Member Article

Time to Disrupt or be Disrupted?

Disrupt or be disrupted….

So every year has its new buzz word; for the last few years it’s been BIG DATA - the one thing that was meant to revolutionise the board rooms ability to make strategic decisions more quickly and accurately. Reports no longer took 3 months to compile, intelligent field creation from the user gave the same result in 3hrs or 3 minutes. There are two potential strands to this post;

• The quality of inputted data and the tangible value derived from its output
• The other - if we use the same microscope looking down upon the data it is still to be interpreted in the same manner.

Are we really maximising this technology? Is your business making better decisions or just the same decisions more quickly?

It has been clear over the last ten years that technology innovations have been harder and harder to come by. So can you rely upon technology to give you the edge? If you are a bank then the answer is yes, it is clearer than ever, especially on the retail side, that the digital platforms provided by the bank have a direct impact on their ability to increase their wallet share. However, if you look towards other industries, it could be argued that the gap between the premium brands and their perceived lesser counter parts have been reduced due to the access of technology.

So what now?

I believe we have come full circle; the focus has to be on the talent within your organisation, that’s not a revolutionary statement. However the type of talent that you hire into your business is, of course you need industry experts – you can’t have bankers running a law firm for example. To gain that competitive edge you need your business thinking challenged from the inside at a leadership level. Lessons can be learnt from very different industries -the one area of the business where this is accepted is within your marketing departments – however there is still a bias for hiring someone with industry experience.

I revert back to my comment about data. If you always ask the same question of the data you get the same answer. This can be said about hiring from the same industry; yes you might hire someone who is a better leader, has a better cultural fit or can bring you the answers of how your competitor is doing what they do. How, though, is this individual going to help you leapfrog your competitor? Or maybe to extend your market advantage? What have they got that you don’t currently have on your board? How are they going to challenge your thinking?

So is now the time to disrupt your hiring pattern? To revisit those role profiles and those ‘must have’ requirements?

In such tight markets its time to disrupt - or be disrupted!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by IMJ Consulting .