The world has been going through great transformations. Even before the pandemic spread across the planet, some more visionary senior executives were already organizing themselves so that their companies wouldn’t become obsolete, acting in a world panorama that is on its way to extinction. We see that there was an effort to stop their companies from being too slow, highly hierarchical, and bureaucratic.
These people have watched trends that would change the way of doing business: greater connectivity and disruptive innovations, large-scale automation, lower transaction costs due to the digital transformation and changes in social behavior, brought by millennials.
It is a fact that the covid-19 pandemic may have accelerated some changes. But we still have a major challenge: many of the most successful companies we know today are still conceived to be managed by the old rules that appeared during the First Industrial Revolution, 250 years ago. These organizations are mechanistic, and their operation is based on uniformity and bureaucratic control.
Ironically, the pandemic has turned into a rare opportunity for change. The long-awaited “new normal” is exactly the opportunity that companies have start the transformation process to become a company of the future.
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Toggle1. To be a company of the future, change starts from the inside
Companies of the future have three aspects in common: a well-defined identity, a strong culture, and a strategic plan. We’ll talk about each of them just ahead.
Every human wants to belong. Therefore, when it comes to identity, the company needs to create a strong sense of belonging or affiliation, both for its internal audience and for its customers. The simplest way to do this is to have a clear, engaging purpose.
The purpose is the response to the question why we do what we do. What is the motivation for this company to exist? This is an indispensable differentiating factor for companies of the future.
It personifies the organization, helps to attract, and retain talents, helps shareholders to make strategic decisions, and inspires commitment and can even open up a way to unexplored market segments.
Another crucial point is the strategic plan, the document that translates the objectives and goals of the organization into actions, and details features such as service stations, serviced areas, product lines and their differentials.
By reading this document, the management can better find where value is generated in the workflow, their strengths and what they can do to boost your success. It is common for companies to have strategies to generate value, but those that can identify how and where this value is generated are rare.
The significant leap involves using the value plan to focus efforts where it really matters and give each employee a vision of how their work affect the teamwork. Thinking about the intelligent reallocation of resources, in an agile and continuous way, can be a driving force in the “new normal” market.
The third and final point of internal attention for becoming a company of the future is organizational culture. In companies that stand out in the market, culture drives the performance of all organizational health. The culture encompasses everything: from the selection of employees and their integration to the way decisions are made.
When the culture of the organization is established and strengthened, talents that are compatible with the business profile are attracted and, best of all, retained, driving the value plan and boosting the company’s performance.
Here are some indicators of a strong culture: leaders act as the company expects, work practices are different from the common and innovative approaches to important and everyday situations. Do you recognize these aspects in your company?
2. Companies of the future are agile
Much has been said about agile methodologies and it is not by chance. The pandemic has led to the need to adapt quickly to the new environment but, even before the coronavirus turned the world upside down turned the world upside down, it was already common to talk about the advantages of having flexible and simplified processes applied to decision-making and the operation of the company.
A survey by McKinsey found out that organizations that make decisions quickly are twice as likely to make high-quality decisions as those that are slow to make decisions.
The study also showed that organizations that make assertive and fast decisions on a daily basis are more likely to present a better outcome than organizations that are very bureaucratic and slow.
However, to make businesses faster it is necessary to change the structures. High bureaucracy, difficulty on accessing information and lack of strategic clarity are factors that limit the speed of companies and need to be reformulated.
Another point worth noting is that given the need to deploy technologies that allow people to work remotely, leaders are taking the opportunity to accelerate technology adoption and innovation in their organizations.
3. Companies of the future are horizontal
Companies that want to prepare for the future need to change their hierarchical culture. We are not talking here about eradicating hierarchy but making it less important in the routine and, above all, about not limiting the agile evolution of the business.
In more modern organizations, the structure is more leveled and performance management becomes stronger. Managers need to be coaches and enablers of change, performance stimulators and not micro managers (who keep control of even the smallest details).
Employee self-management is a growing trend, anchored in technology that distributes priorities and helps managers to have an overall view.
People will have more freedom about working hours, where they choose to work from, and more willing to act in cooperation. The teamwork is increasingly valued over the competition. Even because, a lot will be invested in small and multidisciplinary teams (squads), capable of self-management, making decisions, solving problems and proposing innovations by learning, testing, correcting and retrying.
A self-organized team must also be self-sufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to train employees, keep the focus on communication and collaboration between teams, in addition to engaging people and keeping them always creative and motivated to do their best.
4. Companies of the future value human capital
Considering the previous topic, it is observed that people are beginning to see themselves as the company’s main resource. Therefore, attracting and retaining talent is fundamental to the success of the company of the future. Therefore, having a strong culture, providing a diverse and attractive environment for talents, as well as an inclusive experience makes all the difference when it comes to attracting the best.
Another point is that the company of the future is attentive to the satisfaction of employees and their exceptional skills, being agile in the internal reallocation of talent to keep the employee motivated and the performance of the company at high levels.
According to the Getting to Equal 2019 report, companies that have diversity and inclusion in their team are 11 times more innovative and their employees are 6 times more creative than their competitors.
Furthermore, it is important for managers to keep in mind that more and more professions can be automated. However, the replacement of more bureaucratic positions by technology also opens space for more strategic positions in companies, such as data analyst or content curators. In studies of work futurology, there is no mention of fewer jobs, but rather different possibilities of action.
5. Companies of the future operate in an ecosystem
If previously, the motto was to gain more influence and control the market, soon the companies of the future will establish themselves through networks in which partners share information, resources and skills. In this way, business communities can generate value and protect each other.
Adopting a systemic view is essential, in addition to creating space for fluidity rather than static plans. Partners are not competitors; they are extensions of the company itself.
Want to see an example? In 2014, Tesla surprised the market by publishing its patents and encouraging other companies to use its intellectual property. This is a perfect example of ecosystem performance.
The American automaker foresaw that it could not expand its market without the help of partners which could also construct recharging stations and could offer support services to electric vehicles. By collaborating with partners, Tesla opened space for its own growth. So, everyone wins.
6. Future companies value data and accelerate learning
Organizations prepared for the future have already understood that data is at the core business. Data is not only used to generate reports or create corporate forecasts. It is a key part of the business.
For this to become a reality, it is necessary to invest in data governance, use cloud systems, provide scalability for the development of new products, services and even businesses in record time. This all requires modern DevOps skills, as well as other capabilities that are new to most of the leaders.
Hence the importance of accelerating and investing in continuous business learning processes. High performing companies encourage continuous learning as an internal value and help people to adapt and reinvent themselves to meet changing market needs.
Fostering learning and testing environments promotes the improvement of employees, who will be able to bring innovations to the business. The most important thing is to signalize to the entire company that learning, experimentation and innovation are part of the organizational culture and must be present in everyday life. Innovation and constant learning are not responsibilities of one project team only, neither of a specialized group.
Out of curiosity, the consulting firm Accenture carried out a study that gathered 10,000 balance sheets of companies from 18 sectors. The results showed that between 2011 and 2018, the energy and retail sectors the greatest disruption rates. Interestingly, the sectors with the lowest disruption rates were the most vulnerable to transformations.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a great deal of disarray to everyone, personally, professionally, and organizationally. But if organizations manage to adopt a mindset that in every crisis there is an opportunity, they can use this moment as a chance to break out of the paralysis to create more flexible, integrated and perhaps even more humane systems and modes of organization.
Acting in a more decentralized and agile way, valuing human resources, and adopting technology as an ally for data processing and digital transformation, organizations will be better prepared to face what is called the “new normal”.
And then? Is your organization prepared to be a company of the future? Count on ACTIO as your technology partner in this transformation. Do we network? Actio como seu parceiro tecnológico nessa transformação. Vamos atuar em rede?