Posted by Faye Pressly
I am single. Recently single in fact. Despite feeling liberated and confident, as a young career-driven woman in her early-20s should, my friend still believed that I should make an attempt to "get back in the game" as it were. It was then that she introduced me to Hitch.me; a new dating website for LinkedIn professionals (not too sure how I feel about this yet!). There are already so many dating websites, but to stay one step ahead of competition, Technology is being utilised and developed to gain market share in this industry. It is just one of the many examples that highlights this drive towards continual change and innovation to remain competitive. The effects of this continual change and innovation however, are that consumers and customers are increasingly demanding quicker services with all daily tasks. We no longer wait to meet 'The One' in the local bar, or drive all the way to the shops to find a new dress for that evening, or even pop round to our friends house for a chat... these days it can all be done with ease, online, over the phone or through well designed "apps". To keep up-to-date with these demands, we have continual new releases, upgrades, modifications and alterations. We are in a world that is in a constant state of flux.
Our surrounding culture and everything that we do is speeding past us - driven by Technology and a new generation of innovative and agile-minded people. There is clouded visibility in predicting what is going to happen next... which for me is exciting and should be seen as an opportunity for growth and expansion. However for businesses, it leads to a number of questions including what is going to be the next big thing? One thing that can be agreed on is the fact that we are under constant pressure to learn new things for fear that we would be replaced by the new, young, upstart, impressing everyone down in human resources...! If companies are to survive in today's fast paced and ever changing environment, then they must find and support individuals who confront the status quo and contribute new and innovative ideas.
But to do this, it's important to first establish a culture of innovation that will endorse those ideas whilst bringing them to light. Companies that allow for creativity within the business, tend to be those that continually adapt to remain competitive. There's now a need to be less hierarchical and 'old school' and to rely more on teams working collaboratively and communication at all levels. With a strong culture and a clear set of values employees are more actively engaged in the business, working with a sense of confidence and empowerment rather than in your typical 9-5 bureaucratic day job. As pointed our by Shawn Parr in "Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch", innovative cultures demonstrate high employee involvement and an acceptance of a healthy level of risk-taking in order to achieve new levels of innovation. For me it comes down to allowing for creativity to take place. Providing employees with the freedom to take creative risks will no doubt lead to failures, but as we all know, every innovation has come after countless failures and invariably the more groundbreaking (Wright Bros., Donald Campbell, S.S. Challenger/Columbia, etc.), the higher the risks.
One of the reasons Facebook has thrived in the cut and thrust world of dotcom industry for example, is its ability to adapt to the market, to change in order to better serve its users before their users are even aware that it is what they need. Only recently Facebook has launched the new 'Time Line'. Something that not all users are happy about, but if Facebook doesn't do it, another rising competitor will. This is the way Facebook has been from day one, and one of the reasons it is the largest growing network in the world of social media (hence being recently valued at between $75bn - $100bn!). However, what works for one business won't necessarily work for another. Each needs to discover, and develop a culture that best enables it to stay competitive within its specific market. And as argued by Robert Safian in his article on Generation Flux, business leaders need to be creative, adaptive, and focused in their techniques, staffing, and philosophy.
Today Technology and Innovation is affecting everything from employment and business to our daily social activities. It forces disruption and change; trying to repeat what a great idea yesterday will only leave you behind. And for that reason, I think I'll stay in this weekend and take the search for the man of my dreams online. Hitch.me, anyone?
