This is now the third iteration of the original article that I wrote back in 2006 when I first started this site. In essence it attempts to define and redefine the same problem spread across 3 decades.
I have been deeply impressed by Thriving on Chaos by Tom Peters during my college years and all through the 2000s I saw teams and businesses struggle to manage Chaos.
Then came the 2010s ushering in the mobile app era and in the second iteration of the article I wrote that 68% of all IT projects fail, 47% of CRM projects fail and 74% all ERP projects fail citing various studies and publications. Report after report stated similar findings, yet there was no uproar, no “system failure” or suspension of business as usual.
The 2010s produced the longest bull market run since 1850s and the S&P 500 rose 370% during the same time. While there where some notable failures (See failures of 2010s) the market on the whole thrived despite the “Chaos”.
Nonetheless, towards the end of the decade it started to seem that we may have at least begin to understand Chaos and operate around it – if not manage it.
Then came COVID in December of 2019 and Chaos took a whole new meaning in 2020 – what a way to start the decade.
Previously I also wrote how everything becomes obsolete in 3yrs and that this time is not sufficient to deal with market forces. A business would have to operate at heightened levels of efficiency to achieve from acquisition of technology to deployment and generating enough ROI to rinse and repeat within 3 years.
COVID-19 cut those times to days. If you could not respond within days to Chaos you would be non-existent as a team, company and sadly in some cases as a community.
Previously, I had asked the reader to step through the looking-glass and experience a whole new world and yet here we were sucked into a world that demanded we experience Chaos whether we liked it or not.
Businesses and teams who were positioned to adapt by chance or by plan – managed and survived, and those who thought they had more time vanished or suffered at the hands of the Agents of Chaos.
The virus was one of the agents that threatened people’s well being but by far not the only one. Changing consumer behavior, massive government funding, supply chain breakdown, cyber security, mass unemployment followed by the great resignation and that dreaded word – INFLATION all become agents of Chaos in their own right running amuck in the Kingdom of Chaos.
Changing labor dynamics was one of the most intriguing Agents of Chaos for me. We went from unemployment to the “Great Resignation” and rising wages in a span of 8 months.
I had claimed previously that the difference is the application of knowledge. The difference is in foresight. The difference is in the experience and that statement now almost looks comical in hindsight of COVID.
Yet many companies did exactly that, we all benefited from a few of them – like the ones that created the Vaccine. They had the knowledge and applied it on the basis of the foresight that their research provided them.
The last time a coronavirus broke out we experienced the roaring 20s followed by a great depression and world war two.
Having experienced Chaos of unprecedented proportions in 2020 and 2021 have we developed foresight to prepare for the next wave of disruptions by an unknown agent of Chaos?
The point is to answer the question, how can we use the technology we already have to build robust platforms that would help us to survive thrive in the Kingdom of Chaos.
Please do not call me for a job interview, but if you want to meet with me to discuss how to turn your technology in to a niche and explore the opportunity of exponential growth. I would be honored.
Over the past 20 years I have learnt that no two problems are alike, and there is no such thing as an insolvable problem.
Feel free to contact me and Convert IT Project Failure and CHAOS to Business Niche and Profitability
