Stability: A Critical Business Metric for 2025

The last 5 years have seen some of the most chaotic and transformative changes in the way businesses operate since the dawn of commerce.

We’ve had a global pandemic, runaway inflation, devaluation of currencies throughout the world, supply chain meltdowns, geopolitical unrest, natural disasters, unprecedented weather events, and wars and several continents.

As Advantexe prepares for 2025 and beyond, we have been conducting research on what are the critical capabilities needed by organizations and leaders as we set the new normal.

With all of the external changes outside of the organization, we have seen far more disruptive change inside of the organization ranging from the evolution of fulltime remote workforces to job-hoping every 9 months, to the phenomenon of “quiet quitting” where employees stick around in jobs they don’t like just to get a paycheck until they find a new job at higher compensation.

With all of this change, everyone is looking for a little stability, especially your customers.

The impact of instability is a business killer when you consider foundational elements of the value proposition such as giving great customer service, understanding customer needs, and taking customer insights and building them into product and solution development.

As we head toward a new year and as organizations start to build their capabilities for the future, here are 5 things business leaders should be doing to build organizational stability:

It is critical to clarify and communicate over and over a clear, inspiring vision that presents the value you are offering your customers and the reason you exist. Once you establish that vision, you must communicate it internally and externally and use marketing as a way to build your brand.

This clarity helps to create a sense of unity and commitment across the organization.

It is truly amazing how many people within business organizations still don’t understand the basics of business acumen. If they don’t understand the systems of business, how can you expect them to make sound business decisions?

It is critical to have the skills and capabilities to ensure sound financial management by maintaining strong cash flow, managing costs efficiently, and planning for contingencies.

It is time to get back to the basics of recruiting, retaining, and developing top talent to build a resilient workforce that understands how to execute your strategy. To do this, you must invest in consistent and meaningful training, mentoring, and clear career pathways where employees understand and value these skills to make better decisions and advance their careers.

Organizational stability is a function of your willingness to make investments in streamlined processes and systems that enhance operational efficiency and decision-making. To do this, you need to leverage technology and automation to reduce inefficiencies and maintain consistent output quality.

Once that consistency is in place, you also must regularly review and update processes to adapt to changing business needs

Stability is also a function of a culture that encourages open, honest, and frequent communication across all levels of the organization.

As you focus on stability, do everything possible to be transparent about business performance, challenges, future plans, and engage employees in feedback loops to ensure they feel heard and involved in the organization’s progress.

In summary, these 5 elements can help create a stable environment where the organization can adapt, thrive, and sustain growth even in uncertain times.

In terms of where Advantexe goes from here on this topic, I am going to ask our clients and readers if they would like to see a “Stability Metric” added to our balanced scorecards in both our business acumen and business leadership simulations.