Have you considered adapting for growth?
Whether you are a solopreneur, start-up, record shop, technological giant or frog 😟: adaptation is necessary for growth.
Hey I'm Jerry 👋
Every week I throw myself into pertinent problems that may be affecting businesses, start-ups or your personal development. I want to try and give you as much informative material, tools and resources as possible to make your life more efficient, and ultimately help you prosper and grow. If you are looking for answers to on-going pain points or searching for inspirational fuel then, you are at the right place! Sit back, relax, grab a coffee (or whatever your drink of choice is) and wonder into Jerry’s Understanding...
As he lays on the snow gradually hardening, ice cold, muscles and organs slowing like a flower blooming. The temperature is -80 degrees Fahrenheit, suddenly his heart stops and the flow of blood trembles to a halt. The days and months go by, still frozen to the core until the spring seeps in and surrounds him; he hops away.
Ok, you may be wondering what this is all about? And you would have good reason to wonder, because this is about one of the most incredible and crazy processes of adaptation.
The Alaskan Wood Frog has one of the most peculiar ways of surviving the winter. Its heart stops, blood stops flowing and they stop breathing, this allows them to survive below freezing temperatures. To achieve this semi-frozen state, the frogs build up to 10 times their normal amount of high concentrations of glucose in their organs and tissues. The sugar solutes act as "cryoprotectants," preventing their cells from shrinking or dying.
Adaptation is a natural thing and occurs in all walks of life, although the Alaskan Wood Frog and its remarkable adaptation is impressive, we too have incredible ways of positively changing and adapting to the requirements of our environment.
Over the years I think that uncertainty has played a detrimental factor in business environments. No matter your industry, change in some way shape or form is inevitable. It is eventual whether it be positive or negative.
Studies are suggesting that although there are a lot of factors that have decreased business performance in recent years, ultimately accelerated technologies are having a major impact regardless.
While we are all onboard with “the tech life” to a certain extent, are we in tune with this mammoth revolution? Integrating it to our business ideas, strategy and management?
The answer for most will be a resounding yes, we all have the latest phones, tablets, wearables, smart TV’s, smart homes, electric cars and many more technological owned valuables. But do we realise the capability of such tech that goes on around us? The communication between all of these within our environments be it, home, work, travel or holiday, are all connected in some way.
This is why we need to leverage on this and understand the continuous opportunities, to provide us with the most effective business strategy possible. But it’s not just tech that adapts its everything around us, the way we perceive as a customer, the political impacts, society structure and many other external and internal factors. These combined with an overarching connected world are what companies are required to understand if they are to home in on actual results-based outcomes.
That’s easier said than done right? What with all the pressures and stresses of life itself and, then whacking consistent strategizing in the mix to keep up with the complexities of adaptation. Its stressful, it’s hard, but to stay consistent, relevant and grow, it’s a must. This is not a new concept, for years this idea of continuous improvement within our environment has been dissected and put to the test many times before. Which is why we know it works!
Think about Apple… Back in 1997 probably the greatest comeback story of all time. After 12 years of financial loss Apple’s CEO Gil Amelio was ousted from his position and Steve Jobs took the interim position, tasked with a whole restructuring of the company. The first thing on his agenda was to partner with his biggest rival Microsoft which was seen to be a risky and somewhat outlandish strategy.
“If we want to move forward and see Apple healthy and prospering again, we have to let go of a few things here. We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose” Steve Jobs
Jobs was a master adapter that understood the incredible value of change, collaboration and vision.
More on Steve Jobs and Apple’s incredible journey to being the world’s most valuable company towering at $2.3 trillion valuation in a bit…
But first let’s dive into what we have in store for you in this second issue #2
What’s in this issue?
1. How to meet the business adaptability demands of the 3 biggest challenges in business today and beyond
2. How master adapter Steve Jobs built the most valuable company in the world
3. How to personally adapt and execute
How to meet the business adaptability demands of the 3 biggest challenges in business today and beyond
Rapid Digital Transformation
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming one of the most progressive tech developments in business, and this trend is only going to continue at a rapid rate. Whilst AI is bursting on the scene at a rate of knots other tech like, internet of things (IoT), blockchain, cloud and 5G are all thrown into the mix as well. To make things even more convoluted they all enhance each other! This is creating a world that needs to be ever growing and resilient in business.
As the world develops into a tech frenzy, so too do companies have to understand the importance of keeping up. Companies must think of themselves as a tech woven business. They need to ensure their processes, employee skills and collaborative expertise are redesigned and developed to work alongside the capacity of intelligent machines. Being left behind is the biggest challenge that businesses will need to consider now and beyond. Adaptability is key.
Supply Chain effectivity
It’s no secret that supply chains have been hit hard over the last few years, partly due to Covid, Brexit and the Ukraine/ Russia conflict. But the main challenges that threaten supply chains across the board are sustainability, relocation/efficiency of supply chains and digitisation/connectivity.
These challenges can make or break you in a strangulating world of diluted options, mainly due to the monopolisation of the big tech companies. Large companies like Amazon have taken over the realm of delivery in all aspects (speed, transparency and cost). To adapt businesses have realised that “if you can’t beat them, join them” which creates more revenue and profits for Amazon but collaborating & connecting is an effective attribute and will be as we move further into the future. Looking for ways to integrate and utilise the resources and tech around us can only be a positive let alone inevitable.
Sustainability has been at the forefront of supply chain strategy for quite a while now, due to climate change and the drastic cost of living across the globe. Looking for ways to maintain sustainability is getting harder by the year. To be more resilient you must start with knowing the current situation; transparency is key understanding where waste is in your supply chain, without transparency how will you know?
“There remain many opportunities to improve the “line of sight” (transparency) and speed of information flowing through connected Supply Chain ecosystems and extended business networks,” said Martin Driscoll of Capgemini
Relocating your supply chains and maintaining efficiency is about adapting to current trends and utilising data to enhance the structure and operability of them. By understanding trends with analysis, you can foresee potential risks and opportunities. For example, with pending uncertainty, rising interest rates and financial cost means lower profits. This causes a knock-on effect (project delays, price hikes and logistical headaches). By understanding your previous, current and potential data trends you can home in on opportunities like shorter distribution times, cheaper material costs and more efficient route tracking and traceability.
Digital twin networks are starting to take off and for good reason. A digital twin is a virtual model of a physical thing. They came into play more focused at product life cycles. By having a digital representation of your product and its operations you have a real time data feed that can provide risk / opportunity predictions. This will become a major player in supply chains whereby whole networks can be modelled and monitored and respond with potential risk avoidance and opportunity action.
This all links in with greater focus on connectivity and collaboration, from data monitoring to better use and implementation of digital resources. But don’t forget that you need to be able to use these resources. Meaning personnel and training will play a significant role.
Skill Shortages
Which brings me to the final biggest challenge that needs adaptation. According to a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum, skill shortages are becoming a global problem. The survey shows that businesses are battling for small pools of talent, and this is leading to increased salaries and flexible working hours in order to attract the best talent. This trend is set to increase in 2023 and businesses are using local satellite offices and completely remote opportunities in order to increase the talent available to them.
More and more people have a higher expectation in terms of working environment and flexibility. This will impact businesses heavily and force employers to adapt to these changing needs and requirements in order to fulfil roles. Managing expectations will be of paramount here. It is now commonplace that employees expect benefits, flexibility and more pay. Employers should have an active awareness of these challenges and draw up strategies to ensure their current and future employees are satisfied; without an appropriate strategy aligned, staff will leave and go to an organisation that is aligned with their working needs and structure.
How master adapter Steve Jobs built the most valuable company in the world
Arguably the most inspiring branding leader that ever-lived Steve Jobs was a remarkable figure that has changed the course of today’s world as we know it. Responsible for the first single board computer that supported a colour display the Apple I, to todays most loved gadgets from the iPod, iPhone and iPad to the sleek and sexy Mac books we see today.
He pursued his vision early on and knew exactly what he wanted but, more importantly he had an uncanny vision of what his customers wanted before they knew themselves. Jobs was a quirky character that was competitive and strong willed, he was a perfectionist.
It has been stated that he was a difficult person to work with, being rude or harsh often shouting at his colleagues when things didn’t go well, or his vision was challenged. Nothing would step in the way of his vision, and it didn’t matter if this was at the expense of anybody else. He was highly creative and critical at the same time which meant he would trial and error a lot until it was perfect.
It’s easy to understand why Apple has become one of the greatest brands in the world today with Jobs unwavering passion, vision and attention to detail. Although he is known for his intense desire and aggressive nature to get what he wants, people hold him in high regard and he is notoriously seen as one of, if not the, greatest brand visionaries of the world.
Possibly Jobs’ most defining moment was when he changed the world with the introduction of the iPod.
"With iPod, Apple has invented a whole new category of digital music player that lets you put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go...With iPod, listening to music will never be the same again."
Apple sold an estimated 450 million iPod products as of 2022.
Jobs’ influence over our lives goes far beyond those who use his products. His merciless focus on good product design, carried out with his design expert Jonathan Ive, has set the benchmark for the rest of the industry and beyond. However, it wasn’t always a steady ride for Jobs he was sacked from his own company (Apple) by CEO John Sculley after a dispute over a lack of sales on two new products - Lisa and the Macintosh.
Jobs had stated that his greatest failure in life was leaving Apple but also the best thing that happened to him. He said that it was important for him to reflect on what was important in life; it wasn’t until he embraced this failure that he changed to become a winner.
Jobs is an example of how maintaining a clear understanding of how customers, technology and vision change at a constant rate, the world is your oyster. By utilising these valuable skill Jobs was able to project and produce an empire worth trillions of dollars making Apple the most valuable company in the world today. The ability to understand and adapt to future needs with an unrivalled focus on customers is something to behold.
How to personally adapt and execute
When I think about posting a blog post or creating a new lead or a new product idea, I am instantly hooked. Whatever the topic or idea I am all in. I start researching and looking for information and content that will inspire me or help me. This is how motivation kicks in, the dopamine’s chemical signal rushes from one neuron to another interacting, creating this beautiful reaction that results in building my ultimate goal and vision.
Why is this relevant to personally adapting and executing?
Well, motivation helps focus your attention on a key goal or outcome, it maintains your attention. A study was done to see if motivation played a key role in goal completion on a set of students. The results showed that people who were motivated to do a specific thing would complete the task no matter what. They would spend as much time as it would take to ensure the task was complete showing true goal-oriented behaviours.
They found that these motivated students ultimately had a growth mindset, and they were very attuned to learning and thinking, they turn challenges into experiences and use them as fuel for continual growth and development.
In contrast the students who did not complete the set task struggled to accept failure, they had a fixed mindset. They required instant recognition and often crumbled in the face of adversity.
Now, the important thing here is that it doesn’t really matter which student you are, but what matters is if you have the ability to change your mind set. Every single one of us has this innate ability and we can all change our minds. We all know that change can be difficult yet, the opposite stagnation is not very appealing either right? We tend to struggle with our feelings when change is in front of us, we struggle with what we value more, gain or loss, the familiar or unfamiliar. This resistance to change is normal, its how we challenge ourselves to take the steps required to enforce the change.
Desire, dreams and aspirations.
These are the driving forces for behavioural change, rather than goal setting it is the emotional experiences of feeling aspired that provide incentive to direct purposeful change. Purposeful change makes us feel alive. We need to rise wisely, balancing decisiveness with acceptance of uncertainty. By understanding the requirement and its potential risk at the same time, the overall value or its long-term perspective one can rise wisely and prosper within their environment. Whilst pinning down your desire, dreams and aspirations it is essential to have a wise perspective of the actualities that surround them. Still, this does not squash your dreams and aspirations but exposes them to the realm of reality.
When considering adapting to change in a business sense it is therefore more poignant to acquire a sense of perspective with a level of realisation to your environment. If your aspiration is for your company to receive double the number of customers in 2023, how will this be done? Change and adaptation. Look at your competitive landscape what are others doing around you? Consider the challenges that face you in 2023 and align with your desires, dreams and aspirations.
Well, that’s it guys for now see Ya’ll soon! 🖐🖐