We are now, I think, having to adjust to dealing with a world that is going to be ferocious. We don’t have any practice with that. People like me who grew up in the postwar period are not practiced at the volatilities, the turbulence, the uncertainties of the world that will probably define the second half of my life.

It is only in times like these that you get a chance to show your strength. In the end, I think we need to have absolute faith in our ability to deal with whatever is thrown at us. And we need to have a complete, realistic paranoia that a lot can be thrown at us. It’s our ability to put those two contradictory ideas together: We need to be prepared for what we can’t predict and, at the same time, have this total, unwavering faith that we will find a way to deal with all of it. And I believe we will. I don’t believe the world will treat us well, but we will figure out how to do very well. 

As a Business Anthropologist,  I’ve been asking myself what are the skills that will enable Leaders to thrive in the new economic reality?  What could make our enterprises resilient? People don’t like uncertainty. The brain shuts down, rather than responding with the ingenuity that we need at this moment.  However, those skills can be cultivated; we are blessed with the potential for Neuroplaticity.  And brain researchers have made good progress showing what’s required to be smarter in uncertain times. 

Collins is optimistic.  So am I.  A number of leaders are stepping up to use this moment to build a better world, and many are willing to learn new skills.    

What has changed if you’re building a business now, as opposed to 10, 20, or 30 years ago?

The skills. You need to be continually learning. For example, if you accept the idea that work is infinite and time is finite, you realize you have to manage your time and not your work. You need a laserlike focus on doing first things first. And that means having a ferocious understanding of what you are not going to do. The question used to be which phone call you wouldn’t take. Now, it’s the discipline not to have your e-mail on. The skill is knowing how to sift through the blizzard of information that hits you all the time.

Not your grandfather’s skill set? Maybe not.  But, one thing hasn’t changed since your grandfather’s time, and far before that:  the power of knowing what you’re  commited to.  As Collins points out, if you know who you want to serve and how you want them to benefit, you can stay curious. You can be resilient.  That’s how to thrive in these crazy times.

Don’t worry. Be curious about how to serve.   

As one of those who believe that we can – and we must – harness the big engines of commerce to create a livable world, I was delighted with this recent article from Strategy and Business:  Emerging alternatives to the shareholder-centric model could help companies avoid ethical mishaps and contribute more to the world at large.

            “I’m deeply convinced that [humanity’s] future relies on our ability to explore and invent new business models and new 

             types of business corporations.”

-          Franck Riboud, CEO, Groupe Danone

              “The financial meltdown of 2008 was a direct result of the pursuit of immediate profit by investment bankers and

              mortgage brokers who disregarded the impact of their actions on customers, on the larger economy, and indeed on

              stockholders and the company itself in the long term. Those who wanted to operate with integrity found it difficult…”

The article includes some juicy examples of effective pioneering.

….”Grameen Danone Foods Ltd. is a pathbreaking collaborative en­terprise,” launched in 2006, “a 50–50 joint venture between Groupe Danone — the US$16 billion multinational yogurt maker — and the Grameen companies,” founded by Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel prize that year. “ Yunus called the joint venture a ‘social business’ which he said could be a pioneering model… a hybrid between nonprofit and for-profit…”

“Novo Nordisk… has adopted an ambitious charter that spells out the com­pany’s values and commitments, including a commitment to ensuring that all products and services ‘make a significant difference in improving the way people live and work.’ Each year the company board must report to the foundation board on how it is ensuring that operations are ‘economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially fair.’ The foundation board includes an electrician, scientists, a physician, and a lab technician, so that participants represent many relevant points of view…”

“As Brooklyn Law School Professor Dana Brakman Reiser observed in a recent paper, Google.org is not a traditional foundation but a division of Google, standing alongside the engineering, sales, and finance functions, yet tasked with addressing climate change, disease pandemics, and poverty. By eschewing tax-exempt status, it gains the running room to combine investments with grants as it pursues its ambitious goals — drawing fully on Google’s staff, technology, and products in the process. As Reiser put it, “Google.org’s use of an integrated for-profit division inaugurates a new model: ‘for-profit philanthropy…’”

“Conventional methods for preventing abuses, such as regulation and criminalizing egregious behavior, are only partially effective. In the long run, the best way to get to the root of the problem will be for corporate ownership and governance design itself to evolve…”

“All the successful examples embody a view of enterprises as living systems. Most economists and law professors still view companies primarily as forms of property, owned through their shares. But for-benefit design starts with the assumption that companies are organically evolving entities, living social systems — in other words, human communities. And their design reflects that view…”

“We live in an age when short-term pressures have allowed speculation to overtake the more traditional, human functions of business. Alternatively designed companies offer important lessons in how corporate ownership and governance can evolve differently. And they’re important in their own right as well, for they are likely to prove better adapted to the cultural and ecological demands of the 21st century than the industrial age models they might one day replace. Such businesses may seem like anomalies today. But they more closely reflect the priorities that have engendered the longest-lasting businesses throughout human history.”

This Business Anthropologist says, THANK YOU.  And BRAVO.

Yes we can

Nervous about the current economic climate?  Being nervous does not put the brain in shape to generate solutions.  On the contrary, worry and fear shut down the fresh thinking needed.  

On the other hand, the habit of seeking to address vulnerability is a time-honored leaders’ practice [here’s a lovely example].  Not only is it good commercial process; it’s an excellent antidote to fear.  Brain  juices flow when peoples see opportunities to help others.  By leading employees to focus on shifting Customer vulnerabilities, leaders can both stimulate ingenuity and be rewarded with new solutions and improved morale.   

No matter the size of your business,  doing what you’ve been doing is not likely to work. Build resilience by focusing on new vulnerabilities -  your own and others’.  Sound counter-intuitive?  Navigating this new economic reality requires creating new kinds of exchanges.  The richest exchanges address both parties’ concerns.   Those concerns are centered on vulnerability. 

How are your most valued trading partners – key segments - viewing the vulnerabilities they face?  Stay close to their thinking.  Ask questions about how they see their world and what they’re anticipating.  And treat them like partners by asking for advice about how your business might serve others like them – you may be surprised at how good their advice is and how much they like giving it.

Replace your nervousness with curiosity about how to serve. And stimulate others’ curiosity; opening new questions breeds the Neuroplasticity that will   enable you, employees and customers to respond well to market shifts.   And it will strengthen relationships all around, setting the context for more value to be generated. 

By listening deeply and often to how key segments are thinking and re-thinking their vulnerabilities, it’s easy to move to:    

• How might you add fresh value? 
• What might you invent to make their prospects brighter?     

High-performing business cultures are based on this practice.  Knowing that they cannot control peoples’ interpretations and choices, leaders ensure that employees, customers and vendors step into inquiry.  It makes everyone smarter. 

Already doing that?  Please share.

Not nimble enough to do that?   Want a  manual?  C.K. Prahalad’s book, The New Age of Innovation is excellent.