Introduction
This essay is offers a summary of the book, ‘Seven Keys to Create Leadership and a Sustainable Business Model’ by Howard Rasheed. This book is a resource for managers who wish to improve the performance in order to meet the competitive demands of the market and remain in business. In the current business context, businesses are evolving rapidly and there are new insights coming up every day. It is therefore not a matter of convenience that business managers should be innovative, but rather a matter of urgency and centrality for any business to remain afloat in the current dispensation. The seven keys are summarized, and their application to business discussed. In general, the seven keys are instruments for equipping businesses to be ready for healthy disruptions that are helpful for strengthening them to maintain a competitive edge in the future.
The first key is the need for leaders to anticipate a future of disruption. Since disruption is an inevitable event in business, and indeed in life, it is important if leaders realized this and considered, not whether disruption will occur, but when, how, by whom and whether your business will thrive. Disruption is not necessarily bad- it can sometimes lead to an invention that will act as a springboard to catapult the business to the next level. Therefore, businesses should ask whether they are well prepared to be able to confront disruption without falling to it.
Examples of major world civilizations that have encountered disruption and transformed themselves from it include Egypt, Rome, Spain, Britain, and the United States of America. Such kinds of factors that occasioned disruption in such circumstances include war, regime change, disease epidemics and also sea ship fleets.
Key number two is ‘internationally create disruptions’. In every undertaking it is important to create value. In some circumstances, the value you create would come from a disruption. Business leaders should develop proactive innovation strategies. Many businesses emphasize on adoption of technology without taking into consideration the possibility of adopting models that would be compatible to the incorporation of the new technology. Researchers should concentrate more on developing models that would provide a platform for use of new technology in businesses.
The innovation continuum, a model developed by Rasheed() has five parts. It consists of creative destruction, creative disruption and strategic transformation. Between creative destruction and creative disruption and creative disruption and strategic transformation is a link.
Source: Rasheed, pg 53.
According to the diagram above, between creative destruction and strategic transformation is a new factor proposed by Rasheed called ‘creative disruption’.
Key number three is ‘creative intelligence’. Every organization has creative employees who are very helpful for innovation and creative thinking. Rasheed calls these employees ‘honeybees’, and they are the basis of the economic system. Examples of these ‘honeybees’ include Steve Jobs, Lady Gaga and Hannah Jones who have creatively turned opportunities for tremendous personal and corporate achievement.
Creative intelligence is defined as an ‘innovative thinking process that involves the purposeful mental manipulation of information to form concepts, engage in problem solving, reason and making decisions’(). The seven aspects of intelligence include imagination, inspiration, insight, intelligence, ingenuity, ideation and invention.
In many organizations there are extremely few creative employees in which organizations hugely depend on. However, there is a chance that in case these individuals cease to be part of the organization, the company would likely realize difficulties in sustaining itself. This is the situation with many business organizations today. An example is the case of Apple company in which Steve Jobs was its supergenius. When he died the company’s competitive innovation was affected and now falls short of the expectation of the public. Every organization should therefore nurture creativity and promote the ability of every employee to be innovative. In order to do this, organizations ought to institute both functional and structural means so that it achieves this.
The fourth key is the need to create a sustainable business model. In the contemporary business world, a sustainable business model is the new idea for producing a value chain. A business model may not always be conformist in nature. It may be incremental or radical. Development of a business model may be occasioned by disruption of the standard value disproportion of the industries thus resulting to the markets, infrastructure, cost efficiencies and revenue streams.
The formation of a business model involves four main aspects or pillars i.e. product innovation, infrastructure management, financial aspects and customer relationships. A business model would serve to draw a comparison between sustainable and renewable innovation.
Fifth key is to cultivate an innovation ecosystem. The key question in analysis of this key is to ask whether innovation can be systematized and made to last as a character of the company.
Key number six is to engage with collaborative technology. Now, in every organization, individuals contribute great ideas and help companies by implementation of their ideas. However, the contribution of individuals is not enough to achieve organizational objectives. All the employees in the organization should work as a team, and all departments should work in concert with one another to effect accomplishment of organizational objectives.
Specifically, technologically assisted collaboration can allow the best ideas to be brought forth to catapult organizational development. When organizations operate as ecosystems, the firms are assisted to make use of their creative energies by reducing the artificial barriers existing that impede information and knowledge transfer between the stakeholders. Brainstorming, a traditional method of generating knowledge through individual efforts, should be allowed to be flexible to accommodate the multi-dimensional elements in organization human resource base. However, certain limitations of traditional brainstorming method include limited time, loss of output from previous sessions, distance in case face to face communication is required, inaccessibility of intellectual capital and compromisation of teamwork are just some of the limitations.
The seventh key is making information viral. The comparison drawn by the author is that of a virus which spreads very fast. In like manner, organization’s access to information, and the accessibility of the various stakeholders to the company’s information base or intellectual capital should be unlimited. Today, there are web based portals through which there can be remote access to the company’s information. These tools provide an important way to provide a network of stakeholders, and may be adapted to customize the intellectual capital so that it is customized and institutionalized.
Chapter 8 of this book describes best practices in the public sector, and is titled, ‘winning the future’. Due to the challenges faced in the world today, the situational circumstances necessitate creation of strategies for securing the future. Without proper consideration, the future may remain an uncertain destination, and improper preparation for it would mean that organizations would lose grip of their competitive edge. It is thus important that there is deliberate creation of disruption, a strategy that is intended to make adjustments for preparation for the expectations of the future.
Chapter 9 highlights the best practices in the commercial sector as a focus on ‘winning the future’. Just as there was disruption in the business in the recent past through the invasion of the internet, there should be strategies to be able to secure the future from observation and consideration of other organizations in the private sector. There has been great achievement as a result of the introduction of e-commerce as businesses have obtained a wider platform.
The second major aspect of disruption should be the commercialization of technology. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is among the institutions that have emphasis on research. The research studies from various researchers in such institutions are credited to the university of affiliation or research institute in question. Funding to research projects are directed through the institutes.
Major universities have staff who have given themselves to the innovation and research and who are given bonuses and grants. However, the institutions should go beyond these basic remuneration, and be able to offer more appealing incentives to the staff. The universities take ownership of the products, seek their patent and copyright, and then leases and licences the commercialization of such products to the private developers. Royalties are paid back to the scientists as an additional form of incentive.
Chapter ten discusses creation of disruption in the social sector. The disparity in the incomes of various social groups has been very huge and continues to burgeon. The African Americans and minority groups have experienced inequalities in the opportunities for wealth generation. The social sector offers a safety net for those who are historically under-privileged, and the under-resourced. Corporate social responsibility addresses the challenges that these groups face in the community in the hope of improving the overall welfare of the society.
In conclusion, business should build strong basis for operations in the future. It is important that the seven keys described by Howard be taken into consideration if businesses hope to remain afloat and sustain competition. Owing to the rapidly changing nature of the business environment, leaders should not just depend on a few high key innovators for their survival, but should nurture and encourage innovation as an integral part of its culture. Only then can businesses continue to survive.
Work cited
Rasheed, Howard. Innovation Strategy. Seven Keys to Create Leadership and a sustainable business model.
