Sustainable growth is no longer an option; it is a critical component of any business that hopes to realize its mid-term and long term objectives. Sustainable growth will ensure that a company continues to produce more, without exhausting its finite resources.
There are several key factors that will ensure that technology is used effectively to promote sustainable growth while still ensuring that the organization meets its targets in terms of profitability. Here are some of those things:
Defining Purpose
To ensure that technology use within an organization is sustainable, the association must first define its purpose. Not only is this important for sustainability, but it will ensure that operations within the organization run smoothly and the company realizes its full potential.
The 4Cs of sustainable growth is one of the formulas that have been advanced by management experts. The 4Cs are: clear purpose, cooperate engagement, collaborative co-creation, and clear communication. The first of the 4Cs, i.e. clear purpose, lays the foundation for the business’ values and culture. It answers the question, how do we define sustainability.
In order to ensure the business runs with a clear purpose, the values must be communicated to employees, customers, suppliers and everyone who engages the company. Defining the purpose of the business is of no use, if the different stakeholders are unaware or uncommitted to it.
Develop the Right Strategy
Technology change is one of the routes that business leaders have always been reluctant to take. There are a number of different ways. Business should find a strategy that works best for them. The following are some of the different paths that businesses can implement new technology.
Incremental Adoption
Businesses can begin by making small changes. Cycles of technology adoption can be implemented over time. The benefit of incremental innovation adoption is that it can help to balance between risk and profitability. This strategy is particularly useful for organizations that have restless shareholders, who are not very willing to accept the risks that come with radical changes.
Another advantage of making small changes is that it allows the company to develop better features of the technology with the market demands, or other external forces in mind. If new government policies seem to be at loggerheads with the innovative path the organization is making, relatively small changes can be made to ensure compliance.
Radical Innovations
While incremental changes are less risky, radical innovations have the advantage of being ground breaking and unique. An organization that implements new changes boldly is likely to stand out. This is advantageous both for profitability and sustainability.
If the organization has radical innovation in green energy for example, this is likely to have a ripple effect. More customers will pay attention to these changes. The company will be in a better position to get customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to take part in the change.
Changes can also be adopted through a hybrid of strategies. Breakthrough innovation is somewhere between radical and incremental adoption. Each business should consider its own profile and determine which of the strategies would work best for them.
Management
Sometimes the problem is that the organization does not have the management capacity to implement changes in technology. Some technological solutions can be technical and may require extensive infrastructural changes. Most Information Technology solutions may be of this nature.
What can the organization do? For suitable technological changes to be implemented smoothly, research has shown that a CEO with leadership qualities needs to be steering the process. He must be an innovative thinker, who can come up with quick solutions and be able to work with people.
In order to ensure sustainability is upheld in the future, there will be times when businesses will have to adopt technologies very fast. This means that the organization should have leadership that is focused on innovation and not too much on the other aspects such as operations.
Bigger businesses can even be more focus. These organizations have the capacity to start a department that is focused on emerging technologies particularly those that are focused on improving the business sustainability. Such focus not only ensures that the changes are implemented effectively; they can anticipate problem areas and change them on time, so that there is no rush when the time comes.
Implementing technology for sustainability will require significant investments. But businesses must pay attention to mid-term and long-term gains. Using sound strategies that are reflected from the top to the bottom of the organization’s structure is guaranteed to ensure that investments will in the near future lead to sustainability and profitability.
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Nasrullah Patel is co-founder of mobile app development company, Peerbits. He devotes his time to inspiring young leaders to take a leap of faith. With more than 10 years of Web and App development experience, he now focuses on enterprise by offering mobility solutions about strategic planning and execution.