Transient Man

Before I dive into the topic, let me narrate three short stories for you.

1.     Peter is an executive who has done extremely well in his organization. He is known as sincere, hardworking and one who delivers results. Peter sees his friends getting better jobs with better pay and decided to look for opportunities in the market. He spent considerable time in building his resume and posted it on job portals. He also started sending it out to consultants so that they can have his resume in their database to match with an opening. However, he sees that many of his friends who started job efforts much later than him landing better jobs but he is unable to do so. Why? What is wrong with Peter?

2.    Raj is depressed. He and his daughter Neha constantly fight at home. He wants his daughter to study well and be successful but Neha complains that Raj does not trust her. Whenever, he comes back from office, he sees Neha in her room, with music on, book open and chatting with her friends on phone (using Whatsapp, Facebook). When he confronts her, Neha reacts that she is studying hard and that she is discussing school work with her friends. How can she be focused and studying while listening to music and chatting with her friends? How could he explain to her that focusing is all about reading the book in front of you? Chatting and Music are all distractions. Why is Neha unable to understand this simple concept? What can Raj do??

3.     Zia is a successful executive who is listed in top 20 Leaders in India. She had a successful run building a product enterprise. She is on multiple boards and her experience is well regarded. However, she is distressed today. Her company bet big on a product that would capture a significant market share. They studied all their competitors, spent a huge amount of time in understanding customer needs, got best consultants while designing the product, produced television commercials that would excite the audience. They invested lot of money and are about to launch in few weeks. Zia got to know this morning that a new player is launching a product that re-defines the market space and eliminates the need for her product. This new player is not from their industry and was not even on their radar for potential competitors. Zia is distressed. Where did she go wrong? What can she do?

What is common amongst all the stories above? What challenges are Peter, Raj and Zia dealing with? Peter has to recognize that the job market is not the same as when he entered the industry. Today, recruitment happens more online than offline. More jobs are available and recruited on social media like LinkedIn, Facebook than through job portals. Raj has to recognize that the new generation way of learning is very different from his generation. Gen Y engages more through digital media than face to face. Zia has to recognize that the World is changing at a dramatic pace and the competitors are no more just your peers in the industry.

Let me give you couple of examples of how the World could potentially change tomorrow.

·       Tesla Motors (the company that is recently in news for producing an Electric car ‘Model S’ that is comparable or better than conventional cars) has floated an idea of Hyperloop (a superfast tubular transport system) that could cut down transit time from San Francisco to LA to 30 minutes. There is even a proposal to get you from New York to Los Angeles in 45 minutes. These are not just ideas but an actual design exists in public space. Imagine if this becomes a reality in 5-10 years, what would happen to the Transportation industry (Airlines, Trains etc)? If you were the CEO of an Airline today, what would be your plan?

·       Let me take another example that is not in the distant future but is happening today. With the advent of broadband speeds, entertainment is being re-defined. A whole lot of digital media is available to people, at very low costs, on their own phones/gadgets. Imagine how this is re-defining the entertainment industry. Today, a launch on YouTube is more critical than a trailer release in a theatre. There is advent of short films that both entertain the audience while giving opportunities to potential actors/directors who had to run around studios in the past. A movie could be produced with crowdsourcing, released and could compete with a big star at the box office. If you were in the Entertainment industry, what would you do? Where would you focus?

We are operating in a World that is changing at an exponential pace. These are not just small changes but the environment around us is getting constantly re-defined. Our earlier generations did not have to deal with such level of change and our next generation would come into the new World. We are the transient generation that needs to deal and adapt to this change. How can we do it? How can we be successful?

We need to start by recognizing and acknowledging the change around us. We then have to accept the hard truth – Our experience is no longer relevant. We are no longer relevant unless we reinvent ourselves. There is nothing to differentiate us from the newly passed out college grad (infact, we start on a negative as we need to significantly unlearn). So, how can we be successful in this transient world? By applying the following principles:

1.    Open mind – simple to say but difficult to practice given the baggage of our past success and experience. Extremely important to have an open mind to new ideas/thoughts coming in from anywhere

2.    Learn – Willingness to constantly learn. This World is no more the same and never going to remain the same. We need to constantly learn from all sources. More importantly, from younger generations who see the world very different from us.

3.    Speed – World is operating at a different pace today. Things cannot take multiple planning sessions to be decided. We need to start taking decisions faster, willing to experiment, fail & learn, take risks and be comfortable with fast pace. More importantly, we will be tested on our ability to make decisions in ambiguity.

4.     Embrace – We need to embrace change. Embrace new ways of doing things;

5.    Self-Aware – Last but not the least is recognizing that change is not easy. Hence, it is important to be self-aware. Awareness of our own emotions/feelings. As Leaders, we need to lead our teams through this change. Unless we are self-aware, we cannot have an awareness of our team’s emotional state and that is critical to success.

Like all things, being in a Transient generation could be a blessing or a curse. For people who cannot change, it’s a curse. But for someone who is willing to embrace the change, it is an era of opportunities. How do you see it?