A Source of Help

I’ve been reluctant to add to the cacophony surrounding COVID-19 and the implications for the world in the aftermath. However, I am conscious that as well as managing through the crisis, you are almost certainly thinking ahead to what the future may hold. With this in mind I would like to draw your attention to Bloor’s Mutable Business^TM framework, which you may find helpful in organising your thinking.

Some leaders of businesses that are effectively mothballed are using the time to consider fundamental re-designs to their business models. Others have been brutally confronted by the dependency we all have on technology and are either regretting or celebrating earlier investment decisions.

Every leader must have been struck by the impact on people – their employees, their customers, their suppliers, their investors, and of course their own families. Depending on how successful home-working proves to be, questions will arise regarding the need for office space and what that means for cities and business parks. Could this be the opportunity to start to “level up”? Will office buildings eventually be re-purposed into residences? Will local small service providers be set for a bonanza if they can only get through the next few months?

As we all know, these three key elements – people, business models, and technology, all need to be considered holistically if organisations are to compete successfully beyond the current crisis.

At Bloor Research, our analysts concluded some time ago that the rapid advance of technology, including AI, would fundamentally change the rules of competition. They determined that mutability – the capability to live in a permanent state of re-invention – would emerge as a core competence in the most sustainable and resilient businesses as well as the most effective of public sector or third sector organisations. The premise was that technology innovations would provoke the change and would need to be carefully selected and managed, but just doing that without paying close attention to business models and the leadership and management of people – including the external eco-system – could be disastrous. Of course, nobody really expected the truth of those conclusions to be so overwhelmingly confirmed and on such a huge scale by a single event.

Bloor is a navigation resource – an organisation that is forever scanning the horizon and attempting to make sense of it. In a nutshell, Bloor helps technology providers position themselves properly, and provides guidance to organisations and individuals on how to make better choices bearing in mind what’s coming.

The Mutable Business^TM Framework, which is free to access on the our website provides a map of the components we believe to be key – some of them are attributes and capabilities – others are simply things that we all need to keep an eye on. There’s also some interesting commentary. You may also be interested to learn that Bloor is itself a mutable business, so we have first-hand experience of how it works and how it feels.

You don’t have to agree with all of it, but if you’re looking for a useful, practical framework – a lens through which to view the future – I would encourage you to take a look at it, including the component levels.

If you would like to speak to any of the Bloor team about Mutable Business^TM or any of the other analysis published on the website, please send an e-mail to info@bloorresearch.com.