Many start-up companies are on the rise. Technology has provided them the means to invent things and offer services in ways that were never offered before.
Some of these start-up businesses grow and even disrupt the incumbents. Technology has leveled the playing grounds in a lot of ways.
Who would have thought that young college dropouts in Silicon Valley would become some of the richest entrepreneurs of the world today? And my mother used to tell me that anyone who performs poorly at school will never amount to anything in life.
Tsk…Tsk...Tsk!
A lot of attention has been focused on the new companies. They grab the technology press’ headlines. They are the toasts of the town.
But, we also need to take a look at the incumbents and study their situation.
Organizations go through a life cycle of starting up, growing, maturing, and eventually declining—that is, unless they reinvent themselves. This is the area of struggle to a lot of businesses that I know. They doubt if they can keep up with the changing times.
A business is usually founded when someone comes up with a clear vision of the world as an improved place in the future. The fire is there. The passion is to create things. That kind of emotion is extremely contagious.
And so, the founder builds a team of equally passionate people and they grow the business. There are new territories to be explored and new markets to penetrate. They become the talk of the town and the headlines of business columns and press reports.
But then, life happens. That improved world quickly becomes an ordinary world. Many things happen in between the years. Some people leave their organizations, others get promoted and assigned to regional offices, “new blood” comes into the work place, and the organization approaches maturity.
People grow old, systems become obsolete and irrelevant and here is where all the trouble begins.
Getting orders become effortless “repeat orders.” They control the retail spaces; they know all the buyers and the merchandisers and they just go into the motion of doing business. In other words, the business organization gets too comfortable.
The passion is gone, the pioneering spirit disappears, and everyone is just going through the motion.
For family businesses, the organization becomes complicated. Children grow up, relatives come into the picture and the talented kids do not really want to work for the family business.
When new people come and challenge the status quo, the senior officers protect their turf and resist change. Some of them may have grown too tired or the rest may have grown too old and they no longer have the energy nor the interest to learn and to try new things.
This starts the decline of the business organization. Their only equity is their “loyalty” but they may no longer have the new competencies in order to adapt to the changing times.
Other companies continue to grow. While they are big, they refuse to think so. They maintain the “Start-Up” spirit and continue to try new things. It’s amazing for me to see that companies that are within this category continue to train their people, and at the same time update and upgrade their skills. Stretch people with new skills and new challenges and one thing happens; the people themselves actually grow and at the same time make their own businesses grow.
To avoid potential decline, business organizations should be willing and be deliberate to reinvent itself. Build their pipeline. Scout talents. Have a vibrant learning and training program and have their people go through regular skills enhancement trainings both in hard as well as soft skills.
Legacy companies need to explore new grounds and try new things. They must alter and adapt its strategy so it’s at the right place at the right time in the future. If an organization doesn’t take a new path, it will eventually wither.
I was lucky enough to hear futurist and business consultant Gary Hamel in New York a few years ago say, “Companies that learn to thrive in the chronic flux and tension between what is and what could be are healthier than those that don’t. Many times the future cannot be quantified with statistics, facts, or proofs. Sometimes leaders have to let their gut lead them into uncharted territories where statistics haven’t yet been generated.”
Change and progress has to start with the mindset. The questions business leaders need to ask are: “Are we ready for a change?”“Do the people in my organization have an adaptive mindset or do they have a fixed mindset?”
“Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” Says George Bernard Shaw.
Trust your instinct but be scientific and professional enough in dealing with the nitty-gritty details of your business.
(Enjoy an evening of fun, music and laughter as Jose Mari Chan, Richard Poon and Francis Kong present great music, laughter and words of encouragement on love, life and relationship this Jan. 29, 2016 at the Fairmont Hotel entitled: My FUNny Valentine. For tickets and inquiries, contact Jem at +639985566416, or Abbie Flores at (02) 4649256 or write to jem.caconnects@gmail.com)