Written by: Jermaine Edwards, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
On March 1st, 2020 the world was hit with a global pandemic that literally transformed the way every business viewed themselves, their markets and their own position within them.
Every business was immediately forced to adapt.
They adapted to become new kinds of businesses, take on new capabilities, create new ideas, initiate new collaborations and ultimately develop a whole new way of thinking.
If you were to take “Adaptation Theory” into the current world you can see the three basic types of adaptations happening.
Structural adaptation = change in the business model
Physiological adaptation = new skill acquisition
Behavioural adaptation = new thinking and systems
Every person and every organisation is seeking to make one or all of these adaptations.
I’ve seen literally hundreds of ways organisations across multiple industries work out ways to adapt.
The world we’re in today is no longer about whether you can change or how fast the change is happening.
It’s now about how quickly or easily you can change. That is what creates the advantage.
I call these advantages “Hyper Adaptation”.
What is Hyper Adaptation?
I first came across the term Hyper Adaptation at a technology conference.
It was used to describe the rate in which consumers take on new technology and assimilate this into their world. Examples like the rapid rise of voice technology, cryptocurrency and AI show just how rapidly this can happen.
In a literal sense, Hyper Adaptation can be broken down into two parts:
HYPER: Having an increased state of activity
ADAPTATION: The process of becoming better suited for surviving and thriving in an environment
Creating superior advantage through new adaptation.
The challenge is...
Not all adaptation brings superior advantage
We see this in the example of the virtualisation of businesses today.
Case study:
Almost every B2B business took on ‘Virtual or enhanced virtual delivery’ as a new adaptation.
They gained a small advantage in being able to protect against significant drops in revenue and relationship equity with their customers or potential customers.
The challenge was...
6 to 12 months later this was no longer a competitive advantage. Most of their competitors have the same tools, developed similar skill sets and were telling the exact same story “We can now deliver to you virtually”.
For your business, and particularly the view of who you’ll become to your customers, you must look at the actions and decisions you make more carefully.
It means we have to think differently about how we adapt. Shift in perspective before shift in activity.
How to take advantage of this?
Remember speed of change isn’t the problem. It’s how easily you can change and what advantage you can create.
Action:
List the current or future challenges you see in your business.
Below are examples of challenges we’ve been working with our customers on.
We don't have robust enough financial systems to get cash in faster to the business.
Getting our customers onboarded quickly with new thinking and not getting stuck.
Poor internal and global customer collaboration.
Loss of customer revenue and profitability.
Rising costs and a heavily regulated market.
Once you have your problems. What do you do with them?
Here is the process?
Harmonize
Get clear on the most critical problem, goal you want to achieve and then decide on the avantage you want to create from it.
Analyze
Get clear on what your current capabilities, assets and resources are. What’s missing? what’s undervalued, underleveraged?
Systemise
Design a way to access and execute on the ideas, resource, assets and capabilities you have. To solve the problem, achieve the goal and create superior advantage.
Example of hyper adaptation
Pernod Ricard
Harmonize (problem)
In the recent pandemic, it was surprising to see on the news an alcoholic drinks company at the forefront leading the charge in hand sanitiser sales.
Analyze (advantage)
The $34 billion French drinks group saw the opportunity in their supply chain and chemicals work to help meet the world’s urgent need for the potentially life-saving product that was in scarce supply.
Systemise (execution)
Sourcing brand new ingredients including glycerin and hydrogen peroxide, which it doesn’t usually use, it used its dozens of distilleries located across the globe to produce industrial quantities of the hand gel.
Less than 24 hours later, the maker of Jameson Whiskey and Absolut Vodka had received all the government approvals it needed. By the end of the week, the first batch of its hand sanitisers was rolling off production lines in Fort Smith, Arkansas. None of its competitors were or are doing the same.
What Next?
What advantage do you want to create for your company and your customers?
Hyper Adaptation is a part of the “Growth Systems” you need in your organisation to be able to support continued growth and success with your customers.
Want to know more? Get in touch with us HERE.
Jermaine Edwards
Your Customer Growth Guide
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Jermaine Edwards, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Jermaine Edwards is a multi-business owner, author, speaker and founder of Customer Transformation and the Irreplaceable Advisory Group. Helping B2B organisations around the world become the kind of place their customers never want to leave through the power of Customer transformation thinking.
