Patterns are powerful.
The word ‘pattern’ might sound innocuous – suggesting something of a repeating nature – but what makes patterns powerful is that they are sticky: patterns run deep and are more entrenched than realised.
Entrenched patterns are supported by corporate processes that become automated over time: forecasts, deadlines, routines, sequences. Once these take hold, a pattern becomes concrete, making it hard to dislodge.
When a concrete pattern is unhelpful to a business’s success, that business has a problem.
Over the years, I’ve seen many clients who play at the periphery of this problem, recognising that something is off-kilter and taking a series of half-committed potshots at solving the problem. They look to culture, leadership, product market fit, and capital allocation.
It’s noble but futile. The real problem is that the businesses’ fundamental business model is out of date and requires re-imagining.
For a CEO, that can be a tough pill to swallow because the recognition of this fact triggers disruption. Spin it any way you want, but re-inventing a business model is no small thing. The process will face much complexity, will bring about resistance, and has no guaranteed success. There are many understandable reasons to avoid it.
None, however, can be worse than enduring the sinking feeling that an outdated business model brings—a sense of impending doom, even though that doom might be a number of years away.
This eats away at a business or at a CEO because of the incongruence of a business’s position when its business model—which is a proxy for the entire ‘stance’ a business adopts to the world—is outdated.
Incongruence creep: a sense that something is misaligned, a knowing. But there is also an array of more visceral reminders of this incongruence that show up when something has become unfit for purpose: tensions, failings, complaints, and struggles.
This is where bravery comes into play.
For many CEOs, particularly those close to the end of their tenure, there might be a temptation to kick the can down the road and avoid the tumultuousness that comes with business model reinvention. Disruptive as it might be, it doesn’t change the fact that it must be done. This truth cannot be ignored, particularly by one’s conscience.
The backstory here is that, at a global scale, businesses are wearing shirts that are out of style —like paisley print. Paisley is wearable, it might look okay in certain contexts, and now and again, you might come across someone else who’s wearing it too, but the fact of the matter is that paisley is out of fashion.
The world has changed, people have changed, technology has changed, and intelligence has changed. It stands to reason that your business needs to change, too—and not just at the superficial level. Sometimes, your business will need to be rebuilt.
The good thing is that, with the right mindset, this reinvention might be your greatest achievement, as are the personal and professional development opportunities that come with reinvention.
It might be just the renewal you’ve been looking for all along.