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It is just so easy for business owners, presidents and CEOs to get bogged down in the day to day business of doing business. A fire burning here, a smattering of commitments there, maybe a few more fires flare up, a problem employee, closing a deal – you know the drill.
While many business leaders are mired down in the daily rigmarole of running a company, it is crucial that you and your leadership team cut through the noise and purposefully invest time into thinking ahead to the future. Now when I say “future” I’m not talking about the end of the quarter or year; I am referring to the hard work involved in isolating and addressing trends in the marketplace, thinking ahead to what things will look like in the coming years (or even decades) and mapping out how you can lead the way in leveraging these changes.
YOUR TECHNOLOGY. How will upcoming advances in technology positively or negatively impact your business? Technology will continue to evolve and play a critical role in how businesses do business. To thrive, you should maintain the leading edge in terms of how you leverage technology.
YOUR TEAM. Today we have a workforce that consists of four generations with varying degrees of technology efficiencies. While this might not always be the case, it is important to understand the general strengths and weaknesses of these various demographics and how their inherent skills can be leveraged to enhance future business. Eventually, technology might indeed be able to handle a fair amount of what you have people doing today, so what you will need from a human capital perspective will be different. So, what will your workforce of the future look like?
YOUR CLIENTS. Customer bases are also usually reflected by a multitude of generations with varying needs, purchasing styles and preferences in the way they like to do business with you. Remember, there is a generation out there today that isn’t even old enough to be a consumer yet. Looking way ahead: Who are your customers? How do they want to interact with you? What is that ideal customer experience for them? Again, technology will likely play a significant role here.
YOUR PRODUCTS & SERVICES. What do your future products and services look like and provide? This is a big example, but it makes the point: Amazon has changed and continues to change how consumers acquire good and services. Back in the day, Amazon started by selling books online at discounted rates. They then expanded their market to include e-readers. Now look at ’em. For years, Jeff Bezos (Founder, Chairman, & CEO of Amazon) ran Amazon at a loss while continuing to invest money into the infrastructure of his company – in this case, the technology. Now I don’t know if Bezos’ original vision of the future entailed everything that Amazon is today, but he had a big vision that was the tipping point in creating one of the world’s most valuable companies and risk-takers of the 21st century.
My point is, if you don’t spend time developing, executing and refining your plan for the future then you will likely be left behind. Fearless entrepreneurs are sure to come along with what might initially seem like a crazy idea, but one that is sure to catch like a wildfire and potentially leave you and your business in the dust wondering what happened. I am sure that you can easily think of some great examples of companies that used to be mainstays, but that are now struggling or shuttered because they were not forward looking (oh, Blockbuster).
Let me know how you are investing time with your team in order to be wildly visionary and creative so that your company evolves and revolutionizes your market. It is hard but fun work that can reap significant rewards.
By Blair Koch
