g-f(2)15 10 Knowledge Lessons Learned from MIT's Fabulous SMR Knowledge Container, Fall 2020

Extra-condensed knowledge

• Central lesson learned. It is the moment to reboot your strategy. The New Normal is rife with opportunity: The time to reinvent yourself, to take advantage of your moment. 
• An example of the lessons learned in Risks. 
• ALARM. It is important to understand not only the reach of an innovative idea but also the risks that lie in its path to realization.
• PROPOSAL. Pursuing a disruptive innovation means taking on risk that the effort may fail. Innovators must ask five critical questions to anticipate the trajectory and impact of a disruptive value proposition.

Genioux knowledge fact condensed as an image.

Condensed knowledge

1. Central lesson learned. It is the moment to reboot your strategy. The New Normal is rife with opportunity: The time to reinvent yourself, to take advantage of your moment. 
• The unfreezing — the result of COVID-19 having swept away a status quo that inhibited change — is a chance for leaders to significantly transform their organizations and society.
• Cocreating the future with your organization may prove to be the crucible of your leadership journey. It will take imagination, persistence, and moral courage. Use your time wisely. Rethink what’s possible.
• Knowledge makes for a more productive and resilient economy, and leads to the kind of agility and problem-solving ability that is especially needed in the face of sudden unanticipated shocks.
2. Fundamental trends in The Big Picture of the Digital Age. 
• Strategy. 
• Leadership. 
• Disruption. 
• Risks.
• Uncertainty. 
• Cybersecurity. 
• Knowledge Economy.
• Organizational Culture.
• Innovation. 
• Change Management.
• Platforms and Ecosystems.
• Marketing.
• Resilience.
• AI.
• Agile.
3. An example of the lessons learned in Strategy. 
• ALARM. Companies can no longer rely on traditional forecasting exercises to spot — and capitalize on — emerging threats and opportunities.
• PROPOSAL. We have developed a framework that goes beyond traditional forecasting and risk-assessment exercises. It consists of four sets of activities: 
1. First, develop a comprehensive set of processes to actively sense new insights (whether internal or external) that could affect the business, and hence identify threats or opportunities as early as possible. 
2. Second, organize in response to those threats or opportunities; this is likely to involve reallocating resources, revamping processes, filling capability gaps, and aligning the company’s structure and governance. 
3. Third, capture value by revising business models and restructuring relationships with other players in various ecosystems. 
4. And fourth, renew the organizational capabilities needed to create and capture value by continuing to monitor and assess results and making small adjustments over time — while also preparing for the major disruptions that require a more comprehensive overhaul.
4. An example of the lessons learned in Leadership. 
• ALARM. This is a period in which you will discover how resilient your organization is and whether you have what it takes to rise to the challenge of agile leadership.
• PROPOSAL. Reboot Leadership: The "Agile Boss" to Lead Through Radical Uncertainty. 
5. An example of the lessons learned in Disruption. 
• ALARM. There is significant uncertainty regarding the rate of progress within a new disruptive value proposition.
• PROPOSAL. In our ongoing research, we have found three key sources of uncertainty — around technology, ecosystems, and business models — that are pivotal to understanding the process of disruption. Three key sources of uncertainty surrounding the question of whether the disruptive value proposition will reach fruition in a given market.
6. An example of the lessons learned in Risks. 
• ALARM. It is important to understand not only the reach of an innovative idea but also the risks that lie in its path to realization.
• PROPOSAL. Pursuing a disruptive innovation means taking on risk that the effort may fail. Innovators must ask five critical questions to anticipate the trajectory and impact of a disruptive value proposition.
7. An example of the lessons learned in Knowledge Economy.
• ALARM. The pandemic is a classic unanticipated supply shock. 
• PROPOSAL. Knowledge makes for a more productive and resilient economy, and leads to the kind of agility and problem-solving ability that is especially needed in the face of sudden unanticipated shocks. 
8. An example of the lessons learned in Organizational Culture. 
• ALARM. The coronavirus pandemic’s office exodus risks diminishing company culture unless leaders take action to support it.
• PROPOSAL. Managers and leaders to sustain the organization’s culture in remote work. Managers and leaders with a firm sense of what their organizational culture is — a common tool kit that enables their employees to act, and the beliefs and commitments brought forward by acting in certain ways — can help their employees navigate the current environment in a way that is authentic to the organization’s history yet flexible to the realities we all face.
9. An example of the lessons learned in Innovation. 
• ALARM. We currently exist within a world that is unfrozen from the constraints of routine, habits, and norms. This unfreezing process has brought with it the possibility for radical change.
• PROPOSAL. We are living in a moment rich with opportunities to fundamentally improve how we live, how we relate to society, how we interact with government, and how we do business. 
• Four Top Areas Ripe for Change 
1. Our public health system. Currently, hospitals in the U.S. are revenue-oriented businesses (even when they are tax-exempt nonprofits).
2. Our educational system. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how intertwined economic activity is to educational structures: People cannot go back to work until their kids go back to school.
3. Our supply chains. The lack of access to personal protective equipment and pharmaceuticals has made it abundantly clear how globally distributed our supply chains are — and that we lack control in those operational networks.
4. Our environmental system. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a glimpse into a possible future — one that showcases blue skies clear from smog and the reappearance of wildlife in their (restored) natural habitats.
10. An example of the lessons learned in Resilience. 
• ALARM. Resilience requires a long-term, dogged commitment by the executive team to cultivate an innovative organizational culture and a mature set of dynamic organizational capabilities.
• PROPOSAL. We have developed a framework that goes beyond traditional forecasting and risk-assessment exercises. This approach is based on the principle of dynamic capabilities, which holds that companies need to continually adapt their resources to respond to rapidly changing and unpredictable environments.
• A Framework for Strategic Resilience 
1. Sense. Management teams can’t respond to a problem if they haven’t figured out that it exists — nor can they capitalize on new opportunities they have yet to recognize. Although most organizations have some sensing activities in place, they often lack a systematic approach to gathering and sharing critical information.  
2. Organize. Leaders also need to build flexible structures and processes that enable the organization to innovate and embrace change. A key aspect of organizing is filling capability gaps that arise when a company enters a new market or revamps its business model. 
3. Capture. Capturing value requires leaders to execute strategic priorities by orchestrating their company’s tangible and intangible assets — such as capital, strategic partnerships, and intellectual property — as well as making changes to business models as required.
4. Renew. Sensing activities will inevitably call the wider status quo into question and will sometimes even require that companies overhaul their entire identity.

Category 2: The Big Picture of The Digital Age

[genioux fact extracted from MIT SMR]

Authors of the genioux fact

Fernando Machuca

References

Reboot your strategy, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2020, Vol 62, No 1. 

Seize the Moment, Elizabeth Heichler, September 08, 2020, MIT Sloan Management Review, Fall 2020, Vol 62, No 1.

• Elizabeth Heichler (@eheichler) is the executive editor at MIT Sloan Management Review.