LEADERSHIP: CREATIVE DESTRUCTION

Published: 2007-04-10   please add a comment below

General Motors was once a paragon of American business.  It's now in serious decline.  Its plight illustrates what a famous economist called “creative destruction.”  New industries, products and services rise to prominence; but, later lose their traction.  Horse-drawn carriages gave way to automobiles - ushering in gas stations but destroying buggy-whip manufacturers.  Gas guzzlers had their time on the road, but were overtaken by energy-efficient compacts.  And now hybrids; and, so on.

Where does your industry and your company, division, or team fit in its relevant continuum of rising and declining fortunes?  And, what are you doing about it?  Are you fat and happy; or, lean and on the look out.  Today, you'd better be the latter: scanning the horizon to see what's moving - reading the research and listening to the newsletters.  There's only the quick and the dead.  And, a key component of staying alive is your capacity to rethink your strategy.

Many companies believe strategy is something you do every few years: set and forget.  In part, that's true.  Mostly, you don't need to revolutionise things every year.  Nor could most companies handle it.  But, honing and shaping is continuous.

What are you doing about monitoring your competitors?  Questioning the assumptions behind your strategy?  Recasting policies?  Upgrading competencies?  Building ownership of the necessary changes at every level in the organisation?

For several decades, I consulted on strategy with corporate executive teams.  Regardless of industry, country or organisational size, their ongoing concerns were common.  What are the key industry trends and competitive developments?  What's our vision (and quantified goals) and our differentiation?  What are the major strategic gaps we need to address?  And, what must we do to start the new journey?

Be the best still tomorrow!

Dr. Timothy Pascoe AM
PhD (Cambridge), MBA (Harvard), BE & BEc (Adelaide)
Creator, V|E|C|T|O|R Leadership^®