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Technological innovation has triggered a new trend internationally – the need for large companies to become more “entrepreneurial”.
Dr Gorkan Ahmetoglu, co-founder of Meta Profiling and lecturer in business psychology at the University College of London, says although many companies talk about “incorporating new technologies”, they are in fact doing nothing at all. The reason is that people are not sure what to do or they are too comfortable. However, there will be an incremental move towards innovation and creating entrepreneurial ecosystems. “Companies no longer have an option. It is now the stick rather than the carrot,” he said at a breakfast hosted by JvR Africa Group in Johannesburg. Many companies are “almost panicking” about all the new technology needed to remain relevant and competitive. He refers to data which indicate that 50 years ago the average lifespan of a company in the S&P 500 Index was 60 years. Today it is 12 years. “In 10 years’ time most of the companies listed on the Index will be companies we have never heard of,” says Ahmetoglu. Disruptive technology Innovation has changed the way we do things. It has changed business models. The world now talks about the gig economy, the on-demand economy and the sharing economy. In the gig economy organizations often contract with independent workers on shorter term contracts. The on demand economy is enabled by the rating economy – everyone is rated like products – Uber drivers rate you and you rate them. We will have on-demand managers, lawyers and even doctors and they will be chosen because of their ratings – mainly by total strangers. In the US there is the concept of rating your professors on overall quality, helpfulness, clarity and “hotness”. The internet has made it easier for people who have usable assets such as cars (Uber) and property (Airbnb) and those who want to use it, to find each other. This economy is also referred to as collaborative consumption and collaborative economy. Entrepreneurial talent Ahmetoglu says for a company to become entrepreneurial it needs to identify the entrepreneurial talent within the organisation. Meta Profiling has done more than 100 empirical studies to identify the key characteristics of entrepreneurial talent. It includes:
Ahmetoglu says bureaucratic cultures in an organisation lead to the disengagement or loss of entrepreneurial individuals. Entrepreneurial ecosystem He warns against the “over romanticising” of entrepreneurship. He says when there is growth in the number of “start-ups” in a country, it is a sure sign there is something wrong with the economy. The key is to optimise entrepreneurship and innovation within companies. Leadership needs to promote an innovative culture, there has to be mechanisms to test ideas, decision-making cannot take forever, managers must be able to implement innovative ideas, and all good ideas must be rewarded, not only the ones that made the money, but also the ones that did not. Optimise entrepreneurship Ahmetoglu says the “rule of thumb” is to have people who will come up with good ideas. Their ability to use information to connect the dots will assist with predicting consumer demands. No matter how innovative people are, they still need the tools and encouragement to implement the ideas. “Innovation is also relative and contextual to a particular company – it is not general and absolute. The main factor is to analyse your competitors and recognise what it is, that you have to be a little better at.” Invaluable benefits Dr Jopie de Beer, CEO of the JvR Africa Group, says many large corporates employ entrepreneurial talent. The trick is to identify and nurture them. Having a mix of entrepreneurial talent in the organisation can provide invaluable benefits with regards to staying abreast with technological and other innovations. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, 082 573 9219, idele@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za ABOUT JvR Africa Group: JvR Africa Group of companies consist of JvR Psychometrics, JvR Consulting Psychologists, JvR Academy, and JvR Safety. With it’s head office situated in Johannesburg; the group conducts business nationally and across Sub-Saharan Africa. They work with test developers, consultants and academic institutions all over the world and supports a range of development opportunities and hosts events around People Development in Africa, a cause they feel is extremely important to the future of our continent. For more information on JvR Africa Group please visit: Website: https://jvrafricagroup.co.za/ LinkedIn: JvR Africa Group Facebook: The JvR Africa Group - People Development in Africa Twitter: JvR Africa Group YouTube: The JvR Africa Group
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Author: Dr Renate Scherrer‚ MD of JvR Consulting Psychologists There is consensus that ‘a day in the life of’ tomorrow’s leaders will be significantly different from today. The broad future trends such as globalisation, virtualisation, digitisation and automation of organisations are literally transforming the nature of jobs. At the same time a progressively diverse workforce is also adding challenges, as well as benefits, to the leadership task of effectively integrating and spearheading teams that are multi-generational, increasingly educated up to tertiary level, and likely working off-site. Out with the old The impact of these future requirements will be acutely experienced at the individual and organisational levels. Organisations will have to rethink, redesign and reposition anything from organisational structure, to work processes, to talent strategies. Traditional selection or succession processes will no longer be effective when only yielding a list of potential candidates to be placed into specific well-defined roles. Future leaders will have to tick a few essential boxes that will enable a good measure of success across a variety of roles in the ever-changing and shifting organisational landscape. This is where the complex leader steps up to the challenge of being adaptable and resilient, ready to face the challenges ahead and doing so whilst empowering their people and doing the right thing. Complex leadership can be unpacked as being COMPETENT, INNOVATIVE; MATURE; EMPATHETIC; ETHICAL; CONNECTED and FLEXIBLE. The complex leader will have to help organisations answer volatility with vision; uncertainty with understanding; complexity with clarity; and ambiguity with agility (VUCA). How to find and cultivate complex leaders Proper selection and development is paramount. However, more than ever before, these procedures need to be holistic and technologically enabled, as well as informed by science and predictive analytics to assist in making effective real-time decisions with a future-focused perspective. The good news is that there are numerous excellent and scientifically sound psychometric assessments available, as well as a growing body of knowledge on transformed leader development strategies that will cater to the requirements of discerning future leaders. Organisations will benefit from implementing an end-to-end process that includes the following core and recurring steps:
What should aspiring leaders do? The demand for leadership development is no longer a ‘nice to have’. In the next decade, aspiring millennials will increasingly take on the daunting task of becoming inspiring leaders. With more than a third of South Africa’s citizens being millennials, the upcoming leadership generation will need to cope with the complexity of leading boldly into the future without the benefit of years of experience and exposure in preparation. They will need to have or grow ‘bigger’ hearts and minds on the go as part of a lifelong learning experience. They will have to future-proof themselves through being open to continuous learning, to question and explore, to experience and innovate. True complex leaders are by no means perfect and without fault. Somewhat like the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with powdered gold lacquer – Kintsugi – complex leaders embrace their fault lines and continuously work at repairing it. Because the leader’s unique history and flaws are not hidden and disguised, followers are also authorised to find new meaning in who they truly are and, in the process, become more resilient. John Maxwell said: “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Against the future backdrop it seems that the successful leader of tomorrow will be the one who, even though they do not know the way, are willing to make the way and guide others to find and achieve their purpose, embrace their vulnerabilities and celebrate who they truly are. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, 082 573 9219, idele@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za ABOUT JvR Africa Group: JvR Africa Group of companies consists of JvR Psychometrics, JvR Consulting Psychologists, JvR Academy, and JvR Safety. With it’s head office is situated in Johannesburg; the group conducts business nationally and across Sub-Saharan Africa. They work with test developers, consultants and academic institutions all over the world and supports a range of development opportunities and hosts events around People Development in Africa, a cause they feel is extremely important to the future of our continent. For more information on JvR Africa Group please visit: Website: https://jvrafricagroup.co.za/ LinkedIn: JvR Africa Group Facebook: The JvR Africa Group - People Development in Africa Twitter: JvR Africa Group YouTube: The JvR Africa Group |
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