The Future

by Mark McClanahan

How often do you think about Uber? Is it just when you need a convenient and easy way to get from point A to point B? If you’re a business leader, you have probably considered the impact Uber has had on the transportation industry. What about other companies, like Airbnb, Netflix or Amazon? These are all companies that have disrupted industries.

Business leaders spend a lot of time working in their businesses. When you’re working in your business, it is difficult to think of anything beyond the immediate horizon, thus creating blind spots for a company leader. Many experts recommend setting time aside to get away from the day-to-day operations of the business in order to focus on its long-term future.

At Mosby Building Arts, we regularly work on the business through quarterly business meetings, annual business planning and big strategic planning sessions every two to three years. This may seem like a lot of time to work on the business; however, you would be surprised at the lack of time spent on how our future could be disrupted.

Because of this, we have recently put together a futures committee. This is a volunteer group of cross-functional associates whose sole responsibility is to look at the one- to five-year horizon for potential disruptors. The group meets multiple times a year, and each member of the team is responsible for individual research to report back to the group. The committee is then charged with sharing its findings with the leadership team. The trends examined fall into categories like workforce, technology, consumer behaviors, economics, building science, the internet, and natural resources.

At some point, the residential remodeling industry will be disrupted. And when it is, we’re banking on our committee to have alerted us in time to plan for it.

Mark McClanahan (mmcclanahan@callmosb.com or 314.909.1800) is the president at Mosby Building Arts.