Financial Management

14Adaptability: Innovation, Agility, and Resilience

In my 45-year career in business and finance, I cannot remember a period with greater uncertainty or with a higher pace of change. As I draft this chapter in mid-2023, we face a very uncertain future. The uncertainty includes geo-political events and tensions, inflation, interest rates, regulation, energy, monetary policies, taxation, and pandemics, to name a few. The world is changing at a rapid pace. Much of this is driven by rapid developments in technology, enabling unprecedented computing power in our phones, work from home, a global economy, analytics, streaming, and most recently, artificial intelligence (AI).

Many companies, and specifically finance organizations, continue to operate with tools, processes, and a mindset that is not responsive to the new reality. While scenario management is a terrific step forward, future success and even survival ultimately requires an ability to adapt to a rapidly changing and unpredictable environment. Financial leadership can encourage and build adaptability into their organizations and the overall enterprise. Key requirements to quickly respond to changes include the ability to innovate, agility, and resiliency.

INNOVATION

Innovation has been hailed as a magic source of value. In fact, it has been the basis for value creation in a number of enterprises over the last 30 years. It is also a requirement for navigating during periods of rapid change and uncertainty. As an intangible, ...