23. Oktober 13

Are you fit for the transient advantage?

Are you fit for the transient advantage?
Some weeks ago Katrin Glatzel posted a blog about disruptive innovation and disruptive change. We can see this happen everywhere right now. The fallen giants Nokia, Kodak or Blackberry are sad examples for that kind of change they just didn’t manage.

But what does this mean for all of us personally?

Rita McGrath published a book this summer about the end of competitive advantage and shapes a picture of transient advantage instead. One example for being fit for the transient advantage is the Indian company Infosys. As Sanjy Purohit, head of planning at Infosys states: „The cost of reorganizing the company is nothing compared to the growth potential it unleashes. We work out what our new axis of growth will be, then reorganize the company to deliver these axes.“ This is being prepared for the transient advantage as an organization. And for the personal success?

At the end of the book Rita McGrath comes to the conclusion that the old rules of personal success have changed. Instead of having a stable career path it’s now having several gigs where you have to perform. And instead of infrequent job hunting you have to campaign permanently for your career. That means the careers are no longer managed by the companies but by the individuals themselves.

This is a huge challenge and you can check if you are fit for the transient advantage by answering the following questions I like to quote from Rita McGrath’s book:

“If my current employer let me go, it would be relatively easy to find a similar role in another organization for equivalent compensation.”
“I‘ve learned a meaningful new skill that I didn‘t have before in the last two years, whether itis work related or not.”
“I have enough resources (savings or other) that I could take the time to retrain, work for a small salary, or volunteer in order to get access to a new opportunity.”
“I actively engage with at least two professional or personal networks.”

Just try, and see where the answers will get you!