Becoming Future Ready: Insights and Behaviors for Success

Becoming Future Ready: Insights and Behaviors for Success

Introduction:
In today's fast-paced and highly competitive business landscape, companies must constantly evolve and adapt to stay ahead of the curve. The ability to be "future ready" entails scaling up capabilities that are relevant to future competition and making regular shifts in know-how. Failure to do so can result in falling behind competitors, facing copycats, and ultimately, business failure. This article explores the common points and universal behaviors that top-performing companies exhibit, as well as industry-specific insights that can guide other organizations towards becoming more future ready.

Industry Insight 1: Embrace Collaboration with Disruptors
In the finance industry, disruptors like PayPal and Block (formerly Square) have made waves with their innovative solutions. However, the leading incumbents, Mastercard and Visa, have managed to stay ahead by partnering with their rivals. Instead of trying to outrun the disruptors and tech giants, these legacy infrastructure builders invested heavily in a wide range of application programming interfaces (APIs). They recognized that the best features for their products may not necessarily be invented in-house, and by collaborating with third parties who are closer to their customers, they were able to thrive.

Universal Behavior 1: Prioritize Early-to-Exploit Know-How
American Express, once the largest payment company, lost its position in the industry due to a lack of exploration and adaptation. While it had several major advantages, such as issuing credit and processing its own transactions, it failed to explore new areas and exploit existing opportunities. To become future ready, companies must allocate a healthy portion of their activities to exploring the new, even when early evidence remains unclear. This requires making difficult choices and tough tradeoffs guided by a vision about the future when the evidence becomes compelling.

Industry Insight 2: Embrace Deep Differentiation in the Digital Era
In a world where consumer demands are fickle and constantly evolving, companies like Nike have leveraged advanced data analytics to gain insights and stay ahead. By adopting a digital, direct-to-consumer, and data-driven approach, Nike has blurred the lines between the online and physical world. Their retail stores now resemble immersive galleries, offering a unique customer experience that sets them apart.

Universal Behavior 2: Learn Aggressively with Certainty
Companies like Nike, Lululemon, and Hermes exhibit a high degree of certainty about their future and use this strong viewpoint to guide their learning. This seemingly paradoxical combination of high learning and high certainty enables visionary leaders to update their mental models when new data emerges. By maintaining direct-to-consumer relationships, these companies can better discern consumer tastes and detect new behaviors, allowing them to adapt and innovate accordingly.

Industry Insight 3: Agility is Key in High-Speed Sectors
The tech sector operates at a rapid velocity, demanding quick pivots and adaptability from executives. To avoid being left behind, companies must be willing to branch out even faster, exploring new opportunities and embracing change.

Universal Behavior 3: Be Clear with Your Decision Type to Move Quickly
Identifying which decisions are reversible and which are not is crucial in a constantly changing environment. Microsoft exemplifies this behavior, combining a healthy bias for action with realistic decision-making. While scaling new businesses, such as cloud computing and augmented reality, Microsoft's executives focused on preventing catastrophe while remaining adaptable.

Industry Insight 4: Embrace Vertical Integration for Differentiation
Tesla, an automotive company, stands out by leveraging its software muscle to take over functionalities that were traditionally located in purpose-built hardware. This vertical integration helps them stay ahead of the curve and maintain a competitive edge.

Universal Behavior 4: Find a New Viewpoint Instead of Keeping Up
The automotive industry, known for its conservative nature, is often reluctant to explore and experiment. However, to adapt to the changing landscape, a shift from mechanical engineering dominance to software and electronics knowledge is necessary. This requires a shared viewpoint at the highest level, encouraging companies to worry less about keeping up and more about finding new perspectives and ways of doing things.

Conclusion:
Becoming future ready is a continuous journey that requires companies to embrace collaboration with disruptors, prioritize early-to-exploit know-how, differentiate in the digital era, be agile in high-speed sectors, make clear decisions, and find new viewpoints. By incorporating these actionable insights and behaviors, organizations can position themselves for success in an ever-evolving business world.