In the last CEO letter, I mentioned how we are at war with COVID-19 on an unprecedented scale. And it only makes sense to think about what great military leaders would have done in such dire situations.
Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington, forever shaped the course of history when he decisively defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815. How could the Duke pull off such an extraordinary feat when facing him was one of, if not the greatest military mastermind ever?
Surely, there are many contributing factors to the final outcome of this historic battle, not least mistakes made by Napoleon himself. But there is one important detail that you may not have heard: the Duke had surveyed and chosen Waterloo one year before the battle took place.
He did not wait and react to Napoleon’s actions. Instead, he had already decided where and how he would fight his ultimate battle long before he knew when. He took initiatives and fought on his own terms in the face of extreme adversity.
What the Duke of Wellington demonstrated are qualities that sometimes are sorely missed amongst business leaders these days – proactivity, forward-thinking vision, calmness under fire, VUCA mindset and a disaster recovery plan.
As a rule of thumb, you don’t wait until the Grande Armée starts marching to draw up your battle plan. Likewise, you don’t wait until a crisis hits to get your business prepared, by then it’s already too late.
Business leaders like to think of themselves as change agents, advocates of innovation and fresh ideas. In this day and age, no organisation would like to be branded a laggard. Yet, the reality is a lot more nuanced.
Oftentimes, when it comes to adopting new technologies or business practices, many companies tend to wait and see, hoping they can get all the questions answered before jumping on the bandwagon. Not us you may say! … So, how long did your organisation cling to Windows 95?
Complacency, lack of long-term vision, or fear of disruptions all contribute to this reactive approach. This, in turn, leads to confusion and inaction and potential disaster during a crisis.
Take cloud computing for example. Even though the concept of cloud-first was first introduced 10 years ago by the US federal government, many enterprises are still reluctant to let go of their on-premise IT systems.
Whilst there have been legitimate reasons preventing senior management from whole-heartedly embracing cloud - investments in hardware equipment and software licenses not fully amortised, cyber security concerns, legacy processes – clinging on to outdated technology in today’s fast-paced world shows a dangerously reactive and defensive mindset.
Those who missed the first wave of cloud adoption must act quickly and decisively or risk missing the second wave - cloud-only adoption strategy – where enterprises are required to apply cloud computing to all systems and services.
The urge of cloud-only is further magnified during the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic would have been even more devastating to businesses had investment in cloud not been made. Without cloud-enabled applications that allow employees to work remotely anywhere, and from any device, and transition to working from home would be impossible and many companies would simply have to cease their operations altogether.
And just like the Duke of Wellington had picked the location of this battle one year in advance, such cloud investment must have been made years prior to the crisis.
While few people could have predicted this once-in-a-century crisis – after all, it is not called a Black Swan event for no reason – organisations that took initiatives to make cloud computing their business-as-usual are also those capable of responding effectively to the business-as-unusual post-pandemic environment.
Gartner predicts that the surging cloud-only strategy will drive public cloud spending to $331.2 billion in 2022. Out of this number, SaaS (software-as-a-service) spending will have the biggest share of $143.7 billion, followed by IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service) spending of $76.6 billion.
The future is hardly ever certain. And as always, the best course of action is to stay proactive, choose your battle wisely, embrace the VUCA mindset and fight on your own terms.
Many of you already utilise TRG's fully managed cloud services which enable you to operate from anywhere. To learn more about these cloud services and our digital advisory services, please visit our website or contact your local account team.
Stay safe, Stay healthy, #StayAtHome.
Cheers,
