Enterprising Dynamics

Technologies are not just fundamentally changing the way we live; they are also reshaping businesses’ work. New models of doing business are emerging at breakneck speed. Despite its growing importance, China is often viewed as a country unable to innovate. Yet, in customer-focused and efficiency-driven innovations, it has been doing business at such levels of novelty that Western companies should take it as a reference.

Companies of all sizes are taking on new and different entrepreneurial dynamics. With the rise of automation and robotics, many companies, large and small, are now departing from their traditional core business to become IT companies with business expertise. For instance, a translation company told us that it is now more of an IT integrator with a small set of translation activities. A multinational service company in the insurance industry

mentioned to us that it intends to become a data company, as if it stayed just a service provider it would gradually lose out to the market. Technological platforms have also enabled individuals and companies to speed up product development, target demand with laser precision and manage the financial side of business differently, amongst other improvements.

The speed of change quickens its pace through the declining end of the company lifecycle. Like the Red Queen in the novel Through the Looking Glass, businesses have to invest a great deal of resources just to stay in the same place. To stay ahead of the curve, they have little choice but to think ahead to identify new opportunities. By anticipating what could be coming, they can start thinking about what to do next. Being slicker today means getting to do new things quicker.