The first step of speeding up an organization is defining a transformative purpose. The purpose is the north star that guides the organization through the peaks and valleys. The next step is developing the ability to ideate with pace.
Haste is not the same as speed. Similarly, ideating is not merely brainstorming. The three primary responsibilities of the top management are predicting, delegating, and repeating.
Ideation refers to the process of developing and conveying prescriptive ideas to others, typically in a business setting. It describes the sequence of thoughts, from the original concept to implementation. Anticipating what is going to come next is critical in the ideation process. Vital clues could be picked from interactions with customers, investors, employees, and other stakeholders. A leader should be spending at least 80% of the time on ideation activities.
We anticipate every day. We look at Google Maps to decide our commute to the office. We can predict the state of the business by observing the mood of our boss. Some people anticipate better than others. It is believed that Sachin Tendulkar played a fraction of a second late than others. He could judge where the ball would be after a few milliseconds later. This fractional advantage created a significant impact. The same is true for many businesses.
So, how can we hone our anticipation skills? Here are a few ways of doing it.
Plan meeting your customers, suppliers, and employees regularly and ask how they see the world-changing in the future. I was with my CA today. The software they use for filing IT Returns is archaic. For claiming the short-term and long-term Capital Gain-Loss, they need to manually compile information in an excel sheet. It takes an awful time for them to do this task. If this information could be automatically populated through an API Integration with the Trading Platform, life could be so easy! Somebody will figure it out, and the leading software provider will see their sales plummet. These insights are possible by observing the challenges faced by our customers, employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
Specifically, observe the lifestyle, choice, preferences of the teens. Listen to the music they are listening to. Watch the movies and serials they are watching. Taste the food they are relishing. Travel the hot destinations on their list. Look at what gadgets they are using and what social platforms they are active on. Understand the things that they care for. The teens are fast adaptors. What they do today, the masses would do tomorrow.
Facebook and Instagram in themselves are communities. However, there are many communities active on these and other platforms. We are already witnessing the influence of the gay community on fashion. Designer Rohit Bal and Manish Arora now have elements like queer and psychedelic.
Attend Seminars and visit online forums related to your Industry. More than the answers note the questions people are asking. It will give you a clue about which issues you need to tackle.
In my next blog, I shall describe a process for making better business predictions. Sign up here - https://mailchi.mp/cd91464219a4/the-speed-blog to receive these blogs in your mailbox.
Subodh
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