Entrepreneurs are being invited to get their businesses' fortunes told for the decade ahead.
Depending on the answers given to a 15-question survey, AM Azure Consulting will predict whether they’ll prosper or flounder in the coming decade by drawing on research conducted over the past 20 years.
The leadership consultancy analysed information gathered from surveys of talent management and succession planning practices conducted in 1989 and 1999. Respondents were asked what strategies they deployed to foster leadership continuity and improve business performance and 10 years later AM Azure Consulting discovered whether they’d subsequently prospered, performed moderately, struggled or gone out of business entirely.
Creative destruction
Business psychologist Andrew Munro, who coordinated the research programme, explains its principal findings:
“Organisations succeed and fail for a variety of reasons. The competitive reality of ‘creative destruction’ dictates that organisations which fail to respond to shifting customer expectations or adapt to new technologies will fall by the wayside.
Despite the array of prescriptions provided by the ‘success industry’ of consultancy firms, business schools and think-tanks, only two factors have emerged as key dynamics behind organisational success: strategic choice and superb execution
Business psychologist Andrew Munro
“And, despite the array of prescriptions provided by the ‘success industry’ of consultancy firms, business schools and think-tanks, only two factors have emerged as key dynamics behind organisational success: strategic choice and superb execution.
He adds: “Strategic choice is the knowledge to make difficult decisions in the face of complexity and uncertainty, so an organisation can reposition to compete successfully in the marketplace. Superb execution means marshalling resources to direct time and energy towards wherever they matter most, with the flexibility to alter course when things change.
“If achieving business success is tough, maintaining it is even tougher. Statistics on long-term organisational success suggests that only around 10% of companies will achieve sustained growth.
“AM Azure Consulting’s own research indicates that proactive succession planning and talent management are key to optimising the chances of survival and success. Enlightened succession management won’t compensate for a flawed business strategy. However, poor practice will undermine a solid business model.”
Munro says that anyone who spares the three minutes it takes to complete the predictive survey “won’t provide a definitive forecast of organisational destiny” but “what they will provide is the start of a debate about the opportunities and risks organisations face, and the role proactive succession management can play in defying the odds.”
