Recently a reader suggested I might like to read their professor’s blog Random Rantings. In the blog Freek Vermeulen an Associate Professor of Strategic & International Management at the London Business School reflects on various issues related to Corporate Strategy, sounds interesting.

One of the first posts to catch my eye was “Today’s fast-changing business environment”? – same as it ever was in which he says:

So please stop telling me that “the world of business is increasingly changing fast”. It is not. It is the same as it ever was.

He mentions some research exists that claims to back this up (but unfortunately provides no reference). The research apparently looked at the:

financial performance of about 5700 companies over a period of more then two decades

Which brought to mind the Benjamin Disraeli quote “lies, damned lies, and statistics” for a start companies that have been in business for more than two decades are likely to be older more established businesses in stable industries, secondly 20 years is a relatively short time span when management science goes back over a hundred years. So I’d question the validity of the statistics they gathered.

To be fair I can’t show him hard irrefutable evidence that the businesses environment is changing fast, as I haven’t got time right now, but I suspect that if an academic was to conduct some comprehensive research then they could produce some evidence. Until then, just consider for a moment the computer industry and the changes it has gone through in the last hundred years then ask yourself has the rate of change increased over the last hundred years?

Consider how fast moving the Internet business sector is.

Consider personal transport, a hundred years ago the car almost unheard of, now they’re everywhere and we’re trying to get rid of them.

Consider the development of an international business, a hundred years ago it would have taken a considerable time to establish and required weeks or even months to travel to each part of the business, nowadays companies like Google can spring up and be worldwide billion dollar businesses in less than a decade and we don’t even have to travel to have a meeting, we can video conference.

Finally consider that since I started my fist business just under 7 years ago, the level of red tape faced by UK business has increased by nearly 50%.

I think he’s wrong, what about you, do you think he’s right, is “today’s fast-changing business environment” a myth?

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