Are you still relevant? How human dynamics and not just AI play a role in the future of modern business.
Upcoming Skarbek book reveals reassuring insights from top business leaders
A new technological world of robots and artificial intelligence will be the next tsunami of change to hit the workplace, but don’t panic, humans will still have a role to play – actually more so than ever before is the message loud and clear from Skarbek’s book on strategy implementation launching later in the year.
The book’s core message is that the implementation of strategy – getting stuff done – in organizations big and small, across sectors, private and public and in government, has always been difficult. The gap between stated intent and achievement – measured in terms of quality, time and budget – is almost always apparent, most usually significant, and on occasions catastrophic. So the cry is, mind the gap! It’s much bigger than you think, and closing it is the route to growth and prosperity.
Jill Ridley-Smith, Board member of Skarbek Associates, and also non-executive director of the UK government Digital Catapult, is fantastically excited about the new digital/AI developments coming our way; undoubtedly they’ll be a force multiplier in executing strategy. But equally she is convinced that it is the human dynamics that will ensure the technology is employed efficiently and effectively.
‘Humans will never be excluded from the equation,’ echoes founder and CEO of Skarbek Associates, Paul Heugh, ‘we’ll just have to get better, and faster. Fifteen years ago you’d write a five-year strategic plan and get on and implement it. Today you write a five-year strategy and by the time the ink’s dried, much of it might be irrelevant.’
One of the greatest challenges facing organizations today is an increasing complexity resulting from a relentless pace of change to compete in an ever-more competitive world.
Where once there was a comforting sense of order in the shape of vertically aligned functions and divisional silos, today many companies have cross-functional teams with different projects running concurrently and competing for their staff’s time and effort. The explosion of information technology and the Internet, despite obvious advantages, has brought with it unprecedented volumes of data and new information systems to assimilate. Customer demands have only increased, as has regulation. Throw in restructuring through globalization, mergers and acquisitions, and an increasingly transactional work force; it’s no wonder that the result is all-too-often a maelstrom of organizational chaos. ‘Again and again, we find companies lost in the fog, slow and inefficient, and their staff frustrated,’ says Heugh. ‘The pace of change has never been greater, and the need to adapt, to keep operations aligned with strategy, is unquestionably a challenge.’
To address the problem…
Upcoming Skarbek book reveals reassuring insights from top business leaders
A new technological world of robots and artificial intelligence will be the next tsunami of change to hit the workplace, but don’t panic, humans will still have a role to play – actually more so than ever before is the message loud and clear from Skarbek’s book on strategy implementation launching later in the year.
The book’s core message is that the implementation of strategy – getting stuff done – in organizations big and small, across sectors, private and public and in government, has always been difficult. The gap between stated intent and achievement – measured in terms of quality, time and budget – is almost always apparent, most usually significant, and on occasions catastrophic. So the cry is, mind the gap! It’s much bigger than you think, and closing it is the route to growth and prosperity.
Jill Ridley-Smith, Board member of Skarbek Associates, and also non-executive director of the UK government Digital Catapult, is fantastically excited about the new digital/AI developments coming our way; undoubtedly they’ll be a force multiplier in executing strategy. But equally she is convinced that it is the human dynamics that will ensure the technology is employed efficiently and effectively.
‘Humans will never be excluded from the equation,’ echoes founder and CEO of Skarbek Associates, Paul Heugh, ‘we’ll just have to get better, and faster. Fifteen years ago you’d write a five-year strategic plan and get on and implement it. Today you write a five-year strategy and by the time the ink’s dried, much of it might be irrelevant.’
One of the greatest challenges facing organizations today is an increasing complexity resulting from a relentless pace of change to compete in an ever-more competitive world.
Where once there was a comforting sense of order in the shape of vertically aligned functions and divisional silos, today many companies have cross-functional teams with different projects running concurrently and competing for their staff’s time and effort. The explosion of information technology and the Internet, despite obvious advantages, has brought with it unprecedented volumes of data and new information systems to assimilate. Customer demands have only increased, as has regulation. Throw in restructuring through globalization, mergers and acquisitions, and an increasingly transactional work force; it’s no wonder that the result is all-too-often a maelstrom of organizational chaos. ‘Again and again, we find companies lost in the fog, slow and inefficient, and their staff frustrated,’ says Heugh. ‘The pace of change has never been greater, and the need to adapt, to keep operations aligned with strategy, is unquestionably a challenge.’
To address the problem…