60+ years ago, in the 1950’s, the average life expectancy of a company on the New York Stock Exchange was 59 years. Today it’s 19. Up until the invention and installation of the railroad, any information could only travel as fast as a horse and that lasted for centuries. Now we want an immediate response to an email and we wait with bated breath for our latest social media post to get ‘likes’, ‘retweets’, or ‘comments’. Everything has changed, its changed rapidly, and it’s only getting quicker.
We’re in an age where companies like Google state that in five years, 40% of their income needs to be coming from things they haven’t thought of yet. That’s not just managing at the speed of change, that’s staying in front of that curve. That’s also not a luxury for a company focused on innovation, it’s a requirement to stay competitive. However it’s also not the majority of organizations, so it can be expected if you’re thinking, “That’s nice – not applicable to me. At all.” You’d also be correct. Most of us don’t need to be ahead of the curve, we just need to be aware that there is a curve. This is where most of us fall short. There we are, going about our daily tasks and then woomp. All of a sudden we’re looking at something that’s happened to force us to change. Now we’re in scramble mode and we rush it.
Every so often, we need to climb to the top of the pile of ‘stuff’ around us and take a look at the horizon. What’s coming at you today?
