The business environment is constantly evolving and changing. The pace of the change is accelerating. Therefore, it is vital for businesses to ensure they remain relevant and resilient long-term in the face of these changes. One thing all businesses should be doing to ensure they are future-proofed is engaging in an activity called Productive Paranoia, found within the Powered By Change methodology.
Given current world events, particularly in relation to COVID-19 and the huge impact the health crisis has had on business, employment and the economy, Productive Paranoia highlights the absolute necessity for businesses to start thinking about what could fundamentally disrupt them. Then proactively putting in place plans to address these disruptors so they can change course quickly to remain relevant. Really it is about being prepared. Having multiple plans and hedging bets, especially to deal with times of uncertainty and change, is a really smart approach. It could be the difference between surviving and thriving or not. Productive Paranoia is about how you can do this to ensure long-term success.
Productive Paranoia is proactively looking at what is on the horizon that could potentially impact or disrupt your business. As well as hypothesizing about threats that are not yet visible. Then utilising this understanding in a productive way. By actively and consistently practising Productive Paranoia, a business can start to unlock the opportunities presented by the winds of change that are fuelling these potential threats and disruptors to create strategies to hedge their bets in the event that any of them materialise. It is essentially about being willing and courageous enough to accept that change is the only constant, there will be a need to constantly reinvent to ensure ongoing success, and proactively planning to ensure this can happen. That is, it provides businesses an opportunity to develop Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, etc. Essentially, this is about building the well before you need the water to ensure your business is resilient and future-proofed.
To effectively engage in Productive Paranoia, there are 3 key steps involved:
- Identify external and internal disruptors, especially those being discounted as a low or non-existent threat;
- Assess the impact and likelihood of each to prioritise them; and
- Integrate the findings into your strategy moving forward, at the very least in terms of how things are monitored. But ideally in terms of how innovation is directed and developed to ensure you are future-proofing your business.
Let’s consider each step in a little more detail.
Identify External and Internal Disruptors
Disruptors are anything that represent a threat to, or can impede, your business. This first step is essentially asking “what could fundamentally disrupt us?” In undertaking this exercise, it’s really important to include things that you think are a low or non-existent threat. Often these are the key one’s to consider. Disruptors may be external as well as internal factors. Some examples of external disruptors to consider include:
- Technology: what are key technological trends that could impact your business? What impact could Artificial Intelligence, automation, virtual reality, blockchain etc have?
- Regulatory: what are some key regulatory changes that could affect your business?
- Health: what impact could health related issues have for your business, such as pandemics? How would these impact what you do and how you do it?
- Consumer Preferences: overtime consumer preferences change and could impact the desirability of your product or service offering. How have your customers’ preferences changed?
- Products and Services: is your business solving a problem that is a real issue? Are there new competitors offering similar products and services but in a superior way?
Likewise, there are things internally that could also disrupt or hamper the success of your business that need to be considered. A few examples of internal disruptors are:
- Skill and Willingness of Team Members: do you have the right people with the right skills in the right positions? Are all team members aligned with your business’s purpose and goals?
- Culture: how conducive is the culture within your business? Is there open communication and appropriate sharing of knowledge? Are your team members empowered to effectively do their work?
- Business Model Relevance: does your business model support offering products and services in a different way? Is your business model appropriate for now and the future?
These are just a few examples of potential external and internal disruptors to examine. There are many more that could also be considered. Once you have identified the relevant disruptors, it’s time to assess and prioritise each of these.
Assess and Prioritise The Importance of Each Disruptor
After identifying all your potential disruptors you may have a long list. To start effectively dealing with them, it’s a good idea to identify those which represent the most immediate threat and prioritise these disruptors. To do this, for each disruptor consider the ‘likelihood’ of occurrence. Then also determine the potential ‘impact’ that each disruptor could have. Based on this, prioritise those with the highest likelihood of occurrence which could have the greatest impact. These will be your immediate disruptors and are the ones to focus on first. The others should be monitored on an ongoing basis.
Integrate the Findings into your Strategy
The final step is to integrate the findings into your strategy moving forward. At the very least in terms of how things are monitored. But ideally in terms of how innovation is directed and developed to ensure you are future-proofing your business continually.
When you know what the immediate key disruptors are for your business it’s possible to determine how best to deal with them. This can involve taking one of two approaches:
- Mitigate the impact of the disruptor: this is really about asking how you can dilute the effect a potential threat could have on your business.
- Utilise the disruptor to your advantage: disruptors aren’t necessarily bad. In fact, they could represent new sources of innovation that lead to new income streams or competitive advantage. In strategizing about how to deal with a disruptor, it’s also good practice to think about how you can incorporate it into your business and use it to super-charge your results. For example, if Blockbuster had offered streaming services it could have been the Netflix of today. So think about how you can use the disruptor in your business.
The final point to note is that Productive Paranoia should be an activity that is undertaken regularly within your business. This will help to ensure you are constantly considering potential threats and disruptors to either mitigate the impact they will have on your business, or to enhance your business and create new opportunities or revenue streams. This will help to ensure long-term relevance and resilience.
Summary
There are huge strategic, commercial and competitive outcomes or advantages of engaging in Productive Paranoia. There is always opportunity in adversity and change, you just have to be courageous and open enough to look for it. Even in times of cataclysmic change, as is happening now, it is possible to identify how to deal with these changes and make plans to ensure you future-proof your business by being Productively Paranoid.
Key Takeaways:
- Engaging in Productive Paranoia has significant strategic, commercial and competitive benefits to ensure long-term relevance and resilience.
- Build the well before you need the water. It is smart business practice to proactively and regularly understand your potential disruptors to develop strategies that enable your business to pivot when things change and to hedge your bets.
- Disruptors are not necessarily bad. In fact, it may be possible to utilise the disruptor to accelerate your results and create competitive advantage or open up new revenue streams to help future-proof your business.
The Powered By Change, or PBC, solution provides a blueprint to effectively undertake the Productive Paranoia exercise to help design your business for perpetual success.
Shirt-tail for Jonathan
 | Jonathan MacDonald has been assisting businesses for 30 years. He is an in-demand global keynote speaker and trusted private advisor to companies such as IKEA, Apple, Google, Amazon, Sony and Unilever. He is also a Sunday Times best-selling author. Jonathan is passionate about helping businesses and professionals succeed and adding value to them. For this reason he has recently launched his latest company, Powered By Change Solutions, which is a digital business acceleration platform based on his best-selling book, Powered By Change, so that all business owners, executives and professionals, as well as coaches, can utilise the platform at minimal cost to design their business or life for perpetual success. Find out more at www.poweredbychange.com |
