As far as what to do as a business leader, Kunde recommends that history is our best teacher as far as problem-solving. He explains that challenges, although the situation itself may be unique – such as the pandemic – the outcomes and solutions are often cyclical. More specifically, if a leader is struggling to get their business back in gear, Kunde touched on the subject of management consultants and their role in situations like this. “You still need to continue to get your businesses moving,” he explained. “The management consultants who have stayed on top of what’s going on over the last several years because the companies didn’t will help them.”
There’s an old saying of “I can’t control the wind, but I can control my sails.” When tailoring this concept to situations in the business world, Kunde states that “The people who control their sails don’t need management consultants – they’re doing fine. The management consultants are out there rescuing those whose sails have collapsed, and they’re going to charge them a boatload of money to tow them to safe harbor.”
One hot-button topic that Kunde believes will be a high priority in the next few years is sustainability and how it can be built into business models. Another big topic revolves around diversity in thought and actions. “I also see a lot more conversation about diversity and inclusion” he states, “because people are realizing that the problems that our organizations are facing cannot be solved in the old ways that they were being solved. In order to solve them, we need to include a much more diverse group of innovators with cognitive and experiential diversity.”
With 2023 coming around the corner, Kunde is looking forward to a time of normalcy. “I think 2023 will be, sort of, people getting back to reality. People traveling a lot more, few people wearing masks – there’s a lot less fear. There’s some economic fear right now with inflation, but that’ll pass.”
