Learn How to Run a Successful Sustainable Business in Today’s Rapidly Changing Marketplace

The only certain thing these days is uncertainty. Customer trends, shopping behavior, technology and ecommerce boom; everything is changing so fast for businesses and life as a whole. Businesses with traditional methods of production, marketing and revenues are banishing rapidly now. Only wise and future centric businesses are sustaining.

Running a wise, updated and sustainable business is about knowing your environment, customer needs, environmental impact and technological advancements. Now customers are looking for more than products; they count whole brand experience along.

3 Key Problems

The main problems now every business and businessman are facing are; over flow of data, future orientation & competition and lack of availability of effective and wise leaders.

Overflow of data can be a blessing or a curse; but over-reliance of executives on explicit knowledge like numbers, graphs and analytical formulas without intrinsic value, making things more complex and short lived. Secondly businesses orientation is changing from profit making to socially responsible entities with core focus on environmental impact of an enterprise. Lastly, due to startup burst and social media boom; we are having more self claimed heros and CEOs than ever before. Therefore, rise need for a wise leader who can contextualize what is happening and take the right action without hesitating.

Learn From Past & Practice Knowledge

Having knowledge is good but better is to apply such knowledge at right time. We can have many examples where companies were in profits and market leader position; having solid customer base and market knowledge but when they fail to apply such knowledge on time they failed and they loose everything. Like Nokia fail to assess and apply their knowledge in smartphone world.

Questions arise in such situations that; what kind of knowledge is right and what is the right time to apply such knowledge? Aristotle recommended idea of phronesis in those situations. Which requires a careful understanding of the current situation or present context in order to make sound ethical decisions. Due to ethical perspective phronesis is a perfect basis for the cultivation of wise leadership in those highly volatile and contemporary times. Therefore, embed your business into the world around you and be sensitive to the needs of your customer.

Check Societal Foot Print

Businesses are not meant for shareholders only; now businesses serve more broad and comprehensive range which we called stakeholders. Including owners, shareholders, investors, suppliers, employees, lenders and general public. Now entities considered to operate as social institutes rather than only economic institutes.

World regulatory and environmental authorities now calculating social and ecological foot prints of all businesses. As a wise leader, you should know that companies that only chase profits don’t last. Lasting companies are the ones that live in harmony with society & ecology around.

Enhance Brand Experience

Wise leaders always stay ahead in respect of assessing what is happening right now? What are the future consequences of current developments? Now trends are shifting towards brand experience from mere brand interaction. Bill boards, hoardings, commercials are easily ignorable; wise brands now installing experience points at their retail outlets, in their apps etc, to give more personalized and engaged feel to potential customers.

Increase Human Interaction

Human interactions generate more ideas. Human interaction points can be within your organization R & D department and your service points, where people meet and ideas & information are exchanged.

For this, you have to start open door policy so that people don’t feel shut off from critical information. Secondly, it is of supreme importance to practice honesty and to establish a shared purpose that everyone within and outside entity commits to.

Communicate Your Stories Effectively

Having strong sense of purpose won’t get you far unless you market and communicate those senses properly. Wise brands align their stories and metaphors to local context. People love stories that includes logic, emotions, motivations, ethics and local cultural essence.

Use Out of the Box Tactics

Get your mind around things, you can do it. See what others cannot see for cutting edge and leading benefit. One big example was Steve Jobs who by far known for his extra ordinary un-imaginary thinking. Market for classic Nokia phones weren’t saturated at that time, rather was on boom. But Steve things above normal, to set new trends, new normal and new acceptable.

Practice Distributed Leadership

A single person or executive cannot make a big sustainable company. Therefore, environment of collective and shared passion and inspirations must have to be fostered. Wise organizations practice mentorship, apprenticeship and support leadership distribution.

Only by encouraging distributed leadership, an entity can sustain their social values to next generations of leaders. Only this way companies can sustain long in unpredictable future.

Conclusion Summary:

1. To face & sustain today’s chaotic and ever changing world; wise companies must focus more on tacit knowledge than explicit numbers.

2. Leaders must place themselves into shoes of their customers and understand their interaction with society, to ensure positive sustainable relationship. Therefore, they must have to restate their mission, vision and values.

3. Finally to continue this sustainable journey, companies must have to exercise distributed leadership, in order to groom future leaders who can better navigate an ever changing marketplace.

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