In times of rapid and disruptive change such as we are living through in 2018 and beyond, many progressive business leaders are exploring ways of reinventing their legacy businesses so they don’t miss out on opportunities to grow, sustain, and in some cases, survive. To some business leaders, “reinvention” means a radical and disruptive evolution, and to others it means a pivot to a new value proposition and possibly a new set of customers. In my Business Acumen workshops, I often cite two different and unique examples of companies that have done both; the Kelley Blue Book, and Lego.
Robert Brodo
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A Best Practice for 2018
“One of the biggest problems in my company right now is that too many of our core employees simply don’t understand how business works let alone how our business works. Forget all of the forecasts about disruptive technologies and artificial intelligence; how about basic business skills?”
--- Chief Learning Officer, Fortune 500 Company
This quote came from a conversation on the day after Christmas with a long-time client who was expressing his frustrations with the current business environment and his perception of the state of talent in his and other organizations. As I shared during our dialogue, I don’t think he’s alone. Based on many similar formal and informal conversations, I feel that many organizations are struggling with the same issue and they become accentuated at the start of every new year when leaders start to put together their plans for the coming year. Below are some observations about the challenges ahead in 2018 and some easy actions that can be taken to solve the challenges.
To have some fun and raise money for Musicopia, a Philadelphia-based charity that provides opportunities for children to experience, learn, perform, and appreciate music, we have developed the one-of-a-kind Santa Business Simulation.
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This time of year brings out all the pundits and so-called experts who espouse their insights and ideas in the form of blogs, articles, podcasts, and other assorted media, predicting the future and providing business leaders with prophesies to base their decision-making on during the coming year. Among the many things you will read and hear about are the painfully obvious including the continued emergence of artificial intelligence, the endless expansion of ecommerce, and of course the ever-present geopolitical issues that lead the news headlines every day, yet seem to have very little impact on the health of the global economy in 2017.
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It’s no secret that the world has changed before our eyes. No matter what your political or social views, we can all agree it the world is extremely different and it’s never going back to the way it was. In this radically changed world that has been disrupted, volatility has become vicious volatility. Uncertainty has become unrelenting uncertainty. Complexity has turned into continuous complexity, and ambiguity has turned into accelerated ambiguity. Basically, we now live in a “VUCA Squared” world!
As we come to the end of this dynamic and challenging year, we should look back for a few moments to reflect and learn, but we need to quickly turn our attention to the future because the future is now. A VUCA Squared world needs a new type of leader with new types of leadership skills. Based on research, analysis, and an extremely intense year of working with some of the best organizations on the planet, I have put together a list of the 5 capabilities the new disruptive leader needs to have in 2018 and beyond.
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