Bosses have to think about many different things than what most professionals have to worry about in their daily lives. The method to get things done matters as much as when and what gets done. It’s not just the task in front of us that matters: It’s all of the tasks that we know are at hand, and those three or more we don’t even know about yet.
Business leaders need to decide when to act, pivot, or make a bet. Is it time to be a visionary? Is it only worthwhile if you act on that vision? Or is this the time to be a steward and keep stability?
We’ve spent two seasons discussing the Infinite Enterprise on the Inflection Points podcast. And the person who originated the concept has an unequivocal opinion: it’s time now for action. Visions were last year. We’re in the doing phase now.
The Infinite Enterprise is Nabil Bukhari’s vision of what businesses and organizations need to become in the future. He’s a big boss at Extreme, as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Product Officer (CPO). Nabil outlines that businesses functioning as Infinite Enterprises need to do three things right now. First, they must realize that people are infinitely distributed. Second, they must understand that means enterprises are required to build at scale to reach them. And third, once you’ve reached them, enterprises must become customer-centric, focusing on the needs of the people to keep them engaged.
That’s a big vision. We spent this season talking to entrepreneurs who all have their own visions of the future. Some of whom made big changes in their business (Philip Reece, who sold an airline to buy a fleet of drones and robots), some of who have big visions for their business (Victor Riparbelli, who sees a world in which we will be able to create our own Hollywood blockbuster movies on our laptops), and some who are building companies to meet the exact business situation that Nabil is describing (Nisha Kesavan, whose company Design Duality is built around the exact three tenants of the Infinite Enterprise).
Many of our podcast guests saw a similar world to what Nabil envisions. These entrepreneurs are driven to act by what’s happening now, whether they believe in Extreme’s vision or have their own.
Nabil stresses in this final episode of Season 2 of Inflection Points that this is not a time to be passive. He sees this as a rare time when doers and dreamers are able to work together. So much is possible today because our technology can actually create our visions of the future.
“Our capabilities are catching up with our dreams,” he tells hosts Carla Guzzetti and Tim Harrison. And yes, I’m stealing the best line of the podcast here. But he’s got more if you listen.
This season’s guests, Nabil included, are all big bosses, all driven by how they see the markets of the future shaping up. They each made practical decisions to act. And maybe that’s the biggest lesson from Season 2 of Inflection Points: Visions are just that. You have to act to make them reality. What better time than right now to get going on yours?
