Arindam Bhattacharya: From Crisis to Leadership
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Only those who can convert today’s crises – like massive urbanisation and global warming – into opportunity will be tomorrow’s leaders.
Reading my morning newspaper over the weekend, I was struck by one of the stories describing how crises have frequently been the trigger for some of the most outstanding developments in medical sciences — they made researchers look for out-of-the-box solutions for problems that, till then, appeared unsolvable. As a management consultant, I am frequently asked to help clients think about major trends or mega-trends around the world. Both crises and mega-trends affect many aspects of human development and even alter the competitive landscape of industries; they’re often two sides of the same coin.
Today, we are faced with not one, but several crises of different durations and urgency. These will change our world of tomorrow. Do they lead business leaders to become risk-averse, or do they make them freeze like rabbits caught in the headlights of a passing car? Or do business leaders see them as emerging mega-trends that open up opportunities to think out of the box and enable them to achieve industry-leadership?
