Even prior to the pandemic, we were seeing a story unfold before our eyes in the business world; one that had happened before, but not in our lifetime. When technologies converge, industries transform, and work is remade.
Since the 18th century, at least three industrial revolutions have occurred. Organisations evolved—or closed. Predictability became king. Scale mattered. For the innovators, productivity soared.
The fundamental challenge now is that even the most successful companies today are designed to operate by the old rules of management thinking that emerged during the First Industrial Revolution, approximately 250 years ago. They are mechanistic. They solve for uniformity, bureaucracy, and control. Ask executives about organisation, and most reach reflexively for a hierarchical chart. We see four macro trends unwinding…
