February 12, 2025 l Business Mirror
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.”—Charles Darwin
CHANGE. Re-engineering. Innovation. Transformation. Call it what you will, the phenomenon of change is inevitable, eternal, inescapable, and I believe, imperative.
Change is, as Alvin Toffler (author, futurist) puts it, “not merely necessary to life, Change is life itself.”
The World of Business–A changing panorama
The world of commerce and business has experienced change, perhaps more so than any other spectrum of life. Advancements in science and technology, intense global competition and access to unprecedented levels of information have irredeemably transformed the way business is done.
Imagine, for a moment, the business marketplace just five decades ago (the 1970’s). Imagine leading or working in a company with no access to computers, without internet capabilities, without management information systems, without access to sophisticated data on markets, customers, competitors or suppliers. Envision also radically less chaos, less competition, less pressure to produce quarterly results, less globalization, less risks?, etc.. The business world has changed in unprecedented, unimagined ways, and with change has come complexity, competition, and chaos, higher returns but significantly higher risk.
What has changed?
TOO much has changed. And being engulfed in these changes, it is often hard to see the ‘big picture’ of change clearly. Some of the factors that have driven change may be attributed to the following –
Ubiquitous technology
THE level of use of technology seems to drive differentiation in business advancement. Artificial Intelligence (AI), an unknown thing five decades ago has hugged the headlines lately.
ChatGPT was once the “in thing” until DeepSeek came. According to one recent social media release, DeepSeek scored 5.5 out of 6.0, outperforming OpenAI’s o1–its advanced reasoning (known as “chain of thought”) model–as well as ChatGPT 4o, the free version of ChatGPT. Speed and costs are key reference points in judging which is better.
Production paradox and vision to supply the world
BEFORE, productivity and profitability were assumed to move together. China has enormous production capacity and it has supplied the world with cheap goods. With the new leadership in the White House, mindful of the balance of trade with its trading partners, started to improve the US balance of trade by imposing tariffs. This move by the biggest world economy triggers disruptions for which no economy has prepared for. As of now, it is premature to predict next steps by and eventual consequences to the economies of the world.
Globalization
WHAT happens in one part of the world, now significantly impacts the other. Global and local knowledge have become increasingly relevant, for a business to survive. America’s embrace to Make America Great Again (MAGA) as espoused by Donald Trump more than attests to what globalization is all about.
Change thyself–Adjusting the sails
THE business world changed in the past and it will continue to change at a much faster pace. In this environment, the survival and growth corporations will be driven by their capacity to change and constantly and consistently adapt to the environment.
An old song has lyrics that are good to share, “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” So it must be, for businesses to survive in the world and in the Philippines.
‘Adjusting the sails’ or constant adaptation to the external environment is not easy for any business entity. Companies must constantly clarify their core purpose, vision and destination in the changing landscape. Companies must re-assess the structure, strategies, processes and collective behavior. Most importantly, companies need to propagate a corporate culture that embraces change and encourages innovation. And finally, large-scale change programs are successful only when they are led from the ‘top’, by committed change agent leaders, and are implemented with purpose and passion.
In the dynamic marketplace, what leaders can most give to organizations is the capability of reinvention or transformation, the corporate culture of change. As a change driven leader, one empowers the company to navigate the seas, adjust its sails and reach its destination. It is then that one truly creates the change one wants to see.
***The views expressed herein are her own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of her office as well as FINEX. For comments, email clmanabat@gmail.com. Photo is from Pinterest.