How to be Future ready

Organisations need to change, and rapidly at that, if they wish to remain relevant in today’s fast-paced world.

The word ‘change’ is unfortunately, often met with a lot of resistance. It is natural to fear the unknown but is it wise to be unprepared? We all know the answer to that one. Approach change in a positive manner, chart out all the possible factors that could call for a shift in culture. Then, prepare for the shift. While we could roll-out a meticulous stepwise adoption approach, our efforts are meaningless if we don’t tackle the biggest catalyst – mindset. Work on creating a culture of positive response to change and the willingness to adapt, the rest will follow smoothly.

Vision for Growth

Management having a strong vision gives a sense of purpose and direction for the organisation. Your vision helps you define your short-term and long-term goals. To encourage future vision, you must be able to communicate your vision effectively so that others buy in. Eventually others see the leader’s vision as their own.

Motivate and encourage people to give their best. The most powerful visions are those that are qualitative and are described in terms of values and mission goals.

Technology

Organisations are finding it challenging to remain relevant and competitive in this era of exponential growth of technologies like AI, Sensors, Advanced Analytics etc. Recognise, assess, and take necessary action to be prepared for future disruptions at an early stage. Understand what your competitors are doing and learn from them. Successful companies of the future are characterized by - openness, willing to learn, and taking ownership of their decisions.

Digital Infrastructure

Companies need to rework their IT infrastructure to embrace new technologies. Systems need to be networked for the future and taught to communicate with each other, priming for a IoT dominant world. It may even be necessary sometimes to change your entire IT system as new technologies cannot be superimposed on existing networks.

Future Ready Skills

To be relevant in today’s age, one must continuously re-train their employees, knowledge transfers need to be encouraged through platforms. Regular cross departmental training courses need to be organized based on employee needs and skills. Management needs to plan collectively for future ready skills to succeed. It is important to build skills relevant to the employee, which in turn creates opportunity for them to interact with the management, fellow employees, and other knowledgeable partners in the team.

Autonomous Pioneer Culture

Creating a pioneer culture through autonomy and upskilling helps people work creatively. Pioneers must be encouraged to work and organize their own activity and pursue new ideas in a decentralized and interdisciplinary way. Companies who have pursued this course have seen their products being reinvented with new levels of service.

Build passion by motivating employees

A cursory look at today’s organizations and you will notice that millennials forms the vast majority. Money does not drive this group; they take their remuneration for granted. Instead they seek work which appeals to their hearts and a challenging occupation with opportunities to enhance their skills and developments. Organisations, therefore, need to motivate employees and build passion to appeal to this group. Companies wanting to be ready for the digital future must also have a right employee mix, in addition to the right workplace, and the right tools.

Innovation

In any organisation, innovation must be encouraged at all levels. Not only does innovation save time, money and other resources but also gives you a competitive edge over others. If your organisation is static and lacks progress it is simply because there is no innovation.

Not many have embraced the digitalised approach. Customers are now making use of the latest technology in their lives and have made themself ready for the digitalised world. They expect businesses to be ready with it too. If you aren’t ready with this, people will reach out to other businesses for their work. So, I urge you to think out of the box and refrain from getting stuck in a rut.

I have always maintained that innovation should be part of your business process so that it can pave way for creative, futuristic thinking.

As I pen down my last thoughts for all of you, I encourage everyone to begin taking the first step towards change, to constantly assess and reassess the business you are part of, and to build a business that can stand the test of time.