Predicting the future is tricky business, but managers need to have a future perspective in order to leverage the business and stay competitive. They must lead and introduce constructive changes in the activities of the company. The first step towards creativity and innovation is to foster a culture of innovation. Managers need to focus on developing the future mindset all the time to keep pace with the unfolding future.
You have to have some general awareness of whether the future is trending.
Changing customer needs
There are thousands of services, from providing eyewear to planning your vacation plans, where the customer wants instant results. Industry-wide wait times are rapidly reducing from days and hours to minutes. A conceptual shift is needed in the mindset of the manager to drive the change towards a response as close as possible to an immediate response to the customer’s needs.
Response time is improving in the banking sector. Most banks offer the ability to instantly debit accounts through ATMs at any time of the day or night. In manufacturing industries, the time value of information is increasingly respected and monitoring of the production chain is done in real time. Service industries attempt to respond immediately to a business request, which in turn is beneficial to both the customer and the supplier. Computer-aided design and development enable the culture of direct production and consumption. Innovation is constantly driving change in all industries.
Anywhere Customers want service where they want it. They don’t just want it where the supplier thinks it’s convenient to hold it. They want it anywhere. There are already many examples of this. Mobile has replaced so many gadgets like telephone, pocket calculators, camera, heart monitors, step trackers, computers and desktops etc. Previously, we would have had to go to the office to use a desk to send emails. Month by month, the number of people who carry the phone with them increases and they no longer need to go where the phone is. They practically wear it. Tower laptops allow business people to do their spreadsheets on the plane; home entertainment systems are now designed to be self-assembled, so you no longer have to wait for the technician but within an hour of purchase you are enjoying the fruits of your investment, having brought it back at home in two or three boxes in the car.
Customers today do some of what would previously have been done at the factory. The manufacturing chain of goods and services ends in the hands of the consumer in his own physical space. Those who provide goods and services in real time gain a competitive advantage over those who do not. There is no delay between the identification of a need and its satisfaction.
Technology unveils the future
The technology is there. It’s just that managerial thinking hasn’t caught up with him. This is where the future mindset comes in, growing all the time to keep pace with the unfolding future. The ability to deliver product anywhere is facilitated by advances in electronics, whereby a million electronic components can be placed on a quarter inch square of molten sand. The information carried by the electrical pulses demolishes space as well as time to allow customers to enjoy both benefits. There is no doubt that all these innovations brought a lot of unwanted changes to those who preferred the status quo, but those with the future mindset like Apple, Google and others not only survived but prevailed. and came out winners.
Anytime anywhere concept
There has always been an interrelationship between physics and management. Both physics and management are concerned with “the interrelationships of parts with a whole”. Time, space and matter are fundamental principles of physics, equally fundamental to shaping the businesses and organizations of tomorrow. The first dimension of physics related to business needs is time. When we respond to customers and persuade them, they take time until they decide to buy. Then we deliver, we use theirs. We must shorten the time that elapses between their decision and the satisfaction of their need. Customers want the service product when they want it, not when the company deigns to provide it. They want it all the time, and as explained above, technology already provides many examples to meet this need.
These anytime, anywhere concepts change the way the organization works:
- It becomes less important where you work. Half the world worked from home during the recent COVID-19 pandemic
- The number of home workers is on the rise, with the ultimate benefit for transportation issues as people work away on their computers.
- Human association is ensured by the increasing speed of network connectivity
- Decentralization is on the way, which is after all a matter of place
- As people work in networks, less dependent on space, the headquarters building is less populated and organizational hierarchies flattened
- Middle managers are finding a new place between producers and customers, rather than between senior managers and supervisors.
Build an innovation mindset
Managers should focus on building a culture of innovation by facilitating collaboration across organizations, expanding the breadth and depth of knowledge, and enhancing the value that any function brings to the business. They must facilitate the continuous flow of information within their departments. Help their team understand the business strategy and their own expected contribution. This will allow them to deliver real value and innovation, not just repeat established processes.
Cultivate a culture where employees share their know-how. The sharing of knowledge and the dissemination of expertise throughout the organization are essential to its ability to innovate continuously. Make sure your change initiatives and programs will actually add customer value. Ensure solutions are sustainable and scalable as the business grows and are profitable.
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