The dilemma facing the CEO: How can my business identify impending disruptions early on?
23 Nov 2022
The dilemma facing the CEO: How can my business identify impending disruptions early on?
According to market analysis, Kodak declared bankruptcy two months prior to Facebook purchasing Instagram for $1 billion. How did "Instagram" take use of the chance that Kodak passed up? The majority of people dismiss Kodak, claiming that they did not anticipate the "digital" movement! This is entirely untrue, as the first digital camera was invented in 1975 by Steven Sasson, a Kodak engineer. Despite having a significant technological advantage of two decades, Kodak failed to catch the entire business world. One explanation could be that Steve Sasson was asked by numerous Kodak executives, "Who would want to see images on a screen when it is so cheap to print them?" This was an excellent, unproven, and uncontested premise that eventually led to the famous statement "Uber yourself before you get Kodak-ed".
Dear CEO, does this keep you up at night?
CEOs don't need to be reminded of the value of spotting the next big opportunity or potential disruption. Informed of it. According to the most recent McKinsey Global Report on the state of New-Business Building, more than half of the CEOs surveyed ranked new-business development as a top priority; they anticipated that these new businesses would generate 50% of their revenues over the next five years; and, most importantly, they said that they would be a great source of resilience for their organisations. Despite all of these admissions, even when disruptive threats and advantageous changes are right in their line of sight, many, if not most, CEOs fail to recognise them. Why is that so? One compelling argument is that organizational mechanisms to sense and understand changes early.
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance by Louis Gerstner demonstrates how even a massive giant like IBM can become nimble with the right processes in place. Many of Gerstner's suggestions for improvement are a result of his conversations with customers and IBM's front-line staff. Similar to this, Microsoft's struggles with failing to capitalise on several business technological advances can be attributed to failing to heed early signals from their own staff, such as Payne's years-long battle for a meeting with Bill Gates or the team whose 2008 tablet pitch was rejected by Steve Ballmer. The "Hit Refresh" book by Satya Nadella is a fascinating read about how Microsoft is modernising itself. Similar to this, it's common to miss outside cues.
Frontline workers, business owners, futurists, early adopters, and similar individuals. How well-connected are you to these stakeholder groups? How attentively are you hearing their voices? How capable are your frontline staff members, in particular, of identifying possible disruptions, opportunities, or changes?
How frequently, frequently, and strongly are you—the CEO—connected to these workers on the front lines?
An fascinating group to learn from are startup founders who live on the cutting edge and take these peripheral changes on early. Do you have any involvement in their startup experiments? Early adopters of technological discontinuities and futurists continue to identify new trends. Are you using their channels in any way?
We are surrounded with fascinating examples of how to avoid "being Kodak-ed." The "kickbox" scheme from Adobe gives everyone in the company news an equal chance at contributing to the next innovation.
Democratising strategic initiatives gives Adobe's CEOs the opportunity to hear objections from all organisational levels. Titan's "Innovation School of Management" is yet another illustration of how to encourage innovation among all employees. Both Reliance Industries Limited's JioGenNext and Cisco's Launchpad programme for startups are intriguing because they allow early-stage companies to test and expand their technologies and get a head start on future trends.
Conclusion:
A previous entrepreneurial act led to every successful business that exists today. The core of entrepreneurial action is recognising, grasping, and utilising opportunities. When you examine startups, you'll see that the founders devote an excessive amount of time to identifying opportunities. However, when businesses grow, they start to put more emphasis on efficiency, economies, and enrichment than on possibilities.