Chapter 45 Chapter 45 The ever-changing world needs you who can adapt at any time

Recently, due to fundamental changes in the corporate environment, the need for leadership in management, and the difficulties of leading successfully, have greatly outstripped awareness. Under the tide of knowledge economy, leaders have already entered the fast lane of knowledge economy.At the same time, the society we live in has three characteristics: rapidity, drastic changes, and intensified competition.These are the three biggest challenges leaders face.The ever-changing world requires you to adapt at any time.Leaders can only adapt to changes in the outside world by changing their management methods, otherwise there is only a dead end.

1. fast The development of computers and the Internet has shaped people's new lives.Information can be obtained instantly. Millions of volumes of information in the British Museum can be sent to any server in 5 seconds, and we can get the information immediately. The update speed of knowledge has also been accelerated.Clinton once invited experts to make statistics. In the era of industrial economy, the sum of human knowledge has doubled in 300 years.In terms of the speed of knowledge creation, 300 years is equal to the past 5000 years.Since entering the era of knowledge economy, knowledge has doubled every 5 years.Today, no matter the organization or individual, if the speed of internal change is slower than that of the outside world, it will mean failure or death.

There is a set of statistical data: every 10 years, 1/3 of the original Fortune 500 companies will disappear.Because there is no learning, the adaptability is poor.From the domestic situation, the business environment of enterprises is 2.5 times more complicated than that of 10 years ago, the competition of enterprises is 3.3 times higher than that of 10 years ago, and the average life expectancy of enterprises is 20% of that of 10 years ago. 68 companies disappear every three years.The trend of modern society is that competition is more intense and there is no end and boundary. All this shows that today's social environment is characterized by more and more rapid development, more rapid changes, and more and more fierce competition.All business models are becoming more and more diversified, and the speed of change is also accelerating!Many entrepreneurs call this an era of "fast fish eat slow fish".

2. Upheaval Times are developing and society is progressing.Taking the media as an example, before seven or eight years ago, the four major media were the main channels of commercial communication: television, radio, newspapers, and magazines.Today, the Internet, SMS, direct investment, conferences, free publications, clubs, membership, experiential marketing, outdoor media, and TVs in office buildings, stores, communities, buses, and taxis have emerged. On the one hand, it has promoted the progress of commercial civilization, and on the other hand, it has also intensified the degree of commercial competition.

In today's business environment, all kinds of new products, new things, and new ideas emerge in an endless stream.One can see the extent of the upheaval by looking at the business frontages in prosperous areas: the frontages changed within a short period of time, except that the landlord did not change, and almost everything changed within three months. If you take a walk around the office buildings, shopping malls, and streets in commercial centers, you will feel more deeply the pressure of competition and the drastic changes in society.Even in the middle of the night, the streets are still full of people and cars, and there are still shops welcoming and sending them off.Everyone you meet is in a hurry, even meditating on bread, and there seems to be never-ending work to do.

On the one hand, the Chinese lamented that "competition is becoming more and more fierce, and business is becoming more and more difficult to do", on the other hand, foreign capital, technology, and new products are pouring into China at a faster rate.On the one hand, many entrepreneurs are complaining bitterly, complaining that "the profit is getting lower and lower". of. There will always be competition.Likewise, at any time, opportunities are always there.When others lament the fierce competition, batch after batch of people stand out. Is it just because of luck? "Choose change or choose death".In such a fast-growing and changing business environment, only those leaders who actively implement changes and adapt to the trend can lead enterprises to seize opportunities from competition, survive and develop.

3. Increased competition In 1984, General Motors carried out its first comprehensive restructuring.This is the first change since Alfred Sloan established the company's basic "headquarters-subsidiary" corporate organizational structure in the early 1920s-GM's structure has not changed in sixty years. any change!That same year, General Motors acquired EDS and began experimenting with adding or modifying computer systems throughout the company.At the same time, General Motors cooperated with its main competitor, Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation, to establish a joint venture, and a branch plant with poor operating conditions was also transferred to Toyota Motor Corporation for management.That same year, General Motors established a new subsidiary, Saturn, with the hope that the new company would develop the car of the future and a whole new way of making cars.After painstaking efforts year after year, General Motors has established a very complex vertically integrated management system.Subsequently, the company began to close some of its parts production enterprises and instead ordered from external suppliers.

GM led a series of drastic reforms, followed the development of the market, pulled a faltering old cow back on the right track, and radiated a more beautiful youth. With economic globalization and the gradual formation of the global village, some local companies that were originally in their own territory have to face threats from foreign companies or multinational giants.In many industries, strong rivals of foreign companies occupy the part of the market share originally occupied by domestic companies. In order to expand the market or avoid being eliminated, the fire of competition among companies will be rekindled, resulting in fierce competition.This is far more tragic than the competition among domestic companies.In short, for whatever reason, this fierce competition has changed many companies and even impacted the entire industry.Under such circumstances, only leaders who know how to change and keep pace with the times can overcome obstacles in the huge waves of competition, pioneer and innovate, and lead the enterprise to final success.

In an era of great change, the requirements for leadership are also higher.In the era of agricultural economy, as long as 7 to 14 years of age to receive education is enough to cope with the next 40 years of work and life.In the era of industrial economy, the schooling time is extended to 5~22 years old, so that one can find a good job.In today's era of knowledge economy, lifelong learning and the concept of learning leadership must be established in order to survive, develop and succeed in this ever-changing society. The transition from traditional leadership to learning leadership has become an inevitable trend.Learning will become a way of life, an essential part of leading everyday life.Management guru Peter Senge said, "Your only lasting advantage in the future is the ability to learn faster than your competitors." You can refuse to learn, but your competitors won't.

In such a "fast" and "dramatic" environment, leaders must make changes.Some experts say that the knowledge economy is to "use the wisdom of people and let the generation of wisdom create unprecedented value".Businesses around the world have never been more preoccupied with people than they are today. The traditional leadership style of business leaders must be changed after entering the knowledge economy, otherwise they will face the danger of being eliminated! If there is such a time machine that can transport a life insurance salesman from 1909 to 1969, it will probably not take much time for the salesman to be retrained for the job again.But if the insurance salesman was brought into 2009, I'm afraid it would be a different scenario.

Today, the life insurance industry faces a massive onslaught from other financial industries.These types of life insurance are now offered by thousands of other financial companies in addition to traditional life insurance companies.In order to adapt to this new competition, various life insurance companies are launching new types of insurance at an unprecedented speed, striving for other businesses related to their own business, and reforming the company's distribution methods.At the same time, continuously streamlining organizations and improving work efficiency are things that life insurance companies have never experienced since their establishment in the last century. As the leader of a large company in the United States said: 50 years ago, it was much easier to be the head of a company.At that time, all companies had many opportunities for development.But now, what we are facing is fierce competition among companies and a mature market.When I first joined the company in 1952, you couldn't believe it, our actual monthly job was to have "assignment meetings" to decide who would sell our products.Today, our work is a hundred times more complicated and a hundred times more difficult than before. The work is indeed too complicated and difficult.Take personnel work as an example. 20 years ago, the job of leaders was to pay salaries and assist in solving some minor personnel issues. Now, they have to provide guidance on various complicated personnel issues.They must assist company leaders to reform the corporate culture to make the company more competitive; recruit and select outstanding employees, conduct salary management and performance appraisal; The compensation system for the problem, and the person in charge of the manufacturing department worked together to find a way to establish a new atmosphere of labor-management relations.Being a leader is getting more and more difficult, and being a successful leader is even more difficult. Increasing competition and an increasingly complex environment call for the emergence of successful leaders.But at the same time, another set of forces gradually increased the difficulty of successful leadership.These forces are business growth, business diversification, globalization, and technological progress, which make the company's business activities more complex.From this point of view, the development process of PepsiCo is not surprising. In 1955, PepsiCo was a 1,900-employee, $600 million-a-year soft drink company that sold most of its products in the continental United States. Twenty-five years later, the company has grown into a company with more than 100,000 employees and $6 billion in annual sales.The products sold by the company include soft drinks, fast food, and instant food, and it also operates airline business, including North American cargo lines and Lee Way Motor Transport Company (Lee Way), Sporting Goods (Wilson), etc.By 2004, Pepsi had more than 140,000 employees in more than 200 countries and regions around the world, with an annual sales revenue of 29.3 billion US dollars. Objectively speaking, it was not easy to effectively lead this company in 1955, but today, as the leader of PepsiCo, the difficulty of the job can be imagined. Leading the implementation of changes and optimizing management does not sound like a difficult task. It is nothing more than reducing costs, increasing labor productivity, improving after-sales service, maintaining high-quality products, and speeding up the development of new products.But it's easier said than done.Addressing these problems will mean major reforms.There will inevitably be shocks in the reform, which will bring pressure to people; there will be winners and there will also be losers. Even in simple situations, it is not so easy to overcome the resistance caused by pressure and property loss, let alone Besides, the situation is not that simple. It is one thing to improve customer service in a company with 20 salespeople in one location; Under these conditions, the reforms carried out are quite another matter.It is one thing to greatly increase the productivity of labor, provided that one basic technique is used in the production or service process; It's another matter.When a new product is developed and put on the market, if it is aimed at a roughly the same market (such as customers in the same region), it will present a set of problems; if it is aimed at hundreds or thousands of customers with certain Significantly different markets, such as Brazil and Switzerland, present a different and much more complex set of issues.It is much easier to carry out comprehensive reform when the quality of all employees is roughly the same; it is much more difficult to properly communicate with people of different nationalities and ages, as well as MBAs and engineers. Among the top leadership of integrated companies, few companies can easily establish and implement a reasonable reform policy.In most cases today, the strategic decision-making process has become complex due to many unstable factors such as technology, competition, market and economy, politics and so on.Contradictions of interests within the company, such as conflicts in the distribution of interests between the Chinese branch and the European branch, as well as between the traditional banking department or the new investment banking business department, can also turn the implementation of strategic reforms into an issue. Very dangerous adventure. Whether it is a workplace or a business, in order to achieve organizational goals, leaders often need to manage flexibly.If you just follow the daily rigid and unchanging work rules, you will not be able to improve the efficiency of achieving your goals, and you will not be able to develop your talents.Therefore, in addition to maintaining the flexibility of thinking, we must also be able to seek innovation and change, and maintain a sense of crisis at any time to examine changes in the external environment, so as to effectively respond to the rapidly changing market competition.The following four points will help you become an excellent leader who is strategic and insightful. 1. Take a comprehensive look at the external situation A good leader must fully understand the trends of the overall enterprise, as well as the company's position in the economic environment, trade environment, political and economic development trends, consumer goals, technological innovation, and the overall industry in order to adopt favorable market development strategies, or Can accurately correct the strategic direction. The worldwide energy crisis that broke out in the 1970s led to changes in the demand for automobiles.Japanese automobile companies reacted in time, changed the design, and quickly launched small cars with low fuel consumption and energy saving, which adapted to the changing requirements of consumers, occupied the U.S. market in large numbers, shaken the dominance of the U.S. auto industry, and created a new era. The history of the rapid rise of the Japanese automobile industry.Sun Tzu said: "Water controls the flow because of the ground, and soldiers win because of the enemy; therefore, soldiers have no constant momentum, and water has no constant shape; those who can win because of the enemy's changes are called gods." Excellent leaders are to be such gods. 2. Have a certain degree of mastery of the internal environment Leaders must have a certain degree of understanding and insights about interpersonal relationships in the workplace, creating a harmonious team spirit, nurturing and guiding junior employees, effectively using subordinates' abilities, and creating a positive working environment.The purpose of doing so is mainly to allow leaders to develop the ability to detect abnormalities early.In other words, the ability of leaders to discover problems will be more important than the ability to solve them. 3. Be aggressive Leaders are most afraid of the stubborn attitude of "only doing work related to what they have learned".A good leader will require himself to specialize in various affairs, train himself, develop the ability of self-development, and at the same time have the courage to innovate, and aim to become a supervisor trusted by his subordinates. 4. Have the courage to meet challenges and be willing to learn Leaders must have the spirit of challenge to break the status quo at any time, introduce innovative technologies, concepts and knowledge, and be mentally prepared to break the old framework at all times.When the workload of other departments increases, the leader must not hold sectarianism, thinking that he only needs to do his job well, but should take the opportunity to understand the operation and management methods of other departments and learn useful practices from them with experience. Today, it is difficult for leaders to rely on an eternal principle and a panacea to deal with all problems, so they must know how to use "contingency strategies".In other words, the leader should be flexible and adaptable according to the changing conditions of the environment, and find the best solution in order to achieve the most ideal results. However, leaders must keep in mind that although dogmatists who stick to principles and do not know how to adapt to change will bring serious losses to the organization in the process of leadership and management, "contingency" can only be done under certain principles. It can be used flexibly on the basis of social security and innovation, and if it is "changed" without principle, it will also allow the organization to bear a high degree of risk. In short, as a modern leader, he should be able to defend and attack, to be able to adapt to changes, and to establish a set of flexible management models with objective laws and clear principles. While following objective laws and basic principles, he should also It should be adapted according to the specific situation, and avoid becoming a dogmatic leader who sticks to the rules and rigid thinking. Li Ka-shing's excellence is too numerous to mention, one of which is that he can adjust and change his business strategy at any time according to the unpredictable economic situation and market conditions. In the early years, when Li Ka-shing's plastic flower business was at its peak, many people rushed into the plastic flower industry.When everyone was optimistic about this market, Li Ka-shing resolutely faded out.Because too many manufacturers have entered the market, and many families who bought plastic flowers have already bought them, the market will inevitably become saturated. Therefore, Li Ka-shing chose to fade out when everyone was optimistic. Facts have proved his wisdom. A riot broke out in Hong Kong in 1967, which caused the land and property prices to plummet at that time.Li Ka-shing saw the opportunity and bought a lot of land for future development.As a result, Hong Kong's economy has been on a straight line since then, and property prices and land prices have continued to rise. In 1973, the biggest disaster in Hong Kong's history occurred, and the Hang Seng Index fell from more than 1,700 points to 150 points.The sharp drop in stock prices has also dragged down land prices, which have plummeted.However, Li Ka-shing resolutely continued to purchase land, and Hong Kong's real estate industry developed rapidly afterwards, making his Cheung Kong property the most powerful real estate development company in Hong Kong. In 1999, the world's telecommunications industry and technology stocks were in a frenzy, and many technology stocks rose astonishingly.However, Li Ka-shing announced the sale of the equity of the mobile phone company when the communication industry was at its peak, which made Hutchison Whampoa a profit of nearly 130 billion Hong Kong dollars.Afterwards, the technology stock bubble burst, and Li Ka-shing had already sold his shares in Orange, earning a very considerable profit.