<div>Change is the only choice we have. We are either initiators or responders to change. Evolving all the time, even in the most stable of situations, we grow up and grow out to stay relevant. To be blind is nothing but corporate hara-kiri. <div><br /></div><div>Blackberry, Nokia, Sony Walkman and Kodak as well as the secure international and national public sectors are replete with mega-corporate examples of disastrous resistance to change; and what a mighty fall they had. What then are lessons from the history of change? </div><div><br /></div><div>a) Strangely, we fail for the very same reason that brought us success. Success and confidence are humble companions, graceful in their combined strength. However, when confidence tips over and loses its head to arrogance, trouble begins. It is then that success and arrogance become strange bedfellows – the beginning of the end. </div><div><br /></div><div>Check the state of any superpower that once was. Where is the Roman empire or the Egyptian civilisation or the Mughal kingdom? More recently, the great British empire where the sun never set? Monarchies fell, czars exterminated, Third Reich wiped off, corporate giants crumbled, presidents mercilessly sacked, chairmen chopped off, all because they failed to sense shifting needs and respond swiftly enough. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here, success breeds arrogance; arrogance breeds complacency; and complacency always breeds failure. It is again the story of ‘Humpty Dumpty who had a great fall, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back again.’ </div><div><br /></div><div>b) Usually we wait for a crisis to initiate change. When corruption turns epidemic, investors flee, bottom line caves in, deadwood is all around, bright youngsters are missing, jaded products and services and technology wobbles etc, that is when leadership wakes up. </div><div><br /></div><div>‘Something is wrong in here,’ is a sad eureka moment. Poor sensing of rapidly changing user needs coupled with leadership incompetence to reinvent and take daring strategic decisions, lead to crisis. The oft used term that a bottleneck in any bottle is always at the top is a no-brainer. </div><div><br /></div><div>It’s the top that defines the character of any organisation or a corporate. Whether the neck be a wide-mouthed jar or a nozzle determines how much flows out. There is lots to learn from HCL, Wipro, TCS, Infosys, Avery Dennison, Edelweiss, Strides, Zensar, Aurobindo and Mahindra, who have constantly re-crafted their thought leadership to stay ahead. c) A false sense of security and over-sized self importance leading to a belief that nothing can happen to us is self defeating. They are self-proclaimed pillars of organisational strength.</div><div><br /></div><div>Change seldom shrieks out loud. It is not always an announcement in the media which screams through a blow-horn ‘shape up or ship out.’ It often creeps in stealthily while organisations and its leaders remain blissfully in deep slumber. Sustainable performanceIt is like the secure oversized toad in a huge pot of water which when gently heated fails to recognise the danger. In slow fire, the toad ultimately gets cooked. As against this, a young toad, when dropped into the same boiling water, leaps out in a flash of a second. </div><div><br /></div><div>Security that comes from great sustainable performance is the only guarantee. All other forms of security is a corporate disaster. It is a curse on ingenuity, it kills innovation and dampens the spirit of enterprise. The usual signs of dysfunctional security are sloth and a gradual decline in enthusiasm that creates a community of laggards dragging one another.</div><div><br /></div><div>Much to the dismay of any inclusive thinker, the emergence of Brexit or Trump victory in the US is no freak accident. Someone heard the voice of the silent and senior Anglo-Saxon voter. While on the other hand, the warm secure feeling that Democrats would win hands down got snuffed out in the ashes of its own defeat. </div><div><br /></div><div>As Helen Keller said, “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. For if we do not learn from history, we are condemned to repeat it.” </div><div><br /></div><div>(The writer is Director at Seek and Founder Director of Manford)</div></div>
<div>Change is the only choice we have. We are either initiators or responders to change. Evolving all the time, even in the most stable of situations, we grow up and grow out to stay relevant. To be blind is nothing but corporate hara-kiri. <div><br /></div><div>Blackberry, Nokia, Sony Walkman and Kodak as well as the secure international and national public sectors are replete with mega-corporate examples of disastrous resistance to change; and what a mighty fall they had. What then are lessons from the history of change? </div><div><br /></div><div>a) Strangely, we fail for the very same reason that brought us success. Success and confidence are humble companions, graceful in their combined strength. However, when confidence tips over and loses its head to arrogance, trouble begins. It is then that success and arrogance become strange bedfellows – the beginning of the end. </div><div><br /></div><div>Check the state of any superpower that once was. Where is the Roman empire or the Egyptian civilisation or the Mughal kingdom? More recently, the great British empire where the sun never set? Monarchies fell, czars exterminated, Third Reich wiped off, corporate giants crumbled, presidents mercilessly sacked, chairmen chopped off, all because they failed to sense shifting needs and respond swiftly enough. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here, success breeds arrogance; arrogance breeds complacency; and complacency always breeds failure. It is again the story of ‘Humpty Dumpty who had a great fall, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back again.’ </div><div><br /></div><div>b) Usually we wait for a crisis to initiate change. When corruption turns epidemic, investors flee, bottom line caves in, deadwood is all around, bright youngsters are missing, jaded products and services and technology wobbles etc, that is when leadership wakes up. </div><div><br /></div><div>‘Something is wrong in here,’ is a sad eureka moment. Poor sensing of rapidly changing user needs coupled with leadership incompetence to reinvent and take daring strategic decisions, lead to crisis. The oft used term that a bottleneck in any bottle is always at the top is a no-brainer. </div><div><br /></div><div>It’s the top that defines the character of any organisation or a corporate. Whether the neck be a wide-mouthed jar or a nozzle determines how much flows out. There is lots to learn from HCL, Wipro, TCS, Infosys, Avery Dennison, Edelweiss, Strides, Zensar, Aurobindo and Mahindra, who have constantly re-crafted their thought leadership to stay ahead. c) A false sense of security and over-sized self importance leading to a belief that nothing can happen to us is self defeating. They are self-proclaimed pillars of organisational strength.</div><div><br /></div><div>Change seldom shrieks out loud. It is not always an announcement in the media which screams through a blow-horn ‘shape up or ship out.’ It often creeps in stealthily while organisations and its leaders remain blissfully in deep slumber. Sustainable performanceIt is like the secure oversized toad in a huge pot of water which when gently heated fails to recognise the danger. In slow fire, the toad ultimately gets cooked. As against this, a young toad, when dropped into the same boiling water, leaps out in a flash of a second. </div><div><br /></div><div>Security that comes from great sustainable performance is the only guarantee. All other forms of security is a corporate disaster. It is a curse on ingenuity, it kills innovation and dampens the spirit of enterprise. The usual signs of dysfunctional security are sloth and a gradual decline in enthusiasm that creates a community of laggards dragging one another.</div><div><br /></div><div>Much to the dismay of any inclusive thinker, the emergence of Brexit or Trump victory in the US is no freak accident. Someone heard the voice of the silent and senior Anglo-Saxon voter. While on the other hand, the warm secure feeling that Democrats would win hands down got snuffed out in the ashes of its own defeat. </div><div><br /></div><div>As Helen Keller said, “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. For if we do not learn from history, we are condemned to repeat it.” </div><div><br /></div><div>(The writer is Director at Seek and Founder Director of Manford)</div></div>
