In the dictionary, to adapt means to adjust to changing requirements or conditions, whether internal or external.
In business, it means to not merely adjust to but to embrace changing conditions. To leverage change to your advantage. To bake it into your organization and how it operates.
Successfully adapting will keep you and your company ahead of the pack.
Failure to adapt can be fatal.
The challenge facing innovation leaders is that the rate of change is accelerating.
For example, in computer lingo, “clock speed” refers to the operating speed of a computer or its microprocessor, defined as the rate at which it performs internal operations. Every computer contains an internal clock that regulates the rate at which instructions are executed and synchronizes all the various computer components. The central processing unit requires a fixed number of clock ticks (or clock cycles) to execute each instruction. The faster the clock, the more instructions the CPU can execute per second.
The term is now being applied to business.
To keep pace with accelerated business cycles, companies are trying increase their clock speeds. This means that new products and product iterations need to be developed, tested, and brought to market with increasing frequency. Product life cycles are shorter—the consumer electronics gizmo that could have once stayed on the market for two or three years is now obsolete in one year. Clock speed has increased by three, four, or even five times in the last ten years, and change cycles are also being compressed by a similar factor.
This applies to internal adaptation as well. In the old days the IT department could announce, “A year from now, we’re going to roll out the new customer management system.” Today the rollout may need to happen in just three months.
This is another facet of the need to adapt more quickly and with more depth than what was required a few short years ago. As an innovation leader in your business, to stay one step ahead how fast to adapt do you need to be?
And in what areas of your business do you need to innovate to stay ahead? You may sell a commodity, such as corn or bottled water, but that doesn’t mean the clock speed of your marketing campaign or supply chain operation isn’t getting faster and requiring constant innovation. Many innovations happen behind the scenes—and it’s those innovations that often make the biggest difference.
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