The New World Order

FIFA World Cup Football is a spectacular event that captivates audiences from more countries than any other spectator does. Passion rides high and teams, supporters and the whole eco-system that makes this grand event a success prepares for months and years.

The 2018 event was no exception except for the fact that it kept throwing up more surprises as each game progressed. The high and mighty of the game as in individuals as well as teams were left behind, overshadowed by teams written off even before the games started. Eventually, all the favorites were filtered out by their performance and the crown was passed on to someone not exactly new to the game.

Like in football, the business world also keeps filtering out the old giants who looked invincible is humbled and newer, nimbler businesses that were born ‘just yesterday’. A case in point is the once almighty GE. An erstwhile bell weather co, GE has produced some of the finest managers of the western world. There was a time, if you polled the top CEOs of the western world, most of them would have had a stint in GE sometimes in their career.

GE in the past has been the center of attention for the leading market shares it had in the domains in which it chose to operate. Under Jack Welch, GE grew into a huge behemoth with its leading presence in power, healthcare, engineering and host of other industries. GE is also credited with inventing some of the management concepts like Six Sigma, that is even today, practiced by many companies across the world.

According to some, GE’s advantage lay in its system of professional management, epitomized by its investments in executive education and management development. Leading academics were part of the education process that managers at GE went through. Jeffry Immelt carried on the tradition of Jack Welch and had Eric Ries, author of the chart topper book ‘The Lean Start-up’, as a part of the advisory team that guided GE managers as they struggled to survive.

GE may not be a write off yet. It might make a comeback like IBM did under Lou Gerstner. Only time will tell us about GE’s future.

With a wealth of knowledge, experience and resources available with them, why is it that companies like GE, Nokia, Kodak, Motorola and many more leaders of the industry fall behind? Is it the ‘boiling frog’ syndrome, lack of vision, unwilling to acknowledge change, refusal to give-up power? Or is it a combination of all of these and more that ensures a rapid sinking to the bottom of the pile?

If you look at the list of richest people in the world today, you will find the top three – Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates & Mark Zuckerberg – all made their money in tech. But within the tech community itself you will find ample examples of companies that have followed the like of GE – Yahoo, My Space to name a couple.

It is therefore, not the changing industries and favorites of the moment, but the way we run our businesses that are responsible for the future fate of the organization. Finally, it is how we play the game!