“We must remove ourselves from thinking
of the future through a forecasting exercise
and trying to identify some particular future.
Instead, think through the discontinuties...
the things that drive change then,
understadning these discontinuties try to
construct a point of view about the unique
opportunites we might create.”
strategy setting is one of the huge dilemmas that we have, especially in large and
mid-sized organizations.
Other issues, which cannot be covered
in detail here, are:
1. Under commitment
2. Over commitment
3. A deep sense of restlessness with
status quo.
just one future out there . . . . there are
several. It’s not about predicting which
future is going to occur that will be your
environment. Instead, the goal is to try to
imagine a future that is credible . . . the
future you can create.
We must remove ourselves from thinking of the future through a forecasting
exercise and trying to identify some particular future. Instead, think through the
discontinuities . . . . . . . the things that
drive change then, understanding these
discontinuities try to construct a point of
view about the unique opportunities we
might create.
“employees” below them. Where in that
pyramid do you find the least genetic diversity when it comes to radically different ways about the future of an industry?
And where in that pyramid do you find
managers who have most of their emotional equity invested in the past? It’s at
the top.
The next question is crucial to believe
and act on: Whom do we give the pri-
mary responsibility for strategy setting
and direction? Answer: The guys at the
top. It’s no wonder we don’t gain creativ-
ity in this process. Therefore, allocating
Under commitment usually is descrip-
tive of an organization that is reactive
versus pro-active, many times misreading
the opportunity’s success subtleties.
You have the elements
Whatever one needs to know to create
the future one can know. By definition,
whatever Facebook needed to know, it
knew. Whatever Google needed to know,
it knew.
No proprietary data
There is no proprietary data about the
future. However, there exist very different levels of understanding about
the various factors that are going to
open possibilities for industry revolution. The data are there for everybody,
but there is an enormous difference in
people’s abilities to build imaginative
compelling new opportunities out of
that understanding.
In the “Organizational Hierarch”
triangle above we have two basic divisions: senior management at the top and
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June 2013
www.coatingsworld.com
Coatings World | 23
