organizational assets are inherent in platforms, ‘ways of working’, agile strategy, etc. Computing power has exponentially increased yet inexpensively allowing us to make breakthroughs, chief of them – breaking codes. Do you recall how Alan Turin cracked the Enigma Code?

Just in time – this was confined to logistics, now directed to the final consumer. Consumers have access to unbelievable SKU’s, and fulfillment and route to gratification is but a few digital clicks away.

New paradigms in design – we now have access to digital prototypes. Make, re-assemble, test, re-test – all done digitally. Imagine the lowering of costs, and ‘speed to market’ on innovative products. 

These are but a sprinkling of change we can see around us, which will only exponentially rise. 

Imperatives for Organisation – to survice this VUCA organisations need to scan the environment continuously, take big bets, anticipate opportunity and create the future, while continuously learning and adapting. Individuals learning is not just enough, the organsiation as a whole will require to be agile and enable an agile strategy. However, most critical it is for leaders to have an agile mindset.

This task cannot be left to HR alone. While HR responds to Business how does business respond to the environment? This requires collective awareness and a call for action. HR must disrupt itself: it must recognize and support the coming together of both the ‘dominant logic’ and the ‘dominant psyche’ of the organization: through that lens ensure all work systems, work processes, information flows, capability mechanisms, and leadership initiatives are ‘inter-connected’ for mutuality and collaboration.

I advocate small and agile squad teams: many squadrons that work seamlessly together: creating the network for new possibilities. 

Leadership pyramids that currently exist, need critical re-examination. 

The first step to Change is Awareness.