Time to manage change

We are living in a world where nothing is constant and change is certain in all aspects. Change is certain but the frequency of change is highly volatile, whether it is product life cycle, cash cycle and even business cycles. We all are living in this dynamic and transforming time period, where nothing is certain except Change. So, the mantra to live in this constant evolving world is to adopt change and move forward.

It is not easy to adopt change. It is continuous learning which helps to adopt change in this dynamic environment. Irrespective of the discipline, changes are evolving whether it is sciences or humanities.

Even businesses are transforming rapidly due to innovations in technologies and changes in the business models. The era of traditional business practices is almost over and people are welcoming modern business practices with the help of digital devices. It is also observed that management principles which emerged in the 19th and the 20th centuries may not be applicable in this 21st century.

The unforeseen changes in management practices are in the areas of management functions such as Finance, Marketing, Operations and Human Resources. The changes are due to new technology and also due to worldwide increase in the number of startups.

These startups are challenging the bigwigs in the markets. The successful startups like Uber & Ola are challenging automotive sectors. Even successful e-commerce players like Amazon are becoming a threat for entities like Walmart. E-commerce is also impacting the commercial property valuations due to the less number of footfalls into the physical stores.

Silicon Valley is also adopting change by bringing transformation in information technology field. Certainly, these changes in the area of IT are impacting various domains such as Finance, Marketing and Operations.

The upcoming changes are going to take place in the area of Fintech companies due to the block chain technology. The new emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Block chain technology and 3D printing are going to completely transform Finance, Health, Marketing and Operations areas, since they are cost-efficient.

Change requires capital and without capital, adopting change is not possible. It is certain that demand for private equity, venture capitalists and HNIs will have the advantage of investing in such innovative firms.

Publicly listed companies may come for IPOs (latest trend we observed in Indian capital markets this year). Banks require huge deposits to fund some of these ventures. Even central government’s focus on ‘Make in India,’ digital India, Swachh India requires huge capital.

Change also comes from skilled labour. The definition of skilled labour is also changing. The present skill sets may not be required in the span of next three years due to the emerging technologies such as machine learning.

The corporates are adopting change; they are using more of machines, robots and automation in their business processes across all management functions. In a way, human capital can be replaced by machine learning tools. In such a case labour must learn new technologies and update their skill sets because of these changes.

Change also comes from the structure of organisation and type of organisations. In case the organizations are public enterprises it is difficult to adapt to these rapid changes in a fast pace. Private organisations are adopting rapid changes in this business environment.

It is for this basic reason that private enterprises in the domain of IT and Airlines are laying off employees, resorting to pay cuts, etc..at a short notice. We see that this trend is moving towards job security in some sectors now, but over a period of time it will spread to other industries such as banking, insurance, infrastructure etc.

Management thinkers named this century as VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complexity and Ambiguity) world. But to achieve success in this complex world, change is the only solution. This change is a must at all levels, whether it is leaders, managers, employees or others.

A company performance is based on employees’ productivity and employees’ productivity is based on their education, skill sets and experience. The most important attribute of an employee is updating with new developments, changes etc. It requires ‘unlearning and relearning’ to perform in the constantly changing world. Hence it is important to adopt change and manage it for value creation. (Chandra Shekar is a faculty at IPE, Hyderabad. Prof Khan is former V-C, Telangana University)

By M Chandra Shekar & Prof Mohd Akbar Ali Khan