where the oceans of change meet.

Being a business is increasingly challenging.

Change is never easy and it’s hard to escape the incessant stories of upheaval, chaos, disruption and pressure - coming at us from all corners.

We sympathise. We’ve been there and it’s hard enough to craft a stable basis for business — even when the context is stable. The job of the leader nowadays is to set the vision and chart a path while being swamped by the seas of perpetual disruption.

It’s Tough

Listening to teams talk about why things are messed up fascinates us. We hear so many stories it makes everyone’s heads spin. There’s the constant risks to their business from competition.

The need to cut the costs while improving operations. To tackle surprising new entrants to the market operating from their garages while we deal with historical overheads and legacy systems.

There’s a war for the new skills we need in the face of how hard it’s become for traditional brands to attract the fresh and often disinterested talent.

Add to this the need for the data upon which to make choices. Deciding amongst a multiplicity of options for everything — how and whether to automate each business process, transform existing infrastructure and make the big decisions about how to stay effective — and so much more.

And It’s Getting Tougher

In the past we could see the challenges far more easily — they were tangible — plant, facilities, shop windows and price points — but now the enemy can be invisible.

Attitudes, behaviours motivations and capabilities — the dangers these days are as much about values and trust as they are about anything.