In today’s accelerated, unstable context three enterprise-level capabilities significantly differentiate performance.
- Future Orientation: Adopt a strategy, expectation, and mindset of leaning forward in anticipation of the opportunities to be revealed as the future unfolds, matched with organizational confidence in the processes and culture to overcome the yet unknown challenges. This requires heightened situational awareness and judgment, the ability to sense and make sense of the forces and actors shaping evolution within and external to the enterprise.
"Leaders must have high situational awareness – [of] all the complex forces around them. [You] must be alert to all these forces impinging on you. [You] must have a broader view of what is happening."
- Ian S. Chairman, UK Healthcare Provider
- Ian S. Chairman, UK Healthcare Provider
"You must have judgment. There are always different potential solutions, different people you can work with, different ways of governing and managing the relationship, and different timings for action; they may all have equal merit. To move forward, you need to have judgment."
- David L. Founder Technology Focused Private Equity Fund, Asia-Pacific
- David L. Founder Technology Focused Private Equity Fund, Asia-Pacific
- Adaptive Capacity: Building the capacity of the enterprise to adapt to the changing context. More deliberate than agility; anticipatory rather than only reactive. Sustaining advantage is the ability to repeatedly move between transient positions of advantage. Beyond the Future Orientation, the capacity of the enterprise to adapt is determined by the ability to make timely decisions and implement them. To continuously change and transform, evolving the scope of activities and the business model. ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’ ...... initiatives can be course corrected but opportunities are lost by delay.
"There is the myth of bad decisions; most of the time, there is high uncertainty – so you make a decision, and then you act, and in acting, you make your decision better. Leadership requires decision and action."
- Tarquin M. CEO Professional Sports Team & Club
- Tarquin M. CEO Professional Sports Team & Club
"It is critical to develop the capacity for change; individual, team, system – the ability to adapt. There is an element of speed, but only when it is required."
- Kiran C. Business Consultant, Asia
- Kiran C. Business Consultant, Asia
- Talent-Centric: The World Economic Forum predicts that technology adoption is causing a 25% churn in job roles and that 6 in 10 people will be required to adopt new skills in the next 6 years. As such a new relationship and approach to attracting, developing and deploying talent is essential. Winning firms facilitate high mobility and accommodate the uniqueness of the individual. They enable individuals to self-direct, within guardrails, their skills development, deployment (matching skills to priority needs and initiatives) and how they manage the life-work boundary. Hire for fit. Train for skills. Deploy for impact.
"There is a need to think enterprise-wide now – not being parochial: what’s best for the enterprise – not your department? The shocks that we must respond to require an enterprise-wide mindset. Successful leadership should be doing this on a day-to-day basis, not just in crises. Performance metrics are so messed up: You do not get the best results for the enterprise by defining metrics and reward systems for the performance of siloes."
- Sian B. Country Manager, Global Bank
- Sian B. Country Manager, Global Bank
"Team members must believe that they are in the best place for them to develop and thrive. They have to feel that you are operating in their best interests. [Then] they feel they are going to give a lot, there is always a sense of exchange"
- Bernie J. Senior Academic and Renowned Consultant, California, USA
- Bernie J. Senior Academic and Renowned Consultant, California, USA
"The traditional notion of a managerial ‘duty of care’ has expanded significantly in its remit, definition and employee expectation"
Robert P. SVP Global Cruise Line Operator
Robert P. SVP Global Cruise Line Operator
Insight - Applied
Our Support
We provide tailored support to your executive team to understand, embrace and embed the practices and processes of an Adaptive Enterprise.
Our support is modular, enabling a focus on specific aspects or holistic coverage of the capabilities that most differentiate enterprise performance in the contemporary context.
Contact us for a discussion of how we can support you.
Our Support
We provide tailored support to your executive team to understand, embrace and embed the practices and processes of an Adaptive Enterprise.
Our support is modular, enabling a focus on specific aspects or holistic coverage of the capabilities that most differentiate enterprise performance in the contemporary context.
Contact us for a discussion of how we can support you.
The Adaptive Enterprise is explored in depth in the book "Management and Leadership in the 4th Industrial Revolution", published in Nov 2020 by Kogan Page. This book is a 'Best Seller', reaching a high of #19 in Amazon sales rankings and included in the listings of 'Best Book of the Year' by institutions such as the Chartered Management Institute (UK). The book has been translated and republished in China, it is available via Amazon and many other channels and retailers. The QR code displayed will take you to Amazon.