How can we adapt to the future?

At the World Economic Forum, in Davos 2018 Jack Ma, stated “Only by changing education can our children compete with machines.” Mr. Ma is the founder of Alibaba, the largest e-commerce company in China. He continued “We cannot teach our kids to compete with machines. Teachers must stop teaching knowledge. We have to teach something unique, so a machine can never catch up with us.” “Why teach subject where most questions can be answered by Google”. “Education is a big challenge now. If we do not change the way we teach, we will be in big trouble in 30 years from now. Because the way we teach, the things we teach our kids, are the things from the past 200 years – its knowledge based. We need to be teaching our children values, believing, independent thinking, teamwork, care for others...these are the soft parts. The knowledge will not teach you that.” “That’s why I think we should teach our kids sports, music, painting, art. Everything we teach should be different from machines.”

It is all about our flexibility , do we manage to adapt constantly to changing circumstances where technology, automation, and artificial intelligence are disrupting how we work. In this rapidly changing world, technical capabilities are no longer enough. It will be about the skills that make us uniquely human that will matter in the future.

Great leaders do not accept the status quo—and they are constantly reviewing their own strategic decisions to keep up with internal and external framework conditions. One can no longer spend a year making a five years plan as one did in the old Soviet Union, and not be willing to revise the plans and goals until those five years have passed. Such leaders belong to the past and only lead their organization into certain death. The future lies with those who do not accept the status quo and challenge the established truth. A gamechanger is not someone who takes a backseat and lets others make an impact. To be a game-changer, you must be willing to shake things up and take risks to achieve your goals and have success in any business segment. The story is full of large companies that have not been able to keep up with developments. The fact that you were the biggest and leader in your segment once does not mean at all that you are the leader of tomorrow. Currently, we are living in a dynamic world where the rules of the business game are constantly changing because of technology, globalization and increasing competition. How do one become a gamechanger? By questioning the traditional rules of the game. Insist that rules must be broken and do not follow the same procedure as last year. History can be interesting but living for the future is more interesting. As Mr Ma stated we need to develop the traits in everyone like ambition, insight, flexibility, leadership, and relationships. It is our ‘human difference’ that will make us winners of tomorrow. We most enabling ourselves by re-imagine the possible, only then we can become gamechangers.

The global business leader on leadership and growth, innovation, and marketing etc. Mr. Peter Fisk describes 10 ways to be a gamechanger. Gamechangers are disruptive and innovative, start-ups and corporates, and we find them in every sector, and they are reshaping the world as we know it today. Gamechangers are more ambitious, with stretching vision and enlightened purpose. They see markets as kaleidoscopes of infinite possibilities, assembling and defining them to their advantage. Gamechangers find their own space and shape their own vision. Most of all they have great ideas. They outthink their competitors, thinking bigger and different. Why be 15% better, when you could be 15 times better? Gamechangers think and act differently. Tesla was a gamechanger when it comes to electrical cars. Tesla captured the higher purpose with focus on environment with their inspiring new electrical car that resonate with their target audiences at the right time and place, enabled by data and technology, but more through design and rich human experiences. For the first time in Norwegian history over 2000 people pre-order the first Tesla S model without even to have test-drive it. Tesla used social networks to drive the excitement of the new car. Gamechangers like Tesla collaborate with customers, and partner with other business, connecting ideas and utilising their capabilities. They look beyond the sale to enable customers to achieve more.

Becoming a game changer requires:

1.     THINK … Change your future.

Gamechangers out-thinking their competitors, with ideas that can change the world. Today we live in an idea’s economy, with possibilities limited only by our imaginations, Elon Musk have even sent a Tesla car to Mars on SpaceX rocket.

2.     Find your space and EXPLORE … Change your market

Making sense of the “kaleidoscope” of dynamic markets, tectonic shifts in power and disruptive technologies, to find the best opportunities for profitable growth. They look east and south, to millennials and boomers, women, and entrepreneurs.

3.     Shape the future and DISRUPT … Change your strategy

Shape the future in your own vision, with a disruptive strategy. Strategy is about finding your space in crowded and convergent markets. It cannot be an extrapolation of the past, nor a fixed point in the future. Through a more stretching vision and disruptive thinking, you choose your future – reframing your context, and playing by new rules.

4.     INSPIRE … Change your brand

Building brands about people not products, about making life better.

5.     DESIGN … Change your business

Innovating the organisation, from business model to customer experience. Rethink business models and customer experiences, hard and soft, and then the products and services to deliver them.

6.     RESONATE … Change your story

Tuning into the customers world with real-time and relevant content and engaging them in relevant and meaningful ways, about them, at the right time and place.

7.     ENABLE … Change your experience

Delivering customer experiences that enable customers to achieve more.

 8.     MOBILISE … Change your relationship growing further and faster, through networks and collaboration.

Advocacy, trust, and loyalty between customers can be far more powerful than any CRM could ever achieve.

9.     IMPACT … Change your results

Delivering and sustaining a positive impact, human and financial. Sustaining growth means being sustainable more broadly, through circular business models, and enabling customers to be better too.

10. AMPLIFY … Change your potential

Leaders amplify the potential of their people and organisations. Changing the game will also require you to change your brain, to think in new ways with new people and partners.

Reference: Fisk, 2017, Gamechangers: Creating Innovative Strategies for Business and Brands; New Approaches to Strategy, Innovation and Marketing.