Plan for the future, act today
AI is reshaping industries, sustainability is no longer optional, economic uncertainties impact business, and awareness around data privacy and cybersecurity are at an all-time high.
How can your organisation thrive in a world where the rapid pace of change means that you no longer have 5 or 10 years to adapt?
Your takeaway for 2025
Your future relevance depends on your ability to adapt, innovate, and redefine your position in an increasingly complex business ecosystem.
A dual focus
Businesses need to continually rediscover and reassess their own added value to stay just one step ahead in an ever-changing market. To achieve this, your organisation needs to have the capability to switch focus from being relevant now, to being relevant in the future: do you keep doing what works well now or start exploring new things?
Visionaries vs. pragmatists
If you want to focus on innovations, or new approaches, a quarter of the organisation will think: ‘Yes! Finally, a promising narrative.’ However, the other three-quarters are sceptical, thinking ‘We've heard this story before’.
This is the difference between the forward-thinking visionaries, and the pragmatic executors within your organisation.
These groups often find themselves at odds, but both are essential for long-term success. Focusing too much on visionary ideas can result in the introduction of too many services, products, and endless experiments. On the other hand, when pragmatism takes over, processes, checklists, and KPIs are set up to evaluate innovations, even before their real value is clear. This can cause promising ideas to be abandoned too soon.
Bringing together different perspectives
The key to balancing the focus on current relevance and future potential lies in creating a compelling narrative that bridges the gap between both groups – and thus between the present and future.
Next steps for 2025
Bridge the gap between visionaries and pragmatists by telling a compelling story. Not a story imposed from the top down, but one that spreads organically and is believed because all groups can recognise it as a 'better' story. Therefore, revisit your organisation's origin story:
"What if you could start your organisation again tomorrow? What would your new origin story be? What would you do differently?”
Your new origin story addresses current and future problems, plotting the most sustainable course, while honouring the organisation’s existing strengths. It engages the combined potential of all groups within the organisation fully. It's about continuously daring to reassess and question whether the organisation still has the 'right’ focus.
Dive deeper into innovation
The book Corporate Alt Delete, written by Uilke Duinstra (Strategy Director at iO), invites you to breathe new life into your organisation’s origin story, and enrich it with today's market knowledge and business capabilities.
Take a critical look at your organisation.
Reassess your current organisation and rewrite the collective origin story with the ‘Corporate Alt Delete’ workshop.
During this workshop, you’ll critically examine your organisation, discover its strengths, rewrite your origin story, and formulate concrete steps to bring this new story to life and harness the innovative potential of your organisation.