Surviving Change and Winning

I have been hearing about the IT Industry changing and jobs being lost for the last 2-3 years now. Some people go as far as to say that the industry is at its lowest ebb and that there is no future in it anymore.

When I was in Cognizant, I came across Joel Barker. He was invited by @Francisco D'Souza to speak about Change. He spoke about how difficult it was for people to accept change and illustrated his talk with examples from history going back to the times of Galileo. Now, we all know that Change is there to stay. Being able to acknowledge it and change with the times is however a totally different story.

Two of his Quotes were great lessons for us and continue to be relevant in today's world. I thought I would start with them as they relate to the change we have been facing for the last 20-30 years.

"Those who say 'It can't be done', are usually interrupted by others doing it"

"Your successful past will block your visions of the future"

This brought me back to IT Careers today. The landscape was changing and existing jobs were being phased out and replaced by new ones. Many people continued in their existing jobs with the old skills and complained when they had to undergo training to upgrade. Those who made the shift were successful and many who didn't soon found themselves out of favor with the marketplace.

Is this new or has it happened before? Are there strategies to win? Over the past few weeks, I was reminded of a story that came to me in 2004 and then one that happened just over a week ago. I would like to tell you these two stories to illustrate the importance of Change and the Strategy to deal with it.

My first story relates to the Mobile Phone Industry. Motorola was a pioneer in this industry. Starting with their first handset around 1983, they became leaders in this space. Their strength in analog mobile handsets was without compare in the 90s and their marketshare was 30% at their peak. Then, along came change in the form of Digital Technology as the first shift. At that time, it was not clear how superior it would be and needed billions of dollars in infrastructure investment, something that most US carriers like Sprint and Verizon were reluctant to do.

The second shift involved the emergence of a new competitor in Europe, who pushed Digital Technology. After the suicide of it's CEO in 1990, a new CEO and internal leadership were installed in 1992. Jorma Olilla was a former banker and not a technologist. So, Motorola did not take him seriously when he talked about Mobile Communication that was 2% of Nokia's total revenue at that time, the rest of which came from forest products. But then, in a period of 4 years between 1993 and 1997, all of Europe adopted a common digital standard that was tough in the US which had fragmented standards. Nokia's revenues increased fourfold from $2.1 Billion to $8.7 Billion in this period. Nokia made one more change. They started focusing on Brand and Brand Management in addition to Technology. For example, they focused on making the User Interface intuitive ("Green" key for making a call and "Red" key for ending the call). In 1998, this little known company in 1993 from a small country for Finland overtook Motorola to become the largest Mobile manufacturer in the world. What did Motorola do? Instead of making the change, oddly they poured more investment and effort into what they did best - Analog Phones! Motorola lost out because they did not recognize the change coming and when they did, they decided not to act.

In 2001, with a market share of 35%, Motorola was at the top of the World with a profit share of nearly 70%. Did the story end there? No, it didn't. Nokia faced their waterloo at the hands of a small company that was virtually unknown to the world in 1997 when their market share in Mobile Phones was just 27%. Read more about them at this site (where I got much of this story in addition to hearing from a former Motorola employee):

The point of this story is in line with what we are facing in this industry today:

1. Our jobs are not going to stay in the current form. Our old skills will no longer be enough to survive
2. The IT industry is not dying. It is integrating into people's lives and becoming bigger than ever before
3. As a result, the skills needed for the jobs are changing rapidly that have to be acquired while we are in our old jobs
4. Recognize the change and act or be left behind. Don't be blinded by the past. Take the steps to learn NOW

The second story focuses on taking bold steps when faced with a tough situation. Steps that need risk which could pay off. Between the middle of August and the beginning of September 2018, I watched the Asian Games at Jakarta and ended up writing highlights of India's daily performance on Facebook.

Link to Day 14 Highlights of India's performance at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta (which has the links for all the other daily highlights up to Day 3): https://www.facebook.com/sudhir.rao.585/posts/2276577175704504?notif_id=1535818247200718&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

One of the races that caught my eye was the 4X400M Women's Athletic Event. India had been the winner of this event in 4 consecutive Asiads before. This time, they had a relatively inexperienced team with only one of the members (Poovamma) surviving from the previous Asiad. They were faced with athletic powerhouses like Bahrain, Japan, China among others and winning seemed to be a tall order.

India's newly appointed athletic coach, 72 year old Galina Bukharina (a 4X100 Russian Bronze Medalist in the 1968 Olympics), made a bold decision. She took 18 year old Hima Das, a sensation from the World Junior Athletics and India's best runner, up front - the runner in the first leg. This was unheard of since most countries put their best runners in the Anchor leg to take the team home, the last leg of the run. The changes didn't end there. For the anchor leg, she selected Vismaya Koroth, a runner who had never been blooded in International events before. Seeing her win Silver at the Inter-Varsities meet in India, she was called for the camp and picked for the Games after the trials.

These bold steps and risks paid off! Hima Das ran wonderfully to give India a 25m lead at the first baton handover. The other three runners never let the lead decrease and Vismaya ran her heart out in the anchor leg to take India to the GOLD.

So, this is what I learnt from watching the race. As People or Organizations, we will always be faced with ever changing competition that is improving by leaps and bounds. So, how do we get ahead?

1. Put your best foot forward. First impressions are the best.
2. Take risks and throw the opposition off

In a world that is changing all the time, each one of us have to look at where we want to be and take steps to win. Summarizing once again for everyone's benefit.

1. The past is not a reflection of the future. Look for the signs of change
2. There will be an effort needed to change. Don't delay. Put it off at the risk of becoming obsolete
3. Supplement your old skills with the new
4. Start putting your best foot forward with the competition. Don't leave the best to last
5. Do not hesitate to take risks to achieve your goal. Nothing ventured, nothing gained

I want to end with another of Joel Barker's sayings.

"The past guarantees you nothing in the future if the rules change"

And believe me, the rules are changing in the Information Technology World......

Note: I want to thank Kshitij Negi for encouraging me to write on this topic. But for him, this post would not have gone out!