[14-07-19]
What defines a Challenger? A company that redraws the map!
We are currently experiencing a paradigm shift. We mean that we are moving more and more towards a “challenger society”. We might call it something else when we actually get there. But the move in that direction is obvious. Companies that are stuck in traditional structure styles will have a more difficult time when challenger companies, with their pace and ambition, take over area by area in our society.
“Challengers is what I call the companies that move and have made progress. They want to take part in changing the world, breaking boundaries and create something for the future.”
At the moment, I happen to be in the driver’s seat and have the benefit of encouraging, defining and see what is going on.
To work with a challenger company is to be chaotic, challenging, passionate and simultaneously incredibly exciting, economically rewarding and fantastically satisfying. And who doesn’t want to challenge and change the world?
What has taken us to this paradigm shift?
Let us focus on the more traditional type of companies in order to understand what is happening today. In one of my books “Do you have the attitude?” I use the expression performing organizations to describe the older type of organization. The CEO decides and you perform!
Perhaps performer organizations were suitable in yesterday’s world. But is that type of organization still relevant today? A quick answer to that question is no. Not if you want to change the world. Not if you want to make a difference.
Performer organizations work well in a world where our surroundings are more static. Today – when changes happen at a higher pace, everything happens quicker, consumers and employees are more disloyal than before – performer organizations face problems.
Today’s society is still characterized by performer organizations, which is not strange. That type of hierarchy and concentration of power goes way back. We have been working with hierarchical structures for centuries.
When the industrial revolution took place we went from small scale to large sale in terms of many things. Power was moved from old village communities to the new manufacturers and managers at the thriving factories. The core was still that one person, or a group of people, possess the knowledge and information. The ones in charge possessed the strategic information and made sure others executed the work.
One thing that has had an effect on this is that all types of operations are becoming more and more complex. Today, our brains are requested more, compared to during the industrial revolution when our muscles were requested. To only direct tasks doesn’t do it today.
At the same time, we have qualified information open to almost anyone online. With that flow of information and the access to knowledge, anytime and anywhere, are we all able to create our own interpretation of most things. We are more prepared than before. Anyone can do it and thus the collective knowledge is increased, and more and more people can take a larger responsibility due to their increased knowledge.
Another kind of leadership and employeeship is needed in order to be a Challenger.
Do you want to build a world class company, and do you dare to be a Challenger? Have I made you curious about what it is like to be a challenger company or how you can build a challenger culture? If so, I hope you will contact us. Read more on our website to see what it is all about.
PS A way to start thinking about how you and your company can change the world is to order and read my book “Challengers!“. Click here to order.
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Does the whole company need to change?
Maybe it is time for the whole company to change and start challenging status quo. We would love to help you become a Challenger.