The Great Business Convergence

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: The Future of Business has Arrived

Competencies: visionary leadership, entrepreneurial leadership, change management

Who benefits: those interested in the new business path

Consultant Usage: for those who care to stay current with fundamental business changes

What’s it about? We aren’t as smart as we think we are. We know more than we think we know. Those two sentences may represent a paradox or possibly a wisdom gap. It may also be summed up by a quote from Helen Keller: “It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.”

The world of business has and is going through radical change. Yet how many of us still don’t see it or worse, don’t get. Someone will eventually give it a date. For now I would like to think of 2010 as the beginning of the disruption. The convergence is on.

We are moving away from the old, used up form of traditional capitalism to what is being called conscientious capitalism. Six million new start-up companies a year are attracting the best and the brightest (and quite possibly the disillusioned). The new business design model is rapidly changing how we problem solve and innovate. In many businesses the Customer can now call the shots for real. All the information in the world is out there available and mostly free – Google and the social networks are seeing to that. Free online university education is emerging as a major factor in not only educating those who might never have access to higher learning, but businesses are partnering with them to educate and develop employees inside organizations in ways not previously imagined.

Right brain thinking is being prized more than left brain thinking (still need both). That in turn means evolutionary thinking in how we interact with stakeholders – which broadly means everyone. Five years ago I can’t remember anyone in management talking about empathy. Now almost all the best companies, especially the start-ups, have something to say about it. How you treat people matters more than ever. It may be because it is the right thing to do. Or it may be because there is now a widely recognized talent shortage – not people available to work, but people who have something very valuable to contribute and contribute immediately.

As this radical change moves forward hierarchies will crumble; transparency will rule; decision-making will be made jointly by employee and user/customer with no manager or executive in sight; trial and error will supersede strategies and business plans; and performance appraisals will wither, replaced by in-the-moment feedback and peer coaching.

One of the most important skills of those few not actually doing the work will be culture management. A vital component of that skill will be the ability to attract, develop/train and retain talent. Talent “fit” will become one of the organizations highest priorities.

One of the pioneers and best role models for this radical change is Zappos, the online shoes and more company. How did this start-up become a retail giant? Zappos was founded on vision developed around three “P’s”: Profits, Passion and Purpose. All employees collectively established 10 core values to live by. Founder Tony Hsieh said “(we) knew it wasn’t about just building a business. It was about building a lifestyle that delivered happiness to everyone, including ourselves.”

Read Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, Tony Hsieh’s first person story on how they did it. It is a success story about success in this new era of business.

It is a success story because they lived their beliefs. The money followed.

Catch you later.

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.