In a world where it’s difficult to keep up with the ever-increasing pace of change, it’s becoming increasingly common to hear that traditional businesses are ‘out of touch’ with customers. Are our leaders set up to navigate this increasingly disruptive landscape or are everyday deadlines and crisis management getting in the way?

Key to navigating the competitive landscape of tomorrow will require organisations to be more innovative. To remain relevant, organisations will need to bring novel ideas to the market fast, they will need to build a culture in which people are able to learn and adapt and they will need to be able to turn great ideas into implementable action.

But the first step to creating a culture of innovation begins long before producing novel ideas. I think it is important for leaders to have the opportunity to spend time taking a big picture view of the world and to build an awareness of the problems that customers and communities are facing. How are the decisions that business leaders are making today impacting not just customers, but society as a whole and why does it matter?

When we take a global view of some of the challenges that societies are facing, we get more of an appreciation of how addressing some of those problems will likely change the future of our industries. A simple, yet comprehensive list of global societal challenges can be drawn from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations in September 2015.

(The SDGs are a list of 17 global goals that the 193 Member States committed to achieve by 2030)

All items on this list are massive challenges and even just thinking about how we as a global society may overcome these can certainly seem overwhelming. But what role does business play in addressing these? How many of these topics does your organisation influence?

Even if you are part of a large organisation with access to a large pool of resources, you might be sceptical about the amount of influence your business could really have on issues such as ‘no poverty’ or perhaps ‘climate change’. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that innovative players in the business and the non-profit sector are seeing opportunity and making real inroads to finding solutions to some of these challenges today. These businesses are leveraging technology, re-inventing business models, disrupting industries and reshaping the competitive landscape of the future. Here are a few examples from well-known brands that help illustrate the point:

Tesla - It’s hard to believe that it has been 5 years since Elon Musk gave this famous TED interview that changed the way we think about the world with regard to Affordable and Clean Energy (goal 7 of the SDGs). Making the electric car a viable alternative has changed the way we think about the future of transportation and it has allowed us to imagine a future in which we as individuals can have a significant impact on (goal 13) Climate Action.

Khan Academy - Innovative business models such as the Khan academy have changed the way we think about (goal 4) Quality Education. Through its website the Khan academy aims to provide a personalised learning experience built on videos that are hosted on YouTube. It is not only changing the way we learn, it is making education accessible to millions of people who were previous poorly served or completely excluded from any formal education system. The flow-on effect may have a significant impact on other goals such as Reduced Inequalities (goal 10). In the video, Sal Khan, founder and CEO of the Khan Academy shares the story of how the Khan Academy started to where it is today.

IBM Watson - Good health and well-being (goal 3) are being revolutionised by innovations such as IBM Watson. IBM Watson is an AI platform with several commercial applications, one of them being healthcare. This innovation is about providing better healthcare by bringing together information from all the parties involved in the healthcare process: doctors, patients, pharmaceutical companies and insurance providers. These parties work together to find the best treatments and make information available to those that previously may have been poorly served due to lack of specialist expertise and/or quality information. It is a great example of how technological innovation is changing the way we collaborate and share knowledge.

What these innovations have in common is that they begin with an innate understanding of some of the challenges society and communities are facing and for which incumbent players or current business models have not managed to find adequate solutions. Having a big picture view, listening, understanding and spotting opportunity is just the first, but a critically important step in navigating a rapidly changing world. Leadership today requires a mindset that is adaptable to disruptive change and that can see beyond business as usual.

And even though understanding problems is only the first step in navigating an increasingly disruptive landscape, it is a step that is critical to creating a culture of innovation. When the priorities of leaders are about chasing targets and tackling day-to-day operational issues, it becomes difficult to be ‘in touch with customers’ and to spot opportunities. As Steven Covey argued, effective leaders should spend most of their time on activities that are important, not urgent. So before talking about the need to be more innovative, we need to ask ourselves whether we are giving leaders sufficient opportunity to understand problems and spot opportunities?

Tips for Action

Do you schedule sufficient time for your team to understand problems and spot opportunities? How much time does your team spend dealing with topics that are ‘important, not urgent’?
What societal problems do your products or services impact?
Are there opportunities for your organisation to explicitly support social development goals of your community? Can these activities help strengthen your brand and/or the relationship with government and regulators?

About the author

Michael is an experienced facilitator, speaker and coach – he is passionate about helping organisations align purpose and strategy to deliver meaningful change and build better businesses.

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