Without warning or planning, millions worldwide (those fortunate to keep their day jobs and paychecks) have been asked to maintain some semblance of “business as usual” in a world in complete upheaval. Newscasts are filled with shocking visuals of empty cities, schools, restaurants, airports, and stadiums, spiraling financial markets, and anxiety-elevating prognostications about a real-life, escalating pandemic beyond any horror movie script. The new daily lexicon has instantly mainstreamed phrases such as social distancing, asymptomatic persons, curve flattening, and community spread. “Disruption” does not even begin to describe the upheaval in recent days of a world facing the coronavirus pandemic.
What are some actions you can take every day in these surreal circumstances? Here are four…
Growth should be exciting, but, if not properly governed, can generate much apprehension, tension, and noticeable reluctance. The antidote to organizational inertia, unmet goals, and related career plateaus hides in plain view – business acumen. While most employees are adept at tasks and responsibilities, many often cannot articulate why their work is important. Enhancing business acumen about how the organization competes, performs, and utilizes key resources holds the key to maximizing employees’ talents and functional expertise. Knowing more about the business sparks curiosity, illuminates job relevance, builds a success culture, and can motivate commitment to previously unimaginable levels of achievement. For those who expand, hone, and renew business acumen, results follow and career trajectory soars.
High-impact entrepreneurs stand out on almost all aspects: they grow faster, create more jobs, contribute more to society and transform industries to a greater extent than their peers. This gives them outsized importance for the economy and society – and critical mass for policy makers to consider them as a special class. But what do they do that outshines the rest?
The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with EY, Endeavor and Purpose, analysed survey data from over 600 entrepreneurs in EY’ Entrepreneur of the Year program with the goal of better understanding how successful entrepreneurial companies accelerate access to new markets and become scalable, high-impact businesses. Our research shows that the founders of these firms marshal their forces along very different paths of growth. The report further highlights the differentiated strategies high-impact entrepreneurs take depending on their life cycle stage and the industry they are in.
