Leaders have never been without challenges or we can say that continuously facing challenges make them leaders (In any case leadership is perception of other people around you about you). In 21st century leaders will meet the following competitive challenges:
Intellectual Capital: I have talked about the importance of innovation (Ever Changing USA Economy needs new ways to measure wealth) in 21st century at many occasions. In the knowledge based economy it is very important to guard the intellectual property of one nation through patents and copyright laws because knowledge has become competitive advantage for the companies working in new age industry like professional services, software and technology-driven companies. All the other aspects of competitive advantages can be copied from one company to another and there is little way for differentiating from others. To let new innovations happen, companies also need to cultivate a culture where they can attract, develop and retain the brightest mind of the world. (This is something happening in the software industry where most of the best minds are choosing to join Google rather than Microsoft or Yahoo and this is one of the reasons of rapid growth and delivery of numerous new products from Google)
Global Business Management: Though this not something new and I call this an evolving form of Global Business Management but sheer amount of complexity make it a topic of importance of the leaders of 21st century. These days, companies are operating in different geographies and employing people and serving customers from different cultural backgrounds. Companies are also manufacturing their products (or components) in different part of the world and taking advantages of cheapest available resources (capital, labour etc) in any part of the world. While doing tasks of the leaders have become more complex, they now need to understand and respond to the cultural, political and legal system of different part of the world at the same time. They are operating in global market but they need to respond to the local demands. One size doesn’t fit all anymore.
Profitability and growth: Profitability for the shareholders’ investment and at the same time growth is not easy task but these are the realities for the organizations when the control is going to the market forces from the state. Market is profit driven and to keep providing profits, organizations need to keep innovating and nurture the best minds and ideas. One of the ways of rapid growth is through inorganic growth by acquiring companies. Though this is easy to acquire a company (It is also becoming difficult because of antitrust legislations) but to integrate the two different cultures and work processes takes a long time and time of the leaders. If this can be performed successfully for a number of actuations then growth will surpass the expectations of the shareholders. Companies also need to acquire new customers and retain the old one as well. In competitive world innovative marketing is the key to retain and acquire the customers.
Technology: Technology is fast changing how the business is done. Now we are using internet extensively for many tasks (recruitment, procurement, sell, video conferencing, emails etc). New technological innovations also change very fast how businesses are performed in free market. By exploiting new technological breakthroughs companies can have competitive advantages.
Intellectual Capital: I have talked about the importance of innovation (Ever Changing USA Economy needs new ways to measure wealth) in 21st century at many occasions. In the knowledge based economy it is very important to guard the intellectual property of one nation through patents and copyright laws because knowledge has become competitive advantage for the companies working in new age industry like professional services, software and technology-driven companies. All the other aspects of competitive advantages can be copied from one company to another and there is little way for differentiating from others. To let new innovations happen, companies also need to cultivate a culture where they can attract, develop and retain the brightest mind of the world. (This is something happening in the software industry where most of the best minds are choosing to join Google rather than Microsoft or Yahoo and this is one of the reasons of rapid growth and delivery of numerous new products from Google)
Global Business Management: Though this not something new and I call this an evolving form of Global Business Management but sheer amount of complexity make it a topic of importance of the leaders of 21st century. These days, companies are operating in different geographies and employing people and serving customers from different cultural backgrounds. Companies are also manufacturing their products (or components) in different part of the world and taking advantages of cheapest available resources (capital, labour etc) in any part of the world. While doing tasks of the leaders have become more complex, they now need to understand and respond to the cultural, political and legal system of different part of the world at the same time. They are operating in global market but they need to respond to the local demands. One size doesn’t fit all anymore.
Profitability and growth: Profitability for the shareholders’ investment and at the same time growth is not easy task but these are the realities for the organizations when the control is going to the market forces from the state. Market is profit driven and to keep providing profits, organizations need to keep innovating and nurture the best minds and ideas. One of the ways of rapid growth is through inorganic growth by acquiring companies. Though this is easy to acquire a company (It is also becoming difficult because of antitrust legislations) but to integrate the two different cultures and work processes takes a long time and time of the leaders. If this can be performed successfully for a number of actuations then growth will surpass the expectations of the shareholders. Companies also need to acquire new customers and retain the old one as well. In competitive world innovative marketing is the key to retain and acquire the customers.
Technology: Technology is fast changing how the business is done. Now we are using internet extensively for many tasks (recruitment, procurement, sell, video conferencing, emails etc). New technological innovations also change very fast how businesses are performed in free market. By exploiting new technological breakthroughs companies can have competitive advantages.
I believe if the leaders can champion in these four areas they can keep themselves ahead of the market.
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