Leaders have to think about the future and position their organisations well for the future, even though the future is uncertain, unpredictable, volatile and complex.
Of course it is not an easy task, but that is what we are expected to do as leaders – make sense of the uncertainties, make our best guess, and move with courage, yet also with humility to accept that we might be wrong. We must be prepared to change as we see more, hear more and sense more. Failing to anticipate the future is by far the most frequent reason for organisational dissipation, destruction, and death.
We are seeing rapid expansion in applications based upon computers. In earlier days, the development of machines has replaced blue collar jobs. Then the development of computers has replaced white collar, office, and administrative jobs. Now the development of artificial intelligence or machine language in computers is replacing knowledge workers.
The disruption of jobs and businesses today is happening right around us. Consider the disruptions we can already see:
- The world’s largest taxi company owns no taxis (Uber)
- The world’s largest accommodation provider owns no hotels (AirBnb)
- The world’s largest phone companies own no telecommunication infrastructure (Skype and WeChat)
- The world’s most valuable retailer has no inventory (Alibaba)
- The world’s most popular media owner creates no content (Facebook)
- The world’s largest movie house owns no cinemas (Netflix)
- The world’s largest software vendors don’t write the apps (Apple & Google)
We can see the “sharing economy” spreading its reach day after day.
If we are alert as leaders, we may see opportunities or foresee dangers for our organization, and will thus take action to prepare our people for these changes.
If we do nothing and simply hope for the best, we fail to be leaders. We may fail even if we try. We will certainly fail if we don’t try to “Be in Time for the Future!”
