Enterprises of all types- small, large, commercial, government and non-profit, are examples of Complex Adaptive Systems and are therefore bound by the same characteristics and rules of evolution of all such adaptive systems, patterned on biological life.
This common categorisation can therefore provide a deep insight into the future optimal modes of operation and evolution of an enterprise.
Adaptation is the process that life has applied since its origins in order to survive and realise its potential. Over time such systems have become better able to develop and survive through increasing complexity of form and function- improved sensors, more powerful information processing capacity and faster and more reliable reactive capability.
The future enterprise must have similar flexibility to focus and deploy its cooperative intelligence in real time and at all levels of the organisation in response to opportunities or competitive pressures.
The enterprise support architecture must therefore be decision rather than process based in order to respond with optimal speed and creativity. It must also be possible to draw seamlessly on external as well as internal sources of knowledge and intelligence to facilitate this focussed decision capacity.
Ten years ago new electronics products had an expected economic or shelf life of at least six years. Today it is closer to six months before an upgrade or replacement is required by consumers. This rate of product and process obsolescence is forcing enterprises to adopt new business models in order to leverage innovative design and developments within compressed timeframes. This aso involves integrating technologies in creative ways and entering into collaborative, partner and licensing agreements with other specialist organisations
Future trends
This urgent requirement for fast-track decision making will in turn drive the need for enterprises to re-configure and re-prioritise processes, decision networks and strategies on the fly- in other words to become intelligently self-organising in real time. Dynamic decision support architectures will therefore be required to support this momentum.
The rate of change impacting enterprise environments in the future will continue to accelerate, forcing the rate of decision making to increase in response,implemented autonomously with minimal human intervention. This ahs already occurred in advanced control, communication and manufacturing systems and is becoming increasingly common at the operational level in e-business procurement, enterprise resource planning,financial management and marketing applications.
The future Adaptive Enterprise will also be required to be proactive rather than reactive in order to capitalise on opportunities and optimise its response to a relentlessly changing environment.
This trend is likely to accelerate in the future, making it essential for business to embrace autonomous decision-making not only at the operational level but eventually for strategic planning as well.
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