Planning for, and embracing, disruption
When you see the word “entrepreneurship,” you probably think of a small business — such as an offbeat boutique, a whip-smart consultancy, or a hotshot tech start- up with midnight pizza boxes scattered around the floor.
When Jim Dewald thinks about entrepreneurship, he sees a bigger picture: saving the Canadian economy. And possibly your job.
Whether or not you own your own business, it’s important to note. The dean of the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business has scoured the latest research to conclude that your future prosperity depends on thinking entrepreneurially, not corporately.
In his new book, Achieving Longevity: How Great Firms Prosper t hrough Entrepreneurial Thinking, Dewald says that if you want your job or your business to last, “The seeds of longevity are found in entrepreneurial thinking and innovation — in exploring ways to adapt corporate and business strategies in response to market, technological, and social and cultural change.”
Dewald’s conclusion may sound obvious, but it runs counter to what most businesses do every day. Companies form to institutionalize routines: customers expect predictable product quality, dependable service and a consistent experience every time they encounter a firm. Even a start- up, in the words of Silicon Valley guru Steve Blank, is an organization in search of a replicable and scalable business model.
Entrepreneurial thinking, then, refers to how you incorporate innovation into your business, to ensure your business model remains relevant and successful. But Dewald’s research indicates that’s not what most businesses do. From the smallest corner store to the biggest multinationals, he reports, businesses tend to assume their market landscape will remain basically stable — and then tinker around the edges.
Most businesses in pursuit of growth today, says Dewald, do so by following the principle of strategic competitive advantage: finding a unique edge in their marketplace, and then marketing the hell out of that while pursuing a dual agenda of risk avoidance and cost- reduction. And why not? Although many people today swear we are living in fast- changing times, Dewald insists most markets have been stable for decades. A full chapter of his book is devoted to demolishing the myth that we live in an era of disruption; he says someone born in 1870 saw more profound changes in their lifestyle by age 50 — electricity, automobiles, airplanes, motion pictures — than will anyone born in 1970. To demonstrate his point, he adds, “My alarm clock is the same one I had in Grade 11.”
As a result, he says, most business leaders don’t really know how to adapt to significant change, which may be right around the corner. Although he points out we’ve been driving the same cars on the same roads at the same speed for half a century, Dewald believes we’re now on the verge of real change. Battalions of new technologies are just starting to hit the market, including biotech, robotics, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence and machine learning (which will finally enable driverless cars).
In other words, says Dewald, companies that drifted through the past two decades honing minuscule competitive advantages are in for a rough ride unless they become more curious, agile and risk-tolerant. To do that, he says they will have to overcome their own institutional barriers, such as “rigid strategic plans, risk- averse decision- making processes, rules that restrict behaviours, and a low tolerance for failure both within the firm and within society.”
Dewald offers a three-step process for making your business future-ready. Establish an entrepreneurial culture. You have to be more accommodating, flexible and risk-tolerant. Be more purposeful about seeking and identifying opportunities. He applauds Google and before that, 3M, for giving employees time to work on new projects. Employ bricolage.
OK, so I had to ask Dewald what that l ast one means. Academics have adopted “bri c ol age” (a French loan word for “tinkering”) to describe entrepreneurs’ ability to overcome limitations of money, resources or talent. As an example, Dewald cites Netflix founder Reed Hastings, who always had a vision for selling videos over the Internet. When he started the company, however, that technology didn’t exist, so Hastings built the business — and his customer list — by distributing DVDs through the mail. ( If it helps, Dewald says, think MacGyver.)
But if you ask Dewald whether Canadian businesses in general are showing any talent for evolving into confident entrepreneurial organizations, his message is less upbeat. “I see a lot of laggards,” he says. “I’m a little discouraged.” As a former executive and entrepreneur in Calgary- based construction and real-estate companies, his particular focus is on the Alberta energy cluster. So far, he says, “It’s hard for them to get out of their box.”
The good news is that Dewald’s journey is just beginning. A latecomer to academia (he got his PhD at age 49), he is now heading the charge at Haskayne to turn out more entrepreneurial PhDs. The hope is that many will go into established companies and lead their innovation initiatives. And he’s now hiring a research team to track down actual examples of successful corporate entrepreneurship. Because an entrepreneur’s bricolage is never done.