We are at a watershed moment. There is nothing we can do to reverse these defining moments. Evidently, concepts, ideas, and initiatives that once seemed outlandish and business maneuvers that were once deemed impossible at some point in time don’t seem crazy anymore today, and the varied human capital developments and technological advances that were once considered sheer fantasies are now the new norms of today.
Forget it.
It’s already too late to plead for the vested phenomena of the earlier "ways-things-were" amidst today's aggregate flow of disruptions and massive societal upheavals, along with the increasing blurring of stratified industry boundaries, and new sectoral and societal ecosystems emerging with accelerating convergence like never before.
Certainly, it's not a news anymore that the lifecycle of today's products and services offerings, processes and business models are getting shorter. Today, the average lifespan of companies and business entities are decreasing and are being reshuffled in ranks and easily substituted in short-span of time by non-conventional ones to largely unexpected move in contrast to relative business historical precedence.
You could do a rough comparison by just scanning through your local industry, community business sectors or any of the publicly traded companies to get this gist i.e. Forbes 100, Fortune 500, S&P 500 Index, FTSE 100, DAX 30, CAC 40, PSE, NSE…etc. See Figure 1 below for a depiction of 15 years swift shift for the marked difference and inference.
FIGURE 1: 15 Years Interval Comparison (Top 5 Publicly Traded Companies by Market Cap in 2001 - 2016)
Image Credit: Visual Capitalist
So what happened? Or what's the compelling force behind these?
Maybe asking “what happened?” isn’t the right question here. We probably knew what happened on the surface level, as I have detailed about the active creative destruction or disruption stemming from factors like:
Fast-changing market trends
Intense Competition
Dynamic technology trends
Increasing globalization
Regulatory changes
Continuous change of customer expectations
But come to think of this, these same factors cut across the business terrains and aren't particularly cut-out for "some". Even though these factors are outcomes of business maneuverings enforced by different individual entities. Perhaps the right starting question to ask is;
"How the heck did we arrive at the “new normal” of today from those relatively rare phenomena days of outlandishness?"
A new normal where maneuvers of enterprises and entities or offerings (Product/services) do not gradually displace the incumbents, but a swift obliteration of whatever stands in the way is the unwritten norm of today's business maneuvers – unintentionally reshaping of industries and rewriting their relative landscape’s playbook-rule.
Or what makes top executives dread another “flattening conundrum” – where an unknown entity or a group of folks with completely different ideas and atypical ways-of-doings enter the industry from nowhere to flatten you out? And with several entities or group of folks:
harnessing new business models and latent technologies,
exploiting old technologies in new ways,
channeling and utilizing outmoded processes and strategies in unprecedented ways,
restructuring antiquated systems from different angles for modern functionalities, local adaptations and numerous ingenuity in applications.
This begs a question of, “what business maneuvers will suffice in our new norm?”
And as the CEO of a top French manufacturing company recently expressed worrisomely in a chat, “…how our competitive landscape will eventually play out, we don’t really know. Will adjacent players try to get into our space? Or will our contracted-services folks try to outmaneuver us off the chain? Or what's the future of our current customers?...”
These striking questions are:
at the heart of current industry trailblazers in a cautionary form,
nudging current business underdogs for future unicorn accessions,
and spurring current industry backbenchers for anticipated prime-movers’ status relatively in their fields of play.
So, how possibly can the answers to these questions be effectuated or put in place to position your organization or yourself in this new normal?
Business Maneuvers in its Simplest Characterization
Before we get ahead of ourselves and not to assume the basics are already ingrained. Maybe we should start with this in its simplest characterization; What outlines a business (company, organization, start-ups, SME etc.)?
Simply put, business – an entity built to create value for its intended parties (clients, stakeholders, partners, owners etc.) plus associated “interests” of such business entity via a number of outcomes (products and services).
And as such, achieving such outcomes with deserving attached value involves a number of interwoven:
processes, relationships, strategies, and setups, and
relative business’ combinatorial phenomena (business models, markets, capabilities and competencies, infrastructures, objectives implementation, etc.) that are relatively dynamic, and thus the inevitable maneuvers, business maneuvers.
Maneuvers aimed at objectively maximizing possible obtainable attached value to a business’ outcome(s) and with such business entity’s associated interests over time.
So, what’s the business' crunch here?
Hold on and let’s drive home the points further, but perhaps, we should clarify this before proceeding. What's a business most important asset in grinding out its outcomes (as aforementioned in the last section)?
In contradiction to what has been famously heralded in business management circles or widely inferred out of its business context, a business’ or an organization’s most important asset is not:
its customers,
or access to raw materials or finance,
neither its supply chains nor the company’s infrastructure
or its generic employees,
but its creative capital.
Business' Creative Capital – Arsenal in Pushing New Frontiers
An organization's or business creative capital stand atop as the most important asset a business could have in actualizing its set outcomes. A business' creative capital - simply put, the capacity possessed of a business or degree to which an organization could apply creativity components in its business maneuvers and express new possibilities or frontiers, aimed at maximizing its business' outcome(s) and associated interests over time.
Hang on, there is a caveat here
Your business’ creative capital isn’t just a collection of individuals’ ideas but rather a product of in-interaction of creativity pillars within and outside the business. It doesn’t stop there, this creative capacity is functional and engaged in the interwoven complexities of the business maneuvers.
Come to think of this, creative capital has always been at the heart of business and the core component of entrepreneurship – in getting a business or an organization started in the first place, to sustaining the created value, reaching new growth heights and in the continuing progression for global companies and businesses - an essential part of an organization’s long-term success especially in this "new normal".
Creative Capital Push & Effects
With high creative capital, a business turns its ideas into valuable products and services, change systems, pioneer new technologies and processes, implement bold strategic moves, birth new industries, solve lingering problems, and power both organization and economic growth. In the effective-run, a company’s creative capital sets it apart in terms of its valued outcomes and value-innovation, created blue-ocean space (uncontested new market spaces ripe for growth), sustained innovation flair, transient competitive edge, and relevant outcome-oriented performance things.
So, coming back to our beginning question, how the heck did we arrive at this “new normal” of today from those relatively rare phenomena period of outlandishness?
From the aforementioned points we've considered, it's pretty clear and comprehensible that we can both state at this sectional point of this article - creative capital increment. Thus, if you want your company to succeed, increase your creative capital.
"Well said Guredge", you might have quipped, but how do you increase your business' creative capital? How do you manage for maximum creativity as a leader or professional? Or how do you practically increase your other business maneuvers (efficiency, quality, and productivity) while also accommodating for the complex nature and collision course of the creative capital engagements?
Hold on and let’s further on in the next publication with deep dive, real examples and data, engagement collision, answers to those questions, and related things on this "sweet" topic.
Got any valuable insight or an "Aha!" moment thus far? Good. We've barely scratched the surface. Stay tuned for the continuing publication (Part 2).
Before you go, drop me your thoughts in the comment section below. I would love to hear from you, or at least like or share with your folks who could use some of the insights here. Compliments of the season.