The blogmaster read an article recently published by Harvard Business Review (HBR) – see link below and thought it a constructive exercise to share a few observations with the BU family.
The main idea of the paper is to need to prioritize the importance of companies of engineering businesses to be resilient. The challenge for many is that the majority of our captains of industry do not know how, it is not a subject matter many business schools train students. The consequence is that many companies we depend on to support the financial and mental well-being of households are unable to effectively design for, measure, and manage resilience. The ranging pandemic experience has for sure exposed Small Island Developing States (SIDs).
The authors of the HBR article defines resilience as – a company’s capacity to absorb stress, recover critical functionality, and strive in altered circumstances. This is interesting because it mirrors how historically humans both biologically and intuitively adapt to the environment in order to survive. The article stresses the need for companies to be resilience in order to efficiently navigate today’s dynamic and unpredictable environment. It is a no-brainer to surmise that the ongoing pandemic creates the ideal opportunity for a litmus test to assess resilience.
The majority of businesses operate the traditional business model with a focus on maximizing profit, how many times have we heard the phrase “maximizing shareholder value. However, in a global space that has become more interdependent; interconnected, uncertain and technology reliant building a resilient company must implement the best Colombo like approaches to anticipate and absorb unknown risks in order to withstand “environmental” and leverage the situation to create value- forgoing short term profit making!
The article should pique our interest because ‘business’ is an ecosystem defined by a cluster of companies which interact to achieve the best outcomes. However, the obvious reality is that the business ecosystem represents a microcosm of the global environment in which it has to operate. The blogmaster is suggesting the concept of managing the Barbados economy should be no different to the view posited by the HBR article. The global space has become more interdependent in a world of globalization, the use of advanced technology, specifically the rise of the Internet, expanded, integrated global supply chains, international laws that blur the sovereignty of nations, transitory movement of labour, you get the idea.
Policymakers will be exposed if they persist to govern based on the traditional economic and social models that it must have been said served us well in the distant past.
Policymakers who operate from the seat of lazy asses, anchored to narrow political interest and more important- if citizens continue to cede responsibility conferred by our so-called democracy, we will continue on the current path to nowhere fast.
Barbados developed a reputation in the 70s and 80s as a good model of what a small developing state should look like. We rested on our laurels and the result is a country on the brink of ….
The jury is yet to return the verdict whether we have passed the point of reeling it back. Our only hope is to be inspired by the message- hope springs eternal. For those who still do not get it, R does not mean rasshole.
Source Link: A Guide to Building a More Resilient Business
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.