When you are not ready for a change, but you had every opportunity to and didn't take it, who is to blame when the change comes?
Businesses that were not aware, or did not understand, or did not believe or had no plan, when they lose everything, who is at fault?
The leader who did not strategise well? The lead management that did not adapt? The supervisory that didn't commit or the operations that did not improve?
After so many small dips. The Nokias and the Kodaks and the Yahoos. After so many returns. The Apples and the Microsofts and the Fujifilms and the LEGOs.
With so much to learn from, why are we still unprepared?
Because of the massive denial that plagues not corporations, but people.
Cancer? Won't happen to me. I'm healthy. Recession? Nah, my industry is protected. Accidents? I'm careful. Murder? I'm a nice person. Who would want to hurt me?
My silat teachers remind me that we learn martial arts not because people are unpredictable, it's because they are.
There will always be danger. The art in the martial is in the ability to recognise that danger fast, decide fast and take action fast.
Any doubt or delay can lead to death.
So, how do we strategise for something we don't know about?
No. 1, we find out. We learn. We understand.
As varied as the human motion is, there are only so many movements the body can make. And all of these movements have root causes.
Understand those root causes and you don't have to deal with more variables than your brain can handle.
No. 2, we build doctrines for each possible situation. Right and left hooks, uppercuts and crosses, all require different footwork and positions to launch a response.
No. 3, we drill the most core and common responses through those doctrines until our decision making timing improves.
No. 4, when we encounter a situation we have no doctrine for, we recover creatively with what responses we DO have. Should we survive, we add on to those doctrines and repeat the process.
Our mistakes lie in NOT learning from our past. Not adopting and adapting our parents' and teachers' doctrines for current use.
Instead of validating, we discard totally what wisdom we could have inherited and commit preventable errors.
Malaysia changed after World War II. It changed after the Communist Threat. It changed after the Economic crises. It changed after 911. It changed after the Tsunami.
It will change after the virus.
Handwritten letters. Snail mail. Fax machines. Newspapers. All either gone or going soon.
Nothing is permanent except the stubbornness that kills us. Change that, and we will survive. We will revive, and we will soon thrive.
