Dr. Ira Kaufman, director of the Institute for Transformative Leadership in the School of Business and Economics, recently wrote an essay that compares the unanticipated result of the 2016 presidential election to ongoing disruption in the business world. The Roanoke Times published his letter Wednesday, November 30.
The essay points out that many polls completely missed the outcome of the election. The statisticians and political scientists who conducted the polls then focused on reevaluating their data and their analysis to discover what they missed. Likewise, many business leaders have been caught by surprise when unanticipated changes in consumer demand, technology, and competitive forces disrupted their business models.
Dr. Kaufman explained that the inevitability of disruption is the impetus for the Transformative Leaders Lab, a workshop series now offered by SOBE. The series aims to help executives change their mindset and prepare for change. “When business executives open their minds to digital transformation, they set the stage for innovation and changing the company culture. They see beyond the next iteration of the same product and learn to revolutionize the way that customers receive their product’s benefits,” he wrote. “… They choose to be leaders and not followers; disruptors rather than disrupted.”
The Transformative Leaders Lab begins December 6 with the seminar “Digital or Death?” from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Read the full opinion piece on the Roanoke Times website.