To survive, thrive and achieve our bold professional ambitions in today’s competitive world, we need to continuously transform and adapt to the future.
Creative disruption is shaking every industry. Global competition is fierce. The employer-employee pact is over and traditional job security is a thing of the past. Everyone is mandated to think like a business entity.
According to a recent USA Today survey, more than 50% of today’s college students want to be entrepreneurs. Over 68% of people between the age of 28 and 35 want to start a business and entrepreneurs over the age of 50 are one of the fastest growing groups of business owners. Venture-capital firms are investing record amounts of money in these new businesses, but their billions of dollars are being eclipsed by a new source of capital: crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is expected to top $30 billion this year (up from just $880 million in 2010), according to a report by Massolution. Even even the traditional IPO market is being disrupted by equity crowdfunding, which was recently enabled under Title II of the JOBS Act. This newest form of fundraising, while limited to just accredited investors, is expected to top $2.5 billion this year.
With so much competition, startup founders and existing corporations can no longer survive by just adding new features or marketing product extensions. In today’s business climate, incremental innovation is like walking on quicksand – it will keep you busy, but you won’t get very far.
To thrive, all businesses must focus on the art of self-disruption. Rather than wait for the competition to steal your business, every founder and employee needs to be willing to cannibalize their existing revenue streams in order to create new ones.
All disruption starts with introspection. Instead of focusing the traditional planning cycles where companies benchmark their businesses against existing competition, teams need to be developed to foster internal change and disruption. Self-disruption is akin to undergoing major surgery, but you are the one holding the scalpel. Even Google and Apple continue to expand and dominate new industries because they strive to create a culture of risk taking, self-disruption and experimentation. Would anyone have predicted ten years ago that either of these companies would be going into the auto industry? Does anyone today doubt that they will be successful?
In order to protect against being disrupted, startups also need to recruit employees that are committed to life-long learning. The skills that made your team members valuable may not be the skills needed to take your company to the next level or to compete in emerging markets. The Internet of Things, 3D printing and the sharing economy are going to impact virtually every business sector during the next five years. In order to change your company culture and seize opportunity, you need to hire people that are willing to change themselves.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves,” Leo Tolstoy wrote a century ago. Never has that statement been truer or the opportunities for startups greater. The greatest obstacles continue to be the greatest opportunities for entrepreneurs. By mastering the skills needed to disrupt you and your company, you can bolster your competitive advantage and continue to change the world.
LinkedIn cofounder and chairman Reid Hoffman has this advice for treating yourself as a business entity to accelerate your career in today’s competitive world:
Develop a competitive advantage to win the best opportunities.
Find the unique breakout opportunities that massively accelerate career growth.
Maintain a diverse mix of relationships and develop a practice of life long learning.
Strengthen your professional network by building powerful alliances.
Take proactive risks to become more resilient to industry tsunamis.
Tap your network for information and intelligence that help you make smarter decisions.
Adapt your career plans as you change, the people around you change, and industries change.
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