Peter Drucker said: "Every few hundred years throughout Western history, a sharp transformation has occurred. In a matter of a few decades, society altogether rearranges itself, its world's views, its social and political structure, its arts, its key institutions. Fifty years later a New World exists. And the people born into that world cannot even imagine the world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born."



Unfortunately, for most people who live in a hierarchy, the speed of learning tends to be limited by those at the top. If they were a smart Henry Ford or Thomas Watson Jr., the organisation could learn faster than their world changed. If they were not that smart they might get an initial foothold but eventually competition and change would weed them out. We cannot learn faster than the world changes. Many outcomes/outputs especially for business organisations depended on a much wider range of knowledge, skills, values, technologies and competencies. This forces us to learn and grasp a broader range at a faster speed. Why should Bill Clinton be so concerned over a cloned sheep? Why should a commission be set up to investigate cloning? Only because they were surprised by news, for what was assumed to be possible only in science fiction, and by the fact that no one in the government has the faintest clue on the likely consequences. Today change is nonlinear and not first order.

Otto von Bismarck, the German statesman (1815-1898) said: "Fools say they learn from experience. I prefer to learn from others' experience." Therefore, you too can profit from your competitors' success and failure. The incandescent light bulb first emerged some thirty years before Thomas Edison found the right filament. Henry Ford's revolutionary assembly line came emulated Singers sewing machine and Campbell Soup meatpacking.

David Kearns former Chairman of Xerox in 1989 said: "We realize that we are in a race without a finish line. As we improve, so does our competition." But having done that, one has to quickly outpace your competitors in learning. Successful organisations are not only more profitable than their competitors but also grow faster than they are. Many companies who are unable to learn faster than the competition degenerated from fast track to derailment as their competitors overtook them.

It is insufficient for a company to be merely a learning organisation, particularly, if it is learning the wrong things. During the pioneering days in China, some foreign investors resorted to cheating the tax authorities on import duties and declarations because everybody was doing it. It was easier for the local small operators to close down their operations and disappear into oblivion to evade the authorities. It is equally easier for them to sprout somewhere else in China. However in the case of the foreign investors, they could not just disappear overnight as they had bigger investments and landed up paying the hefty fines for their misdeeds. These foreign investors learned the wrong things from their small local counterparts.

At times too, the company needs to unlearn some of its earlier erroneous philosophy and lessons. In this fast changing world, the key question to survival is how fast this company can unlearn and relearn the new models and policies that can ensure its survival. Therefore it is also important to unlearn faster than your competitors.

Unfortunately, companies fall into the trap of learning the fads of management of downsizing and re-engineering. The vicious cycle continues with staff downsizing resulted in a skeleton force too weak to do anything then to further re-engineering of the processes which results in the remaining staff being frustrated and leaving eventually.

These fads are much like your photos during your own teenage days and when you reminisce, you wonder how in the world you ever got involved with that Company CEOs need to understand the basics in running businesses remain unchanged - handed down from our father, grandfathers and forefathers. CEOs should by all means learn from the various new management theories but not to be mesmerised by them or to blindly apply them.

Therefore, you need to learn faster than your competitors. Also ensure you stop unlearn the wrong things and stop doing them.