The digital era has been good for mankind; it has brought so much ease and comfort that the pre-digital era seems to belong to the Stone Age. Digitalization has broken the barrier created by distance, made doing business round the clock possible, created many opportunities across several industries, improved healthcare services, increased food production, made learning easier, grown the world economy and effectively reduced the world to a cyber village. However, as good as the digital era is, it is not without its headaches; it has brought many organizations to their knees and forced others to their graves. It has destroyed many careers and upturned many people’s fortunes. In photography, digital imaging swept away Konica despite merging with Minolta, shoved Agfa into bankruptcy; caused the collapse of Polaroid, the crash of Contax, the death of Bronica and the demystification of Kodak. But while these photography companies and brands were bowled over by digitalization, the same digitalization resulted in the phenomenal growth of Canon and Sony.
Between Kodak and Canon
Though its cameras were low-priced, Kodak was for almost a century, the most profitable photography company in the world. Its fortunes were not from camera sales, but from photographic films, papers and chemicals. Kodak sold its cameras at very cheap prices to users and got them
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hooked on its other products. It had a firm grip on the market for chemicals and papers used in developing photos so much that it controlled 80 per cent of the market. Kodak was so used to making money this way that though one of its engineers was the first person to develop the prototype of a digital camera in 1975, the leadership of Kodak chose to ignore it because encouraging digital imaging would drill a hole in the income generated from the sale of paper, films and chemicals. However, though Kodak did not develop digital imaging when it should have, it did not stop others from developing it.
While Kodak was dodgy and wishing away digital imaging, Canon embraced it wholly. But it was strategic about it. Canon’s leadership realized that digital imaging was the future of photography but it also realized that the market was not ready for it. So, it set up a separate company to focus on its digital experimentation while it continued with its traditional photographic business. It deployed resources into research, recruited engineers from the electronics industry, made mistakes, learnt from its experience and improved the digital technology. By the 1990s when the market was ready for digital imaging, Canon had become the industry leader.
Kodak, on the other hand, was reduced to a shadow of its old self and a laggard in an industry it once dominated and went into bankruptcy because its leaders lacked the requisite skills needed to steer the company when the industry experienced digital disruption.
Skills for leading in the digital age
Here are some skills required to lead in the digital era.
Nonlinear thinking
Nonlinear thinking is about making progress and solving problems. While linear thinking will serve the purpose of managers and non-digital leaders, anyone who wants to lead in the digital era must be a nonlinear thinker. Linear thinking is a process of thought which proceeds sequentially from one step to the other. Linear thinking is also known as rational thinking. The result of linear thinking is almost always predictable. But nonlinear thinking is different. It is thinking beyond logical induction. It is a thought process which integrates facts and findings from various fields for use in a specific field. It is the convergence of varying and sometimes divergent ideas to provide solutions. It is rooted in the belief that there are several ways to solve a problem. Nonlinear thinking, also known as lateral thinking, is disruptive and thus able to tackle disruption. Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known, attributed his groundbreaking successes to nonlinear thinking. According to him, “I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational (linear) thinking.”
Kodak leaders were boxed into paralysis and inactivity about an obvious threat because they were linear thinkers. They could not bring themselves to think of other ways of making money outside selling films, chemicals and papers. On the other hand, while Canon did not immediately discard the old ways, it was open to new possibilities. Only nonlinear thinkers can thrive in the digital era.
They must be analytical
The digital era requires leaders who are analytical. Being analytical is possessing the ability to break down an issue and simplify it with a view to finding solution to it. Analytical leaders deconstruct complex matters and compartmentalize similar parts to arrive at a solution. Many problems remain unsolved because those saddled with the responsibility of proffering solution fail to simplify them.
Nigeria’s electricity problem has been clothed in the garment of an invincible demon because those saddled with the responsibility of providing solution to it either advertently or inadvertently have failed to deconstruct the problem. While many advanced countries have moved into the era of micro-grids, Nigeria is labouring to build a national grid, forgetting that the longer electricity travels the more of it that is lost in transit.
Analytical leaders are never overwhelmed or overawed by problems because of the innate ability to break down complex issues.
Watch and correctly interpret market trends
Leaders that will lead and thrive in the digital era must watch and correctly interpret trends in their industries. No industry is static; this is because people are dynamic, so changes occur every time. But while every cycle of change favours some organizations, others are worsted by it. The reason is that the leaders of those organizations fail to either watch the trend in their industry or wrongly interpret the trend.
According to a United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs report, Nigeria will be the world’s third most populous country by 2050 with a projected population of 411million people. Based on this information, LafargeHolcim, a Swiss multinational building material manufacturing company, is already working on the kind of buildings Nigerians will need by the year, given the economic situation of the people and the land available. The company is watching the trend and seeking an interpretation of the same with a view to positioning itself for maximum benefit from the situation.
Jeff Bezos’ stupendous wealth came as a result of his ability to watch and interpret trends. While working with D.E. Shaw & Co in 1994, he stumbled on the fact that the use of internet was growing at 2,300 per cent. He interpreted this and realized that very soon the world would not be able to do much without the deployment of internet. He then thought of the business he could do to take advantage of the situation. He decided to start the sale of books online. That was the beginning of Amazon. That business which Bezos started in his garage has become one of the fastest growing businesses globally. Bezos’ success stems from his ability to watch trend and interpret same correctly.
Interrogate the processes
To thrive in the digital era, leaders must always interrogate their processes. Great leaders ask great questions to launch their organizations into new realms. One of the characteristics of the digital era is disruption. The import of this is that the lifespan of products and services is quite short. Shortly after a product comes on stream, the people are hungry and thirsty for something newer and better. So, great digital era leaders never cease to ask questions such as, “How can we surpass the expectations of the market? How can we improve the customer experience? How can we add more value to our customers?” They also ask, “What new technology do we need to deploy to improve on our deliverables? Isn’t there a better way of doing what we are doing? What more can we do?”
Continuous interrogation of its processes keeps an organization on its toes, makes it get better all the time, position it to champion change in its industry and prepares it for any technological disruption.
Respond to change, don’t defend tradition
The undoing of many companies that went down or lost their prime position was their inability to respond to changes when they occurred. What many of them did was to keep defending their traditional practices and operations instead of responding to the change. They forget that today’s achievement is the greatest enemy of tomorrow’s breakthrough. Any organization that fails to respond appropriately to changes will either lose its status or become history.
In its heydays, General Data Engineering Services Plc held sway as an industry leader in internet service provision in Ibadan, Lagos, Ilorin and Enugu. The company, also known as Skannet, was the go-to company for internet services at the time when NITEL was the only organization that Nigerians relied on for telephone services. Skannet sold internet bundles to cybercafés, offices and homes. But shortly after the government licensed GSM companies, internet access became a more personal experience as people could connect directly to the internet on their handsets. However, in spite of this obvious need for change of strategy and improvement in services, the company continued with its way of selling bundles to companies and cybercafés. When the market yearned for smaller devices for internet connectivity, Skannet should have responded promptly without insisting on serving the market the same way it had over the years. But it didn’t. By holding on to what it had always done, Skannet leaders woke up one day to find out that there was no longer any business for them in internet service provision. The company has since moved to telecommunications engineering and training services.
Last line
Those who do not change when the reality dictates it, always become casualties of change.