Why preparing your business for the future means accepting you have no idea what’s coming

Published by rudy Date posted on April 12, 2017

by N.V. (Tiger) Tyagarajan, Apr 12, 2017

The process of learning, unlearning, trashing and reinventing is never-ending. Take the retail industry, for instance. The companies that are thriving are those that are constantly changing the nature of their businesses, like Amazon, which has grown from an e-commerce platform to a leader in all aspects of retail tech, including a planned foray into shipping and the opening of cashier-less brick-and-mortar stores. Meanwhile, those that fail to change and embrace digital innovation are being upended by companies that didn’t exist 10 years ago.

No industry is immune to the effects of the digital revolution – every company is facing unexpected challenges and pressures to innovate with unprecedented speed. Despite this, many boardroom discussions across the globe are still centered on the idea of a “10-Year Plan.” While the goal of long-term planning is to bypass competitors, the reality is that the business landscape is changing so quickly that sticking to a set path can actually be detrimental — particularly in an age of Big Data where companies can predict certain trends and customer needs to adjust their strategies in real time. Forget a 10-year plan – even an annual plan is a challenge today.

In this environment of constant change, C-suite leaders must accept that the world they envisioned 10 years ago probably isn’t the world that they live in today and definitely won’t be the world of tomorrow. In 2007, Apple Inc. ranked 121 on Fortune’s list of America’s 500 largest companies. Today, it ranks number 3. Meanwhile, Dell ranked 34 in 2007 and disappeared from the list entirely in 2014 because leaders failed to disrupt their business and change fast enough. But even as the tides turn for some organizations, it’s far from impossible for venerable industry leaders to maintain their edge – GE, which created GE Digital in 2015, has enjoyed a spot in Fortune 500’s top 20 for well over 10 years.

The world of tomorrow is even more difficult to predict. Rather than getting bogged down in framework of specific short and long-term goals, leaders must be willing to do the following:

Fail fast. The pace of digital evolution is too rapid to predict where it will lead us next, and as such, companies need to stay agile, nimble, and open to change. Unpredictability means that many – if not most – companies will make mistakes. Some of these mistakes will be massive and potentially destructive. The companies that will survive will be those that accept that they cannot predict the future and are nimble enough to fail quickly, assess their failure, learn and adapt. Those that don’t change quickly enough for fear that they may disrupt their 10-year plan will soon find themselves obsolete.

Failures aren’t just a necessary evil – they are essential for innovation. The companies that are constantly thinking “How can I disrupt – or even destroy and rebuild – my business before someone else does?” are the ones that are changing the game. You can easily see this type of fast failure followed by industry-changing innovation in the pharmaceutical space, where they are constantly testing, tossing aside, and re-configuring drugs that eventually save lives. This method can be applied to any industry – leaders just need to accept the unpredictability of change, fail fast, and correct their course. We’re seeing this play out in real-time with Twitter, as the once-dominant social media platform struggles with falling shares, huge layoffs, and disappearing users. Yet it is possible for Twitter to make a comeback if they learn from recent mistakes and reprioritize, reposition, and self-disrupt.

April 2025

World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”

Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos

Time to support & empower survivors. Time to spark a global conversation. Time for #GenerationEquality to #orangetheworld!

Monthly Observances:

March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth

Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week

Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work

Trade Union Solidarity Campaigns

No to Trafficking

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Categories