Reinvent Or Fall Behind: 5 Hard Truths From The Frontlines Of Business

Forbes

2 days ago

Reinvent or Fall Behind: 5 Hard Truths from the Frontlines of Business
This April, leaders from 38 countries and countless industries gathered in Dublin for the Reinvention Summit 2025. As one of the co-founders of the Summit—alongside Aidan McCullen, Michael Durkan, and Neil Jordan—I had a front-row seat to the most urgent questions in business today:
- Why are our old tools no longer working?
- What does a successful leader look like in this age of permanent disruption?
- And how do we actually prepare for a future we can't predict?
The answers were loud and clear.
Here are five hard truths that emerged from the keynotes, panels, and off-the-record conversations at the Summit—insights every professional needs to hear right now.
The data is alarming. The 2024 research from the Reinvention Academy, which I shared at the Summit, shows that the average lifecycle of a business model has dropped from 75 years to just 6. Every fifth company in the world is reinventing their products, processes, and business model every 12 months or faster, which means the shelf life of an idea, decision, or product is getting very, very short.
Rita McGrath—Columbia Business School professor and bestselling author—delivered a powerful keynote that echoed the ideas she first introduced in her groundbreaking Harvard Business Review article, 'Transient Advantage.'
A new approach to management is needed, where we are not betting on one 'silver bullet,' spending years to perfect it. As Alexander Osterwalder, creator of the Business Model Canvas, reminded us in his keynote:
If your organization is placing all its bets on a single idea—or failing to retire outdated ones—you're not adapting. You're aging.
Most companies divide responsibility for the future among siloed teams: strategy, innovation, and change management. But in today's environment, these functions are interdependent. Misalignment isn't just inefficient—it's lethal.
That's why a new leadership role is gaining traction: the Chief Reinvention Officer.
This emerging role brings together what used to be fragmented and conflicting parts of the organization into a single, integrated reinvention process. Instead of handing off initiatives from one silo to another, the Chief Reinvention Officer - a leader who can integrate strategy, innovation, and implementation into one cohesive, end-to-end reinvention system.
Gary Graham, Chief Reinvention Officer at 3i's Group and the Keynote Listener at the Summit, put it best: 'When most leaders think of reinvention, they think of strategy, technology, or AI. But the real secret? It's about trust.'
He referenced McKinsey research that shows leaders often overestimate employee buy-in by a factor of three. People resist change not because they don't care—but because they fear becoming irrelevant. Change fatigue is very real—and growing.
In a world where disruption is constant, reinvention must be continuous—and coordinated.
Every company grows along an S curve: from start-up and early traction to scale and maturity. But without reinvention, the final stage is decline.
In earlier eras, that curve might have lasted decades. But as Aidan McCullen, co-founder of the Summit and author of 'Undisruptable,' explained in his keynote, today's curves are getting shorter and steeper, leaving little room for reaction.
The wisdom of jumping the S-curve at the right time is not limited to companies.
As Marina Donohoe, Head of Research, Innovation & Infrastructure at Enterprise Ireland, reminded us during the 'Reinventing Ireland' panel, countries must make that crucial choice as well:
Ireland, long celebrated for its economic strength through foreign direct investment and global entrepreneurship, now faces a new wave of challenges—from shifting global tax rules and climate change to talent shortages and AI-driven disruption.
The question on the table was bold:Can an entire nation become a model for reinvention?
Just like companies and careers, countries ride the S-Curve. And just like them, if they don't reinvent, they decline. That's why reinvention isn't a one-time event. It's an operating system—one that must be embedded across every function, every quarter, every decision.
When people talk about reinvention, they often focus on what needs to be improved, updated, or removed. But that's just one side of the equation.
In this keynote, Charles Conn, Chairman of Patagonia, reminded us of the other side, of what must be preserved: the purpose.
Purpose isn't just a slogan. It's an operating anchor. A source of resilience.
In times of turbulence, it's easy to become reactive—shifting strategies, chasing trends, abandoning the core. But true reinvention is not about changing everything. It's about knowing what to protect at all costs.
In the chaos of reinvention, purpose can become the eye of the storm.
It reminds people why they're there. It aligns teams when strategies shift. And it gives companies the courage to choose long-term integrity over short-term gain.
Finally—and perhaps most importantly—reinvention isn't something you do alone.
The command-and-control model of leadership was designed for stability. But today's leaders are managing through perma-crisis.
Instead of top-down control, we need swarming leadership—cross-functional, cross-generational teams that tackle problems quickly and collaboratively, then disperse. These swarms are faster, more adaptive, and more resilient.
At the Summit, we heard over and over again that what leaders need most right now isn't another playbook or case study. It's a community. A place to learn from others facing similar challenges. A space to prototype new solutions. A network to lean on when things get tough.
Patrick Gormley, Global Lead for AI and Data Science Consulting at Kyndryl, put it simply:
This applies to both your employees and your customers.
Seth Godin, my personal marketing obsession and bestselling author, captured this new approach with his call to focus on the Minimum Viable Audience:
In today's environment, the winners won't be the smartest or fastest. They'll be the ones who stay in motion—and do it together.
We're not in a period of temporary turbulence. We're in a new normal.
Uncertainty is not a phase—it's the permanent context of our work.
In this reality, reinvention is no longer a luxury for the bold—it's the operating system of modern business. If you haven't rethought your strategy, your team structure, or your leadership approach recently—you're probably already falling behind.
But the good news? You're not alone. Across industries and continents, leaders are finding new ways to build, adapt, and thrive. The tools, the models, and the community are already here.
The future doesn't belong to the biggest or the fastest. It belongs to the most reinventable.