In his book, Unstoppable, Chris Zook quotes that 1/2 of all industries are classified as turbulent.
Dictionary.com defines turbulence as “a state or condition of confusion, movement, or agitation; disorder.
Among other things, Zook credits faster movement of information, movement of executives between companies, lack of capital/use of private equity to fund businesses and of course the speed of technology innovation for the turbulence we are seeing across so many industries today.
Companies are closing their doors everywhere we look, and often when we peel back the reasons, it’s the lack of ability to deal with turbulence that leads to decline.
Today’s successful entrepreneurs are exceptionally agile. They learn about trends, extrapolate implications, and quickly adapt their strategy to enable them to reach profitability. Ask any successful entrepreneur, and he will, without exception, be able to tell you about the multiple pivots and adjustments he made to his plan in order to reach volume and profit goals.
So, why don’t today’s corporations embrace entrepreneurship more readily? Is it because entrepreneurship is seen as only a discipline for start-ups?
Yesterday, we heard the expression “you have to fix the plane while it’s in the air.” Apt expression for thinking about how companies must weather turbulence. Shifting to a more entrepreneurial mindset enables exploration of new business models, test and learn expansion into new revenue streams, and creative ways to evolve their core business.
Photo licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 via Flickr user: puuikibeach
