How far will 30 steps take you?

If your steps are linear, you’ll travel 30 meters. But set your sites on 30 exponential steps … you know, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 … and you will travel over 1 billion meters (1,073,741,824 meters to be exact). That’s 26 times around the earth!

Why is this important?  Because in this digital age, we are living in exponential times.

And now, there is a new Kodak Moment:

• Kodak in linear times of 1996 had $28 Billion in revenue and 140,000 employees.
• Kodak in exponential times files bankruptcy in 2012.

Kodak had it all.  Brand. Market share. People.  Financial Resources.  Even the first digital camera.  Yup!

Then, almost overnight Kodak was nothing.

Change, you see is slow.  Until it’s not.

Instagram, was launched in October 2010.  And sold for a billion dollars just 18 months later.

In a world of digitization and disruption, we adapt, evolve, or perish.

Build Your Personal and Organizational Capabilities

To insure your life’s work, you must relentlessly get faster, stronger, bigger, better, and smarter.  This, your customers demand, and non-traditional competitors provoke.

A segment of your customers might be slow to move beyond linear thinking, but they are being influenced rapidly by the exponential possibilities of disruptive technologies, new experiences, and digital native competitors.

It took Amazon Business just three years to reach $10 billion in sales, and it shows no signs of slowing down.

62% of distribution customers want to see your outside sales representative AT MOST 4 times a year.

No wonder our survey of of 200 distribution executives found that 50% of distribution leaders question if they have the skill sets needed for where the industry is headed.

“There is huge disruption in the industry” I’m told by these distribution executives, and, “The rate of change seems overwhelming at times.”

So what do you do?  You need to build your personal and organizational capabilities for WHAT’S TO COME.

How far will 30 steps take you?

If your steps are linear, you’ll travel 30 meters.

But set your sites on 30 exponential steps … you know, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 … and you will travel over 1 billion meters (1,073,741,824 meters to be exact).

That’s 26 times around the earth!

Why is this important?  Because in this digital age, we are living in exponential times.

And now, there is a new Kodak Moment:

• Kodak in linear times of 1996 had $28 Billion in revenue and 140,000 employees.
• Kodak in exponential times files bankruptcy in 2012.

Kodak had it all.  Brand. Market share. People.  Financial Resources.  Even the first digital camera.  Yup!

Then, almost overnight Kodak was nothing.

Change, you see is slow.  Until it’s not.

Instagram, was launched in October 2010.  And sold for a billion dollars just 18 months later.

In a world of digitization and disruption, we adapt, evolve, or perish.

Build Your Personal and Organizational Capabilities

To insure your life’s work, you must relentlessly get faster, stronger, bigger, better, and smarter.  This, your customers demand, and non-traditional competitors provoke.

A segment of your customers might be slow to move beyond linear thinking, but they are being influenced rapidly by the exponential possibilities of disruptive technologies, new experiences, and digital native competitors.

It took Amazon Business just three years to reach $10 billion in sales, and it shows no signs of slowing down.

62% of distribution customers want to see your outside sales representative AT MOST 4 times a year.

No wonder our survey of of 200 distribution executives found that 50% of distribution leaders question if they have the skill sets needed for where the industry is headed.

“There is huge disruption in the industry” I’m told by these distribution executives, and, “The rate of change seems overwhelming at times.”

So what do you do?  You need to build your personal and organizational capabilities for WHAT’S TO COME.

There Is More To Do

You AND your organization must get better, faster.  This, your life’s work depends on.

You know the saying, what got you here, won’t get you there.  The capabilities of your organization in linear times served their purpose.  What are the capabilities that the market will require tomorrow?

When we committed to landing a man on the moon and returning him safely back to earth within the decade, the capabilities to do this didn’t exist.  The computing power, software, advanced materials, and even the funding didn’t exist.

Capabilities had to be developed.

When you realize there is more to do in building new capabilities, you begin to prioritize your personal focus on what’s next.  You commit to leading the organization into the future, rather  than simply managing for today.

You commit to working ON THE BUSINESS and not just in the business.

Your Life’s Work Success Path Includes Building Capabilities

As you work to build the capabilities for your organization’s future, here are some key milestones you’ll want to pursue:

1. Define the blocks of strategic activities that prioritize your focus and calendarize your time
   
2. Prescribe the foundational pillars of leadership for your business
   
3. Intentionally craft the culture required for tomorrow’s success
   
4. Strategically assess your employees capabilities against tomorrow’s needs
   
5. Insure a succession plan for the next decades

Your life’s work is dependent not on the results of the past or your organizational capabilities today, but in meeting the needs of an exponential future.  Start today to develop the capabilities allowing your business to change at a more rapid pace.  The speed of the industry is not your benchmark, but having the ability to change as fast as technology and the innovations of today will allow … now there is securing your life’s work.