Business at an inflection point: seizing the opportunity

Change is everywhere. Sometimes we choose it — as when we take a new role or make an acquisition. Sometimes it is imposed on us, like Brexit or a new sanctions regime. Sometimes we relish it, calling it disruption when we are doing the disrupting and are optimistic about having an advantage over the competition. At other times, we fear it as an unwelcome challenge to our business model — for example, a new digital competitor.

In the case of positive change, it is easy to get carried away by the opportunities our new situation offers. In the second case, it can be equally tempting to retreat into cost-cutting and corrective measures, often based on imitating the best practice of others.

Kipling argues that the answer to every kind of challenge comes through inner resilience and personal qualities. Is there a way in which a business strategy can treat positive and negative change just the same?

There is. Both kinds of change provide an excellent opportunity to review and refresh strategy by focusing on what the whole ecosystem — not just the organisation in a narrow sense — can uniquely achieve. Put another way: on the collective genius. The pace of change is unlikely to slacken. Technological disruption, geopolitical shifts, climate response, new social movements — these are, in Donald Rumsfeld's famous formulation, only the known unknowns. We don't even know what the next round of questions will be.

When we look at a list of apparent threats, we can see that many could also present opportunities — provided we are able to get ahead of the game. But this will be harder if we take a defensive and linear approach, hoping that a few tactical interventions will return us to the old track. We cannot hope to solve tomorrow's problems by following what others did yesterday. And we are unlikely to beat the competition by copying it.

Instead, we can see these challenges as a call to redefine who we are, what our role is in our markets and communities, and how we can build on our assets to create a positive impact. For every Kodak and Blockbuster, there is a BlackBerry and Nokia that reinvented themselves by focusing on what they intrinsically do well.

Our approach to envisioning offers a new perspective on strategic transformation: intrinsic to the organisation, but not inward-looking. Focusing on concrete and deliverable change, but not copying the competition. Drawing on every part of the ecosystem — including the hidden, invisible groups — to find new ways of delivering value.

In this way, disruption becomes distinctive. It starts with a vision that responds to people's needs, rather than expecting people to adapt to a fixed strategy. A human-centric organisation is one that not only engages and consults its users, but allows them to play an integral part in creating its vision and executing its strategy.

Whether you have started a new role, hired a new leader, or are relishing or fearing disruption — this is the inflection point. The moment to seize.