They say India just prioritised moderating petrol and diesel prices in India and completely skipped the need for gaining energy independence/ energy security, they say India did not focus on positioning itself in AI, they say India does not prioritise spending on R & D and therefore India remains only an outsourcing hub. But the real question is why?
Are our policy makers and corporates not wise enough? Or is there something else?
Today Or Tomorrow
There is a saying “purpose of any business is to make profit and today and all the time in future…”
While focusing and ensuring that this and next quarter is good, are we compromising our future? This dilemma or clarity decides the fate of countries, corporations and firms. Too much focus on future can drag business/ profession to insolvency and too much focus on today can make business irrelevant at any moment. Wise advisors say allocate at least 10-15% of your surplus in futuristic investments and 5-10% on experimental subjects. As one starts seeing results and opportunities this % keep changing and soon futuristic investments can either become mainstream business, or it gets abandoned. Continuous monitoring of this balance and returns thereon should be KRA/ KPI of at least a few in the organisation. At least someone very important in the organisation should be incentivised to take care of future.
Sustainability – Design and Incentives
Many times, Sustainability is confined to only environment. But sustainability is much broader than this. And therefore, desire to sustain even after 5-10-15-25 years supported by action plan and disciplined to walk on that path is the key is what history tells us. Solution lies at two levels – ONE at design level and SECOND at incentive level.
In today’s corporate world, professional CEO is appointed by a single term of 3-5 years and even Independent Directors are allowed to serve on board for 5 years unless reappointed for next one more term. And therefore, while I have seen many individuals who carrying trusteeship bearing, design is not incentivising to look beyond immediate period of 3-5 years. In a listed company even, investors may not be long term; and therefore, role of regulator becomes very critical at design level.
Individuals and group work on their instincts which are triggered by incentives. Founders may, unknowingly, give more weightage to their position, identity or ego rather than sustainability of the organization. Therefore, incentives need not just be towards monetary, like Maslow says, at lower level it would be for survival and at highest level it will be for self-actualisation. And therefore, as a society while we need a design which facilitates balancing of long term and short term, we also need a complete framework of incentives for each stage.
Moment of Change
For an individual, organisation and even a society we need to appreciate the concept of moment of change. Andy Grove called such moments “strategic inflection points” – points at which the fundamentals of a business are about to change.
The tragedy is not that change happens. The tragedy is that many institutions recognise it only after their old success formula has expired.
While each of us is busy in living life as it comes, and behaviours are triggered by designs – incentive framework provided by someone else, our conscious needs to develop to grasp, grab and respond to moment of change. In evolved business families it happens at family level. But for society in general, this is possible if we bring this awareness and conditioning at least in graduation phase [if not in schools].
Moment of change is an important concept which is practiced in sports. They are trained to adopt to these moments, only then they can become successful. At a start-up stage winning credibility to your solution is ask, but when you win credibility, scaling is an ask which requires different mindset and design. And at grown stage, while maintaining new creation and scaling, resilience becomes more important. In corporate world, resilience is sometimes equated with risk mitigation and crisis management. Many corporations who fail to understand and respond to this moment of change eventually decline.
Reflection in Professional Life
‘What took you here will not take you there…’ In professional life and firms those who have these abilities can grow – sustain – bounce back. In a life which is engaged, attacked and influenced by social media, AI and Technology, consciously allocating digital free time and space to reflect becomes critical. Such space and time will show us these moment of change and will allow us to design and incentivise our eco systems to take care of sustainability of today and all the time in future.
Hope you have allocated space and time this weekend for reflection!