The Business World is Changing

The Business World Is Changing

The vast majority of the world’s largest corporations in 1900 are no longer in business. The Fortune 500 list from just 20 years ago, only slightly resembles today’s list; and it is changing even as you read this chapter.

Current and Past Achievements

Do NOT Equate With Future Successes

Over the last century, the premise in the business world has often reflected two basic principles:

1. The leaders of a company needed to have a clear vision, and a strategic plan for its achievement.
2. Management’s job was the successful implementation of that plan through the Fear-Based motivation, manipulation, and control of its employees and staff.

Nevertheless, despite the overwhelming emphasis on this old structure, Fear-Based management techniques are rapidly losing effectiveness. Globalization, the Internet, and increasing political, social, and competitive pressures are having a dramatic effect upon the business culture in America, and everywhere else.

Not only are an ever-increasing number of people not operating in alignment with corporate strategic plans, there is an increasing problem with staff turnover and employee dissatisfaction. As a result, more and more top-level people are leaving to work for competitors, or to start their own businesses.

The problem (and opportunity) is that the average employee has easy access to more knowledge and information than an entire corporation could obtain in the 1960’s. Additionally, far more employees are trained to be much more creative than in the past. As a result, they often have their own agenda of what is needed for the company.

When this occurs, not only does it frustrate the employee, it can place the employee out of alignment with corporate strategy. This will reduce the effectiveness of even the best strategic plan.

With the business world changing so rapidly, what now determines an organization’s ability to survive and thrive is management’s ability to Pro-Act and Create Consensus with independent thinking employees, staff, vendors, and customers. Organizations that are oblivious to this fact, are doomed.

(From The Love-Based Leader)