How can we successfully manage the realities of today while making room for tomorrow?

Failing with one of these choices will make most businesses vanish sooner or later.

The wheels are spinning faster and faster. Companies are dying quicker than ever, and less than X% of the companies on the fortune 500 list are older than Y years. 

You are aware of these challenges and difficulties. You know how to provide value to your customers. Still, it is not easy to create sustainable business over time and there is not much hands-on practical information on how to future proof your business. We aim to provide just that information.

And ... you learn more about future proofing your business, we hope you will share these lessons with us and others on this site, so that we all can learn together. 

We think that you, the person reading this, is a leader who is ready and good at making things happen. It can also be that your are and advisor to the same leaders. Regardless, you are serious about what you do and want to build an organisation that survives medium and longer term. You realise this requires action now. 

• det där sista var lite hårt, vi kanske skall hålla en lite snällare ton Per-Magnus Skoogh (Unlicensed) Jakob Rönnerfors (Unlicensed) Mats Janemalm

• Per-Magnus Skoogh (Unlicensed) tänker att ovan är något åt hållet av vårt mission statement (en början på den), föreslår att nedan är en annan sida (en artikel) Jakob Rönnerfors (Unlicensed) Mats Janemalm
• Mats Janemalm brukar slänga in taskar och namn så här för att annonsera kommentarer i en text. Brukar funka ganska bra som notifiering och komihåg. Jakob Rönnerfors (Unlicensed) Mats Janemalm

Why is future proofing so important right now?

Alright, so future proofing, innovation or entrepreneurship are words that keep popping up in your organisation and your head. And with the board of directors, perhaps. But why, and why now? What is happening in the world that is making these areas more important than just ten years ago? 

To dig a little deeper we use the three time Horizons defined in the publication "The Alchemy of Growth" written by Mehrdad Baghai et al. In their formulation, Horizon 1 corresponds to managing the current business with all its short-term concerns, Horizon 2 to develop the next generation of opportunities, and Horizon 3 to look ahead for new businesses that will sustain the firm far into the future.

We do not suggest you should investigate and choose a specific Horizon to work on. Many organisations not even investigate, for example they just define a percentage of their work effort for innovation or form a special organisation for innovation or maintenance. The demands of the market is simple changing too fast for you to be able to select a Horizon and adjust your organisation accordingly.

Our suggestion is that you build an organisation with the ability to, based on demand, switch focus on what currently is most important for your business. The organisation should be built from a holistic market view giving coworkers a possibility to grasp the whole picture of the business value delivered. 

All of the above is true not only for entire companies but also parts of companies. With an increased need for speed large, organisations just have to decentralize control and also profit and loss responsibility. This means Future Proofing your business is of equal importance weather you are a CEO or a manager of a department.