Leadership Lessons - 13
The ability to adapt fast to a changing context is key for any effective leadership role. This is easier said than done. Because most of the organisations have an internal inertia to change.
In all organisations and institutions( including family), people are 'used to ' doing certain things in certain ways. And there is always an internal inertia or even straight resistance for any change within and beyond.
Once an organisation( political party, companies, or big mass organisation or any big enterprise) get established with a sort of DNA and its structure and process, people of that organisation get 'used to ' their comfort zones of doing certain things in a certain way. And most of the people in this world are reluctant to go beyond their 'comfort zone' of 'being used to'.
Paradoxically many institutions like family also survived due to the 'being used to ' factor. Many may consider that a 'known evil' is better than an 'unknown evil' and they are settled in to assigned roles with their own pace and eventually falling in to their respective slots of comfort-zones.
So the first challenge is to convince the actors, leaders and managers within an organisation for a need to change. And also why adaptation is necessary for an organisation to be relevant and also to its survival itself.
Those with good leadership qualities can read the writing on the wall and also understand the implications of changing context for an organisation. And they will also understand that if they don't adapt to the fast changing context they will become redundant in the larger context of change.
Remington and IBM stories
----------------------------------------
There are two interesting examples for this. Once up on a time typewriter meant Remington. Remington Typewriter was the hero of the post-second war world.
The Remington company was established in the 19th century in the USA and they were the equivalent of Microsoft till the 1980s. There was also another technology and manufacturing company established in the 19th century in the USA- IBM.
What was the major difference between the two? . Remington was 'used to ' a market , it was 'used to ' be the market leader and it was in its 'comfort zone' as the brand-leader in the market place. In such a 'comfort zone' Remington leaders failed to read the larger writing on the wall. They could not adapt fast to the fast changing technology eco-system.
IBM was always ahead of the game. They moved from tabulation technology, to punching cards , to computing technology to Artificial intelligence fast. This made all the difference. Remington became the past. IBM became the future.
IBM changed fast and adapted fast to the changing technology and in fact shaped the future. IBM was ahead of the game.
Why this happened? There was Thomas J Watson, an immensely talented businessman who injected both energy and adaptability in to the very DNA of IBM. He was the Chairman of IBM from 1914 to 1956. He saw the great depression, two wars and all the challenges and his biggest success was the adapatability and making it in to the DNA of the company ahead of the time.
There are lots of things to learn from Remington and IBM stories. There are so many other such organisations( eg. Salvation Army) that still live in the past. Many of the political parties, established in power, are too 'used ' to the old moulds, like Remington typewriters.
The real leadership caliber comes when a great leader can foresee the changing context and steer the organisation steadily and gently to a new direction to make it ahead of the game to embrace the changing context as an opportunity to reinvent and re-energize the organisation.
There are few excellent examples in India. One is the Tata Sons. Over a period, it was led by those with leadership excellence. Both JRD Tata and then Ratan Tata were able to fast adapt to the changing context. Another such business leader is Kumaramanagalam Birla. He was ahead of the game. Another big success story is that Wipro and Azim Premji- an excellent example of adaption.
Unless we adapt fast to changing context , we become redundant. This is not only the case for a company or organisation. But this is also the case of professionals. Unless we adapt fast, the professional qualifications and skills of yesterday will not county tomorrow.
In fact, I have a lots of personal experience in this regard. I was a part of a change management team of a big international organisation. And steered the change along with the team. I have built new organizations to meet the new challenges with a new software.
This has helped to be relevant and also become professionally move ahead of the time. One has to learn new skills, new domain knowledge and new kinds of expertise and of course new technology to stay relevant. I used Remington typwriter in the 1980s and now use the smart phone to type this.
Making change happen is the ability to adapt fast and be ahead of the game and this requires visionary leadership and a missionary zeal to change the organisation within and beyond.
JS Adoor
To be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment