Can one reach enlightenment in the game of business? How is it that some managers are magically productive? Are there several levels of awareness in the domain we call: management? What can we learn from Nikola Tesla? Who invented disruptive digital photography?
Cricket match of business involves coming up with a game-changer product, thinking what the competition will do, attempting the calculus of prediction. Cyclic in nature, today's winners, can be tomorrow’s losers.
Disruption is the name of the game. Unexpected upsets are almost standard operating procedure. Classic business case is Kodak that once had a market share of 80 percent in the US film and photography market – and was thought to be unbeatable globally.
Kodak went into bankruptcy in 2012 – thanks to just about everyone having a digital camera phone in their pocket, connected with everyone, thanks to social media apps.
It wasn’t that Kodak managers were stupid. Kodak invented digital photography.
Just that they did not know how to handle this new invention, that would disrupt their traditional business model.
Fads and fashions are quite seasonal on the catwalk of management. Today’s fascination with generative AI will give way to the next shinny object.
Somehow the next predicted radical transformation, just never seems to happen. One wakes up, goes to work, and it is just another day, or perhaps not?
Seeing the big picture
Enlightenment can be thought of awareness beyond our five senses. Realising, having a sense of conscientiousness that we are part of something far wider.
Being able to shift a manager's sense of self from “I am X” -- concerned with the bits and pieces of corporate experience – and seeing a wider landscape is a first step. Awareness begins with “I am” bypassing ordinary ways of seeing and thinking.
Nikola Tesla, the almost forgotten genius, who pioneered the generation, transmission, and use of alternating current electricity, always saw the big picture.
“It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations” said Tesla.
Tesla had a belief in the unity and interdependence of the universe that formed the cornerstone of his outlook. At the core of Tesla's philosophy was his belief in the inherent and interconnected power of the universe.
Driving force behind the innovative company that bares Tesla’s name remarked: “Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment”.
Disrupting tradition
Perhaps it comes as no surprise that Elon Musk’s Starlink, that provides high-speed satellite internet solutions to Africa threatens to disrupt the traditional incumbents like Safaricom, by introducing a faster better-quality product, on a reducing cost curve.
Harvard business professor, Michael Porter, once the ‘guru of business enlightenment’ has had his thinking from 40 years ago based on the traditional three ways to compete, no longer apply in our ‘always on’ everything digital world.
Even his ‘five forces industry analysis’ taught to MBA students is called into question, when there is a blurring between where one industry begins, and ends, thanks digital disruption.
Elusive desire for ‘organisational change’ is a bit misplaced. Companies, NGOs, government departments are like a river, in a constant sense of shifting ebb and flow, with the waterfall of turbulence, often just a little distance downstream.
Businesses in Kenya are like people, some are perceptive listening to customers’ needs and wants, being agile in mind-set ready to adapt.
Others like stern faced Prussian bureaucrats recycle the ‘same old, same old’ touting it as ‘enhanced’. “We are the best” is the only common clarion call of the struggling “me too” businesses – all looking remarkable the same - that somehow miss the message.
It’s always an inside job
Profitable business performance creating and capturing value – is all about perceiving with fresh eyes. Seeing what everyone sees but being eagle-eyed to see the solving pressing customer problems that others miss.
