Without giving their consents, organizations in Nigeria and globally have been pushed into the realities of the ‘VUCA’ world – ‘VUCA’ stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous. Before now, organizations can afford to do things their own way, their own time and in their own terms. It was also easy seeing some organizations back then thinking they were fully in charge of events and situations in and around their industry (they were literally saying in their minds- no cause for alarm, we are in control). Because of their ‘perceived’ size, financial strength and positioning, these organizations find themselves too ‘big to fail’ and alas start breathing the ‘air of invincibility’. My big question is: can this kind of mindset or thinking still exist in today’s ‘VUCA’ business world?
The reality is that with the rate of change, uncertainty and disruptions in the business world of today, it is not advisable for any organization to still have the ‘air of invincibility’ or ‘too big to fail’ mentality – no matter how big your balance sheet size is or your market share. It is not safe for organizations to think that they are invulnerable to failure or losing marketplace positioning. Whenever I have the opportunity to share with leaders and participants in our Leading Strategic Change and Innovation program, I always point out that change is a shift in the external world and not from the internal. If those shifts in the external world are not managed strategically in the best interest of the organization, there might be a looming danger. A general case for all organizations is that change happens to all of them. But the speed of adapting to the change differs from one organization to the other. Leaders should take change seriously as planning and change are their primary roles.
Interestingly, it is no more a question of whether an organization wants to push itself hard or not in adapting to the changing world; now it is a must do. Like we have all known in the time past that some things in life are inevitable and are bound to happen, so also is disruption – and changing landscapes in our organizations. So, one message I would like to drive home is that ‘disruption is inevitable in our organizations’. It has come to stay. Any CEO, leader or manager that does not pay attention to disruptions would be doing that to his or her peril. In the recent times, one of my favourites quote is the one from Budi Sadikin (the former CEO of Indonesia’s Bank Mandiri), he said “we have to keep disrupting ourselves; otherwise we will be disrupted by somebody else”. With my experience working with CEOs and business leaders across various industries, I have found out that some business leaders’ major challenge is that they allowed disruptions to catch up with them and eventually overtake them. They were simply not ahead of the game. Now the only option left for any wise CEO, leader or manager is to be proactive – and to me, being proactive simply means being on top of your game – and avoid fighting fires that would have been prevented.
Years back, I was speaking for Institute of Directors (IoD) on board strategic thinking, and someone said something that got me thinking. She mentioned about three global and formally respected companies that failed and said “these companies are now used as case studies”. Remember I said initially that no company or organization is too big to fail. Interestingly, a particular organization might even be No.1 currently in their industry, but that does not guarantee longevity and sustainability if changes from the outside exceed the internal or inside changes in that particular organization (this might sound harsh, but is the truth). Individually, we know those big companies that have failed and we also use them to cite examples, but then, the only way we will be different and better than those failed companies is when we learn to run fast and adapt to the changing world.
Final note:
To succeed in these difficult times will require leaders of organization to push hard and run fast. Like Budi Sadikin (the CEO of Indonesia’s Bank Mandiri) said, let the disruption start internally for organizations, that will help them prepare and get ready for the changing world as opposed to allowing disruptions to jump on them from the outside. No matter how big an organization might be, an outside and unforeseen disruption might mean the end of business for some and to others making them irrelevant. Since the changing world has come, pushing hard to adapt to that changing world is in your organization’s best interest. Always remember that what brought success to your organization yesterday might not be relevant again today – so we need to move from “this is how it has worked to “how can it work today” in the midst of uncertainties. Always, always, always remember that the business world of today has become so funny and interesting that small companies that are fast are beating big companies that are slow.
The most practical step everyone in your organization would have to take is to break the status quo mentality, and become more strategic and systemic in managing all facets of their business operations.
Finally, the world is changing very fast – so also the business landscape, and personally I think we shouldn’t be saying again things like: “this is a big bank or this is a big company and that is a small bank or small company, but instead we should be saying things like: ‘this is a fast company and that is a slow company”. And I like the way Rupert Murdoch captured it, big will not beat small anymore. It will be the ‘fast beating the slow’.
So, how fast is your organization running and how fast are your people breaking the status quo?
All to your success,
‘Uju Onwuzulike
