‘KEY TAKE AWAY’: If you want to be or remain a leading company in a Web 2.0 world, evolve immediately, quickly, and often. The time to radically change your business is a small window of 1-3 years. Because of this limitation, there must be a laser focus in your evolution towards a specific destination in these unchartered waters of Web 2.0. There is no alternative to dramatic actions today. For some leading companies, it will be over in less than few years. Today’s decision will mean survival tomorrow.
I have never been an alarmist, but I do feel that some leading businesses do not realize the true magnitude of the revolutionary process that is taking place before our very eyes in business with Web 2.0. In the end, there will be long standing traditional companies that will not survive in the coming years. In order to not be left behind, companies and individuals must do what they fear the most - change. The ‘less’ risky actions of doing nothing or doing too little over too long of a period will mean a fate that may be difficult and potentially impossible to recover from.
What business leaders must do in the next 6-12 months?
- Overcome the fear of uncertaintly and change -don’t just watch Web 2.0 radically change the world every 3 months. Be a part of it immediately.
- Lead your company now-regardless of the amount of uncertainty in a Web 2.0 future, you must establish a destination for your company and move towards it immediately.
- Evolve quickly and often-significant change must occur in your organization every 6 months for the coming few years to maintain leadership. The companies that evolve the quickest and the most win. The others die.
- Focus, focus, focus-since the time frame to evolve is limited, it is critical to maintain a laser focus on getting to your established destination quickly and efficiently.
It’s scary in a Web 2.0 world. Get over it. Take steps now.
How do you tell a business that is making millions in revenue that they must change their business model and do it ‘overnight’ in order to survive? You can’t. It’s that simple. You can try (and I will), but for the most part it will come down to a battle of the lesser of two fears and eventual observation that competitors who are evolving quickly are winning. The first major fear is not knowing what to do or doing the wrong thing in a Web 2.0 world. The second, more significant fear is change. Imagine if someone told you that you should immediately change your job, risk your livelihood (even though you got a family to feed), and do it overnight so that you will survive tomorrow. Most won’t do it. Now imagine a company with 10,000 individuals faced with the same reality. It’s 10,000+ times more unlikely that change will happen.
You simply must get over the fear and act. In fact, it’s proven that the only way to conquer fear is to act. Whether you are a soldier trained to battle on the front lines or company at the cusp of making radical changes to your organization, the mere act of staking a step forward will allow you to begin the process of overcoming these fears and moving towards a successful path.
Business leaders must carry the weight of ‘life and death’ decisions in these unchartered Web 2.0 waters
The only way to overcome this overwhelming fear is to have leaders chart and lead a course through it and towards a better tomorrow. Just recently, Cisco’s John Chambers announced full adoption of Web 2.0. My hope is that this is that tipping point that will lead other corporations and businesses to do the same for their own benefit and survival. Web 2.0 is not a buzzword, it is very real. Don’t fool yourself in thinking that it is not. As part of Cisco’s company mission to connect people to people and information to people, they have also made acquisitions of companies in the Web 2.0 space. These acquisitions have left some people scratching their heads. This is actually a good thing. Especially in uncertain and revolutionary times, leadership is often defined by making decisions that leave others wondering why and what is going on. It’s up to leaders like Chambers to explain this vision to his company and inspire the transition to occur. I believe that Cisco is making some great moves to evolve and stay highly viable. Note that the direction is coming from Chambers himself. This is yet another important aspect for companies to evolve successfully. It must come from the top. Only the top leader can provide the vision and drive the organization requires to make it through unchartered waters. Any person lower on the organizational chart does not have enough power to be effective in today’s faster business world. In Chamber’s mind, the destination is clear to everyone inside and outside of the company, ‘Our world’s ability to collaborate will determine the future of companies or countries’. What will be your decision? Whatever it is, it will need to be made within the next 6-12 months before your company may be left behind.
In a flat ecosystem, those that evolve the most and the quickest survive
The pace of change is the ecosystem is so fast that everyone becomes amateurs. Companies or people with 20+ years of experience are just as unknowing as newbies now with the uncertainty of the true impact of Web 2.0. You can find examples of this everyday in corporations. Executives are literally sitting on multi-million dollar budgets without any clear idea of how to spend the money based upon the overwhelming and blurring pace of business in a Web 2.0 world. In an environment where businesses and individuals are equal in their experience, evolution is the only key to unlock the way to survival and success. The more a company can evolve in less time, the more experience they will have to properly forecast the future.
With a limited time frame, focus means is critical.
Do not forget, however, that the evolution itself must be extremely focused due to the fact that there is a limited window of opportunity to adapt to a Web 2.0 world. Companies no longer have years to change. They literally have months. Just like we as individuals only has 24 hours in a day, the only way to get things done is to stay laser focused and prioritize daily tasks in alignment with your goals. After establishing the company’s destination like Chambers has, you must ensure that every moment, every resource is completely focused on the destination or else not be able to meet change enough in the small window of opportunity that is available to make the change into our Web 2.0 world.
MORE LINKS WORTH YOUR TIME:
QUESTION FOR YOU
- What dramatic step do you think you need to take for your company to survive in web 2.0 world?
