HR Pulse

We need to change the way we do business - fast

A lot of time, energy and money are being spent these days on, for example:

• Getting corporate results back on track;
• Getting ahead;
• Being better than the competition;
• Winning customer loyalty;
  
  
  
• Building the most desirable brand; and
• Winning investor approval.

Progress is measured by how much better a business does these things in the new business cycle compared to the previous one.

Managing results is not as predictable as it used to be

If success equals results minus expectations, then corporate executives have certainly become better at managing down expectations. Despite all of the sophisticated developments published by the business intelligentsia (business schools, consultants, etc.) the recent challenges of business remain and the economy still seems to be running its own course.

The way most companies are trying to meet the challenge of growth in this context is through essentially doing more: Longer hours, smarter employees, better systems, more sophisticated strategies, better business intelligence... and so the cycle continues.

But more work does not mean more results.

Many companies are on the plateau of the curve of diminishing returns. More effort is not a sustainable strategy for growth.

Change keeps happening but we aren’t adjusting our work patterns to respond to this

The only difference is that business patterns have become more sophisticated:

• E-mail has replaced conversation;
• Emotion has been added to intelligence; 
• The matrix structure has replaced the conventional hierarchy; and
• Ecology has been added to economy.

The fact that work patterns have not changed substantially is a huge problem. The current work paradigm has reached its operating limits and it is showing up as a plateau in business’s growth trajectory.

More effort from within the existing business paradigm will only push business past its operating limits. At some point, any system that is pushed past its limits will break and when the paradigm breaks, businesses fail and turmoil will occur in the economy.

The way we work has to be reconceptualised

A new paradigm is emerging and challenging some of the first principles of business. For example, value creation does not need not be confined within a company’s borders.

Customers have become adept at crafting solutions for themselves and others like themselves. Companies don’t have exclusive rights to this role anymore, but they can play a role by providing the platform for customers to create value. One way in which this phenomenon can play out for business is that the role of business can change from creating products and services to providing value-transfer platforms.

The rules of the game have changed past the proverbial point of no return

Business, especially big business, may be able to continue for a little while longer on the old paradigm. It may seem like an appealing choice for executives who have just a few years of tenure left. But the market has “come into its own” and laypersons and entrepreneurs are pioneering a new way. Time is shrinking. Business can evolve kicking and screaming or it can participate in designing the new paradigm. Change will go on irrespective. Evolution will not wait until we are ready.