The Tom Peters! Company posed four questions to a gathering of senior executives:
- What is the predictable nature of the business environment in the 21st century?
- What is the source of the pressure for change?
- What do executives believe is the fastest route to business failure?
- What qualifies as a road map to success?
The answer to all four questions was . . . disruption. Is that any surprise? After all, the only constant is change, so . . .That sound we hear coming up behind us (no matter who we are) is the footsteps of someone with a new value proposition and a hardy appetite for the business we — just yesterday — mistakenly characterized as ours . . . It’s not unreasonable to expect that in the decade ahead whole business categories will be forced to change or die — much like the decade just past (think print shops and their suppliers, camera makers, the music industry, just about any kind of retailer, movie houses, radio, television . . . ). Category by category, the question is not, “Are we vulnerable to disruption?” but “How soon will our business plan be disrupted and what will we do about it?”
All of which makes learning as important as it has ever been. “In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future,” Eric Hoffer wrote. “The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”
