Corporations and the military share a number of features. Both incline to reasonably precisely organized with express procedures and qualifications needed for advancement. Both tend to employ massive numbers of folk, which requires significant administration. Most importantly, corporations and the military both have abasic need for a preparedness to effect change. What’s interesting is that, although companies exist freeof lots of the constraints of the military and employ fewer people, they exhibit less preparedness than the military when it comes time to implement change.
In theory, both organizational structures should be in the practice of forecasting changes. The military should be expecting changes in terms of potential attacks, replies to attacks, and protocols for working with new threats. Corporations should be expecting potential changes in areas which affect them directly, for example oil prices or new laws.
What is engaging is that the military, for all the flack it takes for over the top bureaucracy, has a tendency to practice preparedness to a bigger degree. It is standard practice for the military to run exercises which mimic a variety of circumstances, ranging from best to worst case scenarios. Corporations, on the other hand, have a tendency to eschew the practicalities of how to implement change till such changes are thrust on them. This could reveal why examples where companies are forced to implement change create so much internal culture shock.
History has shown that the unprepared regularly suffer for their absence of preparedness. The argument can be made that this lack stems in part from the inclination to fixate on the present moment Problems of managing a company. However, such a fixation on running the business necessarily ends in a detriment of preparedness and a reduced ability to execute change. In a world where change is happening ever faster and more frequently, the facility to implement change effectively is going to establish which corporations flourish and which will fail.
For more information, please see our website: Implement Change