Remember when you could plan your way to success? When a detailed five-year strategy and enough market research could give you confidence about the future? Those days are over.
We've been running our organizations like clocks—complicated machines where every gear follows a predictable path. But today's world works like a cloud. Small shifts in one corner create ripples everywhere.
When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in March 2023, it had a solid plan: invest in long-term bonds, maintain liquidity ratios, follow regulations. But the Fed raised rates faster than predicted, startups withdrew deposits, and a social media-fueled bank run spread in hours. The plan didn't account for that.
When ChatGPT launched in late 2022, Google had been planning its AI strategy for years. Then ChatGPT hit 100 million users in two months. Every company's AI strategy became obsolete overnight. The ones that adapted within weeks won. The ones waiting for quarterly planning cycles are still catching up.