Portraying the successful 21st century business leadership
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Since the industrial revolution began, production line efficiency has always been the focus of manufacturers.
How can we boost productivity and cut costs while creating the same product again and again? These economies of scale are made by stripping out inefficiencies through incremental innovations made over time.
Today, we have artificial intelligence computer programs that are a radical departure from the past and will force us to build new structures that focus on agility rather than efficiency.
Incremental changes are great for replication, but firms in the future will have to move quickly, and that’s where agility will shine.
So to be an effective 21st century leader, it’s vital to understand this fundamental change. Fail to do so and you might find yourself trapped in an innovation loop like US razor giant Gillette was, as it priced itself out of the market with high-end blades each year, even as competitors produced popular lower-spec razors.
The best practice I’ve seen firms adopt is developing today's and tomorrow's teams. Today’s teams keep the business alive and keep incremental innovation going.
Today’s leaders need to learn how and when they learn best and also need to be flexible and understanding.
In tomorrow’s business model, we have to move from economies of scale to economies of learning, and from efficiency to robustness.
The airport conveyor belt is a good example of old-world business thinking. It’s repetitive and highly efficient. However, once you’re in the plane, you’re now in tomorrow’s world of business. There are some repetitive patterns, but there is also a lot of uncertainty, so we over-prepare.
Economies of learning are now needed for on-the-go decision making.
When leaders understand this, they realize that their existing processes are more focused on efficiencies and outcomes. While some may understand this, they are still making a vital mistake. They’re asking the conveyor belt operators to also fly the plane. This can make employees confused and somewhat disillusioned.
So being tomorrow's team leader is understanding that you don’t have all the answers.
Also, these team leaders need to understand that employees who bring innovation, stability, and efficiency will struggle to be disruptive, experimental, and robust in their experience of services and products for a fast-changing world.
These leaders need to be focused on incremental innovations, modifications, story groups, and slow progress into tomorrow, while hiring a tomorrow team that is equipped with new key performance indicators, and new opportunities to experiment and build businesses for an uncertain future.
It’s not about finding a solution but rather developing a system to evolve with future needs. Building around economies of learning allows for real agility, experimentation and disruptive behavior.
Where to from here?
Instead of looking for answers about future leadership, we should be exploring and building a system. A system where uncertainty becomes the norm and agility becomes obvious.
The 21st century leader needs to keep today’s business alive while planting seeds for tomorrow. This is best done by running parallel businesses and allowing employees to focus on the most important tasks.
• John Sanei is a futures strategist, a faculty member at Singularity University, a Faculty member at Duke Corporate Education and an associate partner at Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies.
