I am still baffled whenever I see businesses still think very narrowly in this day and age where possibilities are boundless. No human being or business can survive these days by thinking narrowly.
Borderless thinking has been instrumental in bringing us to this current world that we all love and enjoy. So why would any forward-thinking entity still ignore it? Thinking borderless is now the new way of normal thinking.
What is borderless thinking?
Borderless thinking simply means an intentional daydreaming that is backed with the prerequisites and willingness to take advantage of the abundance of opportunities that the new order has presented to mankind.
Borderless thinking means simplifying tasks, reducing the associated costs of performing a task so that enough people can partake in it for maximum impacts.
Borderless thinking goes beyond making a power point presentation in the boardroom – it is the practical translation of thoughts into real actions that brings intended results.
You couldn’t have possibly be reading this post now if a two-way action has not been taken by two parties (the writer and the reader in this case).
Borderless thinking is part of the critical thinking skill that entrepreneurs must strive to acquire if they are to succeed in their entrepreneurial journey.
For a thinking to be considered borderless, it must have the potential of motivating at least two groups of people – the action taker and the recipient of the result of an action.
How to think borderless
Thinking borderless is more of an art than a science, therefore what works for company A might not necessarily work for company B. Business leaders continuously tweak things until they find the perfect fit for their unique circumstances. However, below are some broad general ways of thinking borderless.
Take an unbiased capacity / capability audit
The first thing that an entity or individual must do in their quest to start thinking borderless is to take inventory of their current or existing capacities and capabilities.
Simply calculating important ratio analysis like current asset to revenue ratio will give an indication of how efficient an organization is in turning currently owned assets into sales revenue for example.
Also, through feasibility studies and sensitivity analysis, useful insights will be gained during this self-audit phase of embarking on borderless thinking adventure.
Make investment to fill the identified capacity or capability gap
Based on the outcome of the above honest self-review, intentional investment decisions can be made in a bid to pluck the identified shortcomings that will cause some hiccups to a businesses effort to become a borderless thinker.
A company or an organization that notices that it does not have enough network capabilities during the self-audit exercise may consider investing in boosting its networking capabilities. The value of your network as an organization determines the potential audience that you can reach when you launch your offerings.
Global delegation of duties through collaboration
The importance of delegation of duties in the journey of achieving greatness by an individual or organization cannot be overemphasized. It would be impossible to meaningfully think borderless if an entity cannot delegate responsibility. The principle of delegation of duties and collaboration is present in almost every facets of life.
There won’t be communication and exchange of data between two devices for example if there is no delegation of duties of some kind going on. Each layer of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model does its part of the chain of jobs and collaboratively pass on to the next level in the model to perform it function for the sole aim of achieving objective – communicate!
The above means that there must be a high level of trust amongst the various actors in a process for an effective collaboration to be achieved which is a major catalyst in the borderless thinking framework.
Leverage on the power of technology
Technology is no doubt the greatest lever and enabler of all time. Ignore the power of technology at your peril. You simply cannot think borderless without thinking on how to make good use of technology. In fact, business technology management is a major aspect of thinking borderless that must not be taken lightly.
Technology are the most reliable foot soldiers that any manager must wholeheartedly rely on if his or her dream of thinking borderless is to be achieved. The management information system (MIS) of businesses must be seamlessly integrated into its overall technology architecture for congruency of actions.
Harness the hidden gem in data
The role of risk-based data analysis in the borderless thinking domain is very strategic as targeted efforts are made through the art of mining hidden insightful information that is locked within dataset.
Thinking borderless without some insights that is gained by manipulating data would amount to mere wishful thinking and a process of taking a stab in the dark. It is no longer news that data is the new oil of our time – mine it, refine it, gain from it!!!
It is important to note that this data analysis exercise must at least be driven by a valid business case. Although there are times when exploratory data perusing is done just out of curiosity by that method of data analysis would not serve our purpose in the borderless thinking domain.
Another document that must be given close attention during data analysis for border less thinking is the business requirement document – especially when IT infrastructure acquisition is involved.
Data analysis makes it possible for investors to avoid uncalculated risks when making borderless thinking expansion decision.
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