Is your organization suffering from inertia?

We have studied companies that stand the test of time and have discovered they share some key qualities that allow them to succeed even in rapidly changing times. These companies display what we call strategic incumbency, which refers to their ability to dynamically convert the liabilities of age, size, and tradition into key advantages of market power, trusted relationships, and deep insights. This requires a fundamental shift from a passive to an active enactment of incumbency. In a previous Brain Circuit, we looked at how to identify if your organization has become too passive. If it has, you may want to check if you are facing the biggest barrier to strategic incumbency – Inertia.

In theory, organizations are characterized as adaptive systems that evolve in response to environmental changes, threats, and opportunities.…