In our ever-changing world doing strategic planning, SWOT and PEST analysis and then setting 3-year business plans may be enough to survive. However, to compete, differentiate and win, to create a long-term sustainable and successful future, organisations need to reinvent themselves over and over again to span decades with fresh enthusiasm, vision and cultural energy.
This is the difference between business planning and being forward-thinking as an organisation.
Forward-thinking organisations embody a mindset and culture which, on a daily basis, makes decisions that consciously connect to the future vision; and periodically, may even challenge what that vision is.
What I have observed, is forward-thinking organisations have two key attributes in their DNA, attributes in their cultural behaviour which have evolved past the grind of doing ‘strat-plans’ and ‘business plans’. These organisations have had a conscious investment in developing new skills and evolved into becoming forward-thinking organisations in their daily mindset.
I summarise these ‘forward-thinking’ attributes into:
1. Deep knowledge.
Not just functional expertise in their domain, but deep appreciation for seeking knowledge from all angles. From their people, their customers, external forces and importantly, using comparative analysis or business intelligence to identify trends and patterns.
2. Proactive leadership.
Not just leaders working on the day-to-day, fixing problems and solving solutions. But leaders who can traverse both the current grind and switch into future-state curiosity, leaders who are comfortable in the ambiguity of being discovery-led, and holds firm that deep knowledge and forward-thinking should be embedded in the DNA until is the new organisational habit.
Examples you may be familiar with: Apple – after Steve Jobs, Lego –after Jorgen Vig Knudstorp.
So how are you embedding forward-thinking capabilities in your business?
