Change may come at different spurts, but it is ever present  in business and personal life. You can count on it. Yet, there are those who resist it and are uncomfortable with the uncertainty of change. Others welcome change as exciting challenges and great opportunities.

A fully-functional organization requires both perspectives to varying degrees. Those who protect against whimsical ideas and put efficiency into proven processes help an organization become more scalable and efficient. Meanwhile as markets change an organization needs those who are forward thinking and optimistic about a new future. These people can put together strategies that take advantage of the changing environments.

Today, I think the ability to adapt to change is more important than ever. The culture you nurture must be around flexibility and change regardless of how large or small the organization. If Dell, and even Microsoft, do not change their business strategies to somehow compliment the consumer adoption of tablets, they could become irrelevant. Many traditional market research companies still haven’t incorporated social media data into their solutions in a meaningful way. That will reshuffle the current hierarchy of that industry. These types of examples are abundant, including around music, movie, or news content industries.

At Alterian Social, we have an Innovation Team that looks at trends and potential opportunities for “disruption”. We want to be as opportunistic as possible within the changing environment. You as an individual, whether working for an established organization or as a budding entrepreneur, need to understand that today offers more opportunities than ever. The rapid pace of change in the current environment is a great equalizer against more established organizations.