Predicting
where business is headed
This review of where business has been, where it is now positioned, and where it is headed is not based on any in-depth formal analyses, predictive modelling and forecasting, nor a claim to being a seer. It is a reflection based on being immersed in the business world – in a large number of countries and sectors - over the last half-century.
WHERE
HAVE WE BEEN?
The chart below shows
corporate areas of concentration over the past 50 years, and tells a story.
Note that each area of
focus by decade:
o
is
a broad description that incorporates
a number of developments and trends.
o
is
not stand-alone and does not cease
when the next area of focus takes off. For example, business has lately begun
to recognise the closed-loop system of strategy and culture. Profit still
remains the raison detré of business – the 70s were the age of ‘maximizing
shareholder value’, and more recently the trend is moving towards serving the
‘triple-bottom-line’ of planet, people and profit. A customer service strategy might flow out of
vision and values, and require cultural elements in its execution.
(Incidentally the first modern customer service standards were formulated by
the International Organisation for Standards in 1946). In the late 1990s the Moss Kantor, a leading management
thinker, said “the
vision thing is giving way to the values thing in the lexicon of business
leaders”.1 But of course vision and values are
inextricably linked – Martin Luther King’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech was values-laden
o
is driven by enablers or ‘how to’ initiatives. These
aspects are excluded, not specifically mentioned in the chart. (Thus games,
information and communications technologies and their intersection, narrative
contribution, learning organisation components, quality management,
organisational development, process redesign, balanced scorecard measures,
leadership qualities and skills … are excluded)
o
might
brew for many years before taking off
and being widely adopted. (Rooted in military
practice, modern business strategy emerged as a serious field
of study and practice in the 1960s. Scenario planning as an aspect of strategy
formation can be traced to the 19th century. Shell, a forerunner of
its modern use, has been using scenarios for over 4 decades. Culture has been a factor of focus in business
for about 3 decades now. Values have
their origin in antiquity. Within the broad scope of values, corporate
responsibility has been around for more than 5000 years …)
WHERE ARE WE NOW?
In part driven by a backlash against the excesses of
rampant capitalism, including widespread compliance mechanisms, and by the
failure of many organisations to determine and implement meaningful values, we
are currently seeing an embryonic ‘virtuous organisation’ movement.
“In sum, virtuousness in organizations refers to the process and practices that
support and manifest the display of virtuous behavior. In virtuous
organizations, employees collectively behave in ways that are consistent with
the best of the human condition and the highest aspirations of human kind”.2
Moss Kantor holds that “companies are more than instruments for
generating money; they are also vehicles for accomplishing societal purposes
and for providing meaningful livelihoods for those who work in them”. (The
latter not being subservient to the former).5
She rightly argues for
long term sustainability, and has coined the term ‘institutional logic’ – which
does suggest an adding to traditional command and control thinking, rather than
a totally new approach to how business is conducted.
We believe that the
embedding of agreed character virtues throughout the organisation, following a
sound process to determine desired behaviour indicators, and employing a new
business model, is the right route to follow.6
WHAT NEXT? WHERE ARE WE HEADED?
In my view the next
logical step for modern business focus -
following strategy, profit, culture, vision, values and virtues - is ‘spirit’.
Given the parlous state
of the wider world and the corporate world – characterised by wars, shortages,
protest, corruption, deceit - this seems like a cranky, flaky, naïve, over-the-top
prediction to make. However, there is
far less tolerance of traditional, hierarchical and unethical leadership.
Mindfulness training is being taken up by more and more – with benefits of
better self-awareness, better interpersonal relationships. The harnessing of
diversity is being more soundly practiced, with attendant growth of respect,
trust, dignity. Emotional and social intelligence development is becoming a
norm. Values and virtues are beginning to form a platform for many operations. Consciousness
of the implications of the wide, interconnected web in which business finds
itself – members, society, the environment, stakeholders – is being raised. (“Spiritual awareness is an understanding of being
imbedded in a larger whole, a cosmic whole, of belonging to the universe”. (Fritjof Capra, physicist, author of the Tao of
Physics)
All of these trends signal
a potential to breakthrough out of chaos as deeper understanding and practiced
virtues take hold – as our essential humanity is rediscovered. This is what I
term ‘Spirit’. A state-of-being where virtues shape, inform and undergird
strategies, motives, culture, vision and business processes. Where a habitual (even mystical) awareness of
the interconnectedness of all things is widely present. Where the da Vinci virtue of connessione (practicing love) emerges as
the highest virtue and a transformational force. June Singer, a giant in the world of analytical psychology,
has this to say:
“In
our concerns with counting and weighing and measuring, with precise
descriptions
and careful evaluation, we sometimes fail to
recognise or give credit to values that do not
fit these criteria. Or, when we do recognise
that such values exist, we split them off from
the consciousness of the marketplace and
relegate them to the categories of religion or the arts”.7
We believe that this
is about to change. There has been a raising
of consciousness. Soon this will become
a groundswell. And in the next decade we’ll reach a positive tipping point, a
switch to love-founded, heart-driven organisations. You see, “love behaves like a separate being in the psyche, acting from
within and enabling us to look beyond ourselves at our fellow human beings –
people who can be valued and cherished, rather than used”.8
“Great leadership, at West Point and
everywhere, has a lot to do with love. Not romantic
love or unconditional love but that caring,
passionate drive that binds teams together to
accomplish goals greater
than any individual among them could imagine”.9
It is not business as
usual, but business with a new perspective, a new way of doing things, without
being distracted and self-involved, success because of ‘spirit’ at work.
The miser visits a rabbi to complain
how miserable he is. The rabbi takes him by the shoulders and places him in front of
a mirror.
“What do you see?” he asks.
“What do you see?” he asks.
“I see myself,” mutters the miser.
The rabbi steers him to the window
and asks, “What do you see now?”
The miser responds, “I see people
and trees”.
“The
difference,” says the rabbi, “is the silver on the mirror”.
REFERENCES
2. Horne, Amanda Virtuous Organisations August, 2012
http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/amanda-horne/2012080323377
3. Ferenstein, Gregory Richard Branson: Screw Business As Usual,
And Make Your (Huge Piles Of) Money By Doing Good
4. Raynor, Michael E
and Ahmed, Mumtaz Three Rules for Making a Company Truly Great
April 2013
5. Moss Kantor, Rosabeth How Great Companies Think Differently November, 2011
6.
Williams, Graham; Haarhoff, Dorian & Fox, Peter The Virtuosa Organisation: the importance of virtues for a successful
business 2014
7.
Singer, June The
Power of Love to transform our lives and our world Nicolas-Hays, Inc. Maine
2000
8.
Johnson, Robert A. in his Introduction
to A Lover: embracing the passionate heart.
Archetypes of the
Collective Unconscious Volume 4 Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam NY 2002
9. Murphy, Bill Jr. Lessons From West Point: Leadership Is Love
