STANDAPTATION?

As even SMEs/Start-ups start out on a global scale (how else do we tag an SME/Start-up with healthy social media followership?) , I pondered to myself, “Would the age long debate on Standardization and Adaptation hold (as it is a great deal for International entities attempting to play in specific local geographical locations)?”

An organization may either choose to run the same models across all its locations and through all its dealings irrespective of peculiarities WHILE another may decide to tailor its models according to the perceived diversities and requirements in the various locations and interactions with all contacts. 

Hence, the two forked road many travel - Standardization and Adaptation.

A man dressed in a custom-fitted suit is obviously differentiated from another with a standard-fitting suit. With no personal bias intended, one would most likely perceive these two men and possibly categorize them into two different schools of thought. This could also typically tell you one or two core things about them, if I wouldn’t be stretching it too much – personalty, ideologies, value systems etc may be scanned off a solution from being custom or standard fit.

I am of the opinion that at best a strategy would be efficient at capturing the ever swiftly changing needs of the end user while ensuring quality by keeping a standardized core while adapting the peripherals of that core. By this I typically mean that an excellent strategy should ensure standards with functionality but can then thrive with the flexibility of adaptation on the ‘contact’ end. In my experience as a Construction Project Manager, it is key to state that as much as a building’s aesthetics and eventual feel can be played with and amended to drive the ‘contact’ home, the structural elements can hardly be touched-for an edifice that intends to stand.

Having seen the slack that erodes working business models in the name of ‘Standardization’ and the lack of control that drowns established towering entities in the name of ‘Adaptation’, I have come to a swift rebellion that ‘Standaptation’* is the key to the future of strategy. Since I coined the expression, may I define

‘Standaptation as ensuring that the structural elements of an entity’s strategy is kept in sync while its peripherals are tailor made to adequately deliver quality. (where quality is defined as the degree to which the strategy meets requirement by the end user eventually either as a means to get financial consideration for profit making entities and/or a means to get obligatory considerations to non-profit entities). ‘

(c)Kayode Kolade,2014

I must agree that standardization helps plan effectively and ensure contingencies are in place and adaptation ensures efficiency in achieving business results.

Shall we then standardize for adaptability? Make a standard of adaptation?

What do you think?

#Strategy #Culture #Management #Startups #Sustainability

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Privileged to have worked across the high-capital construction, fast-paced e-commerce & the precision-driven outsourcing industries; 'Kayode KOLADE is a Business Strategist and Project Manager with experience in People, Process & Operations Optimization, a Soft Skills Trainer and Mentor with a creed to continuous improvement. A Fellow of both The Institute of Leadership & Management and The Learning & Performance Institute.