To reinvent something means to change it so that it seems different and new; to redo, to make completely.

The year 2020 will be remembered in history for a long while. Until February, most companies were busy planning their long-term business strategies, busy setting ambitious growth targets, strategizing their value chains and adding new products to their portfolios. However, an unpredicted calamity Covid19 brought the entire world to standstill. The sudden event has forced governments and organizations to hit a pause and reset button. While uncertainty prevails over what the future would cause, what is clear is that it would be starkly different from the world we have known. Until a vaccine is made available to counter the virus, the requirements of social distancing, wearing masks, connecting socially online, in short, the need for restricted movement will continue.

We have seen a tremendous shift in mind-set of people. Though physical distancing is forced on us and we are connected electronically the need to stay relevant is all the more propelling. And, this is major transformation. Organizations are preparing for the new normal by changing their core organizational hierarchies, structure and their operation. While work from home has become the new normal, organizations have invented functional strategies to make distant working and remote client servicing a reality. It’s amazing to note that many small, medium and large organizations have quickly reconfigured their product and service offerings and have transformed their business models. Remote working is further expanding the scope of remote access to everything and greater security against cybercrimes.

With the on-going upheaval many organizations have seen opportunities and are reinventing themselves to rise over Covid19. Electronic gadgets are ruling our lives like never before. We are forced to keep with a lot of technology shifts and companies have had to evolve along with them. The companies that have survived are the ones that know this important lesson of listening to the customer always. The print industry has been the most affected industries since the technology boom. Many newspapers and magazines have either closed up shop or have gone in fully digital. National Geographic, however, has embraced technology – its magazine is still in print and the brand has millions of loyal Instagram, Twitter and Facebook followers, both for its account and its photographers’ accounts. Specifically, National Geographic has over 65 million followers. National Geographic realized that to stay firmly planted in its print ways would have killed its business. So, it went to where its customers were, which is online.

Another great example is Netflix. It has primarily changed the way TV is consumed. Netflix is in true sense the catalyst that drove the shift toward over-the-top television, helping pave way for many other OTT platforms. People want to watch whatever, whenever and wherever.  Netflix experienced lot of hiccups. Its original business model was subscription based, where people could rent as many movies as they wanted, keep them as long as they wanted and trade them in for new ones after mailing them back. Netflix included streaming video, which even further encouraged its popularity. But, in 2011, when it split into two companies, Netflix and Qwickster, its spin-off continued delivering only DVDs by mail and increased its prices, people were put off. Netflix quickly realized its mistake, and reverted back to providing both digitally streaming videos and DVD-by-mail under one roof, and under one bill. The message is give the customers what they want. 

It’s a perpetual fact that all businesses even the most successful ones slack. They lose their hold in market when they start stagnating. Organizations are compelled to reinvent themselves periodically. What matters is their ability to pull off from decline stage of business and jump back at growth stage. Organizations therefore have to be very adaptable. The world is changing at a faster pace; innovation must be a regular function in an organization. The ability of both stimulates and harnesses human imagination.

Domino’s had to make drastic changes; they considered their core competence in fast delivery, pizza in 30 minutes or less. If they delayed the delivery, the pizza would be given free. Domino’s was less concerned about taste or quality; but as people started debating on social media, Domino’s realized gravity of the issue. People were condemning its pizza quality leading to lesser order and tremendous financial repercussions. Domino’s went into action. Taking to the wave, it made an enormous announcement: ‘we hear you, our pizzas are suck and we promise to improve them.’ They improved their pizza quality. Domino’s rolled out its new campaign and new recipe, sales skyrocketed. Companies need to absorb all tip-offs thrown by their customers time and again.  

Few years down the line, many organizations will restyle jobs enabling their employees to work alongside smart machines, robots, and new forms of technology. Already robots have entered households’ cleaning, mopping, cutting and chopping. Organizational leaders must start rethinking their plans. For the past century organisations consisted of jobs, the job profiles were designed to match specified outputs; work methods were devised for performing jobs. But, many present jobs are absurd in nature, they don’t sound normal in nature, they demand unrealistic workloads which leave many job hunters shaking heads in disbelief.

Most people sense that the way organizations are run today has been stretched to its limits and things are and will change shortly. In numerous surveys businesspeople make it clear that in their view, companies are places of anxiety and drudgery, not passion or purpose. Organizational cynicism affects government agencies, non-profits, schools, and hospitals just as much. Further, it applies not just to the powerless at the bottom of the hierarchy. Behind a facade of success, many top leaders are tired of the power games and infighting; despite their desperately overloaded schedules, they feel a vague sense of bareness. People yearn for better ways to work together; for more soulful workplaces where their talents are nurtured and their deepest aspirations are honoured.

So, I conclude that as technology continues to improve, companies will be forced to adapt, change or die. They need to remain customer centric. Big or small all organizations need to be ready to roll out products and services as per the demand of their customers. Change is inevitable, therefore reinventing from time to time is a necessity.

In late 1950s cardiologists Meyer Friedman and R. H. Rosenman coined the term “Type A” and “Type B” personality types. Meyer and Rosenman said that Type A personalities are competitive in nature, they tend to become self-critical when they do mistakes. They strive toward goals and rarely have sense of joy in their efforts or accomplishments. Type A people experience a significant life imbalance.  This is characterized by a high work involvement. 

Comparatively type B people look like laid back individuals. They have the ability to relax, enjoy small undertakings and they like to enjoy the small things in life. Though, they too get stressed but rarely. B Type personalities are non-judgmental and tolerant people. They usually exhibit higher levels of satisfaction in life. They are aware of their abilities and work progressively for their goals. They enjoy their achievements. They are not too much stressed out to excel. They do get disappointed when they fall short of their goals, but they don’t get overwhelmed like A type. B type accepts failures more easily. They enjoy outings, games and contests. They participate in competitions and contests not for the sole objective of winning but for the love of the game. They are thoughtful and innovative. They allow themselves to explore and fail, if necessary.

In business organizations “Type A” personality will always be in demand because they are competitive, energetic, impatient, and are always under pressure to finish work in time. To a great extent type ‘A’ personalities are the most sought-for employees. However, a tremendous amount of work has been done by psychologists on the personality types and they have found that type ‘A’ is most prone to heart disease. They work overtime a great deal and rarely take vacations. They are labelled as “workaholics,” and “fastidious” people. Do you know A Type individuals are usually insecure? Their insecurity results in an alluring urge to constantly remind themselves and others of their achievements.

On the contrast type B individuals are not concerned with time or numbers or awards. They cannot work under stress. They are friendlier people. The Type B person finds it easier to express and receive affection because they are hassle free.

Type B personalities are often more balanced in social situations; they handle sticky situations more gracefully. They are less competitive, more patient, more mutual and happier to enjoy the moment. They are certainly better people to be around with. While type A brags and shows off, types B are as skilful at achieving their objectives in the end, but they do not make big noise.

Another research says that in the most progressive country in the world, America has 50% of the individuals who fall into the Type A category, 40% into the Type B category, and 10% are in C and D. This research was conducted for ten years and was conducted on 3,500 men indicated that Type A men have at least three times as much coronary heart disease as Type B’s.

Type C people are abiding perfectionists. Type C personality is invented by psychologist William Moulton Marston and the assessment tool was created by industrial psychologist Walter Vernon Clarke. The type C personality is one of the four behaviour types determined by the DISC personality assessment (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance)

The Type C personality is similar to Type A, but with some noticeable differences. A key one is perfectionism. Type C people spend more time on the details and check work several times for accuracy. They value the importance of doing an excellent job. Unlike Type A people, Type C people are less aware of time. For this reason, they strive for excellence and perfection can mean that a task takes much longer than it needs to. They are consistent and reliable, and they rarely bend or break the rules. The aggressive or impatience of a Type A person is more likely to result in them bending, breaking or even changing the rules. They will challenge the status quo. Type C person will happily follow the rules, so they enjoy jobs and tasks that follow a set procedure or are about complying with rules, laws or procedures. Type C people are great to have in any safety critical roles.

Type C people like to go deep into studying and learning one subject. Rather than being good in lots of areas, they prefer to be an expert in one or two areas. They enjoy meaningful conversations with one or two people. They don’t enjoy superficial conversations and prefer to avoid conflicts with others, so as not to upset the status quo.

Type D personality was invented by Johan Denollet. Since the early 1990s, the Belgian psychologist Johan Denollet has been studying a set of personality traits known as the Type D stands for distressed personality. Type D people have a tendency towards negativity. However, Type D people have many positive aspects too.

They are warm people, very peaceful on the outside and sensitive to other people’s emotions. Type D people have a very realistic view of life. They like security and are fairly resilient. They love to help and give guidance. These people rarely give up and can be a source of wisdom to other people. However, it is type D people often feel isolated, lonely and negative. They experience more negative emotions than the other types, but won’t share those emotions with others, because they are afraid of rejection.

I conclude the world is made up of all types – A, B, C & D therefore it is beautiful.

When organizations grow, they find it difficult to manage their staff; be it performance appraisals, staff demands, job training in newer areas and giving them specific objectives. They need candidates with hard skills who can hit the bull’s eye once hired and soft skills to fit in the organizational culture. Hard skills are specific, technical abilities that can be defined and measured. Abilities such as computer programming, writing, math, engineering, reading and statistics are hard skills. In case of hard skills the rules stay the same regardless of which company, circumstance or people one works with.

By contrast, soft skills are skills where the rules changes depending on the company culture and people one works with. Soft skills are intangible, and harder to quantify. Manners, etiquette, getting along with others, team playing, listening and kindness are some of the soft skills most required.

As the business world is changing very fast and survival of businesses is becoming very difficult companies are affected by a bad hire, resulting in a significantly increased cost-per-hire due to lost time and opportunity, poor performance and the need to recruit and train another worker. Firms keep rethinking the hiring strategies in terms of processes in the pre-hiring engagement and assessments which would help them identify candidates that will make an effective hire. Most of firms prefer using their own standards of hiring. Wrong hiring leads to huge losses in terms of money, organizational culture, rules and norms everything.  Organizations have realized that hiring is a creative function which requires its own assessment standard.

While certain hard skills are necessary for a position, employers are looking increasingly for job applicants with particular soft skills. This is because, while it is easy for an employer to train a new employee in a particular hard skill, it is much more difficult to train an employee in a soft skill. Organizations often experience that smart employees are difficult to handle. They are good at their job, especially in the hard skills but they spoil the culture because of their egos. They want to be recognized, they don’t like to be told what to do and what not to, and they think no end of their capabilities. Such people spoil the work culture and become difficult day by day to handle because they hate being micromanaged and told what to do.

Most gifted employees are indispensable, even if they are difficult people, organizations need to deal with them, because they cannot be replaced easily. At times some well-mannered, well-referred employees turns up to be hopeless morons. With no amount of training some people just don’t learn the requisite skills. Another fact is that hard skills can often be taught more easily than soft skills can. The world is not perfect, and there are no situations which are perfect.

How hard and soft skills matter?

Organizations need to look at their recruiting strategy every now and then and determine what updates are required and can be implemented. They need to try newer technologies and make sure that their recruiting strategies work effectively in the “talent war”. Job shadowing is catching up as practice in organizations, where prospective hires are absorbed into a typical workday to determine their fit within an organization. A more common practice is giving the candidate a mock assignment, in which candidates are observed and individuals are given chance to exhibit their capabilities. Candidates are asked to come up with their methods to solve problems in some mock or real work-related situations.

Even today, referrals are arguably one of the best sources of hiring. Whether through social media or company programs, referrals are used by employers to tap networks beyond what the company can reach for themselves. For employers who are adopting new technologies and next-gen recruiting platforms, activating employee-based social referrals is becoming an important aspect of their recruiting strategy. Facebook has over 900 million users and LinkedIn is over 100 million as well. With every additional user on social media, the network reach of an individual continues to expand further through first, second, third…. and increasing levels of connections.

Although, social recruiting strategy cannot be built entirely on posting and tweeting job openings to social media. Organizations need to adapt and take advantage of the newest methods of engaging with their socially savvy audience and stakeholders in two-way communication. Engagement via careers sites, Twitter chats, Facebook page comments and many other social media activities can help. Most target candidates and top talent hanging out on social media, employee referrals have taken a whole new meaning.

Advice to applicants is emphasizing on both Hard and Soft Skills in their resume. This way, even if the applicant lacks a particular hard skill required by the company, balancing it with a particular soft skill would be valuable in the position. For example, if the job involves working on a number of group projects, the candidate must emphasize his/her experience and skills as a team player and ability to communicate with team members. Although employers require typically equally include both technical and soft skills, it is almost always the latter that they value more. Sure, on paper the employer might treat the two types of skills as they are equally important, but employers who are focusing on the big picture (and most of them are, more or less) will value soft skills more. That being said, it is important to balance both skills in the resume.

Employers pay close attention to the following traits: teamwork, attitude, communication, creative thinking, work ethic, decision making, positivity, work drive, leadership, time management, motivation, flexibility, problem-solving abilities, critical thinking, conflict resolution, empathy, diligence, etc.

Communication skill is the most important soft skill. The rules for how to be effective at communications change and depend on the audience and the content one needs to communicate.  Communication must be crisp and clear; a candidate might be good at communicating with fellow employees, but might struggle to communicate clearly with superiors about progress of a project and support required for further progress.  This can mar the person’s scope.

The biggest dark fact is that there are no perfect people in the world, hence an organization should imagine of hiring them. Another fact is that in fast-paced world, employees are moving around from job to job more frequently, seeking a company that allows them to maximize their potential and allow them to achieve a better work-life balance. It’s hard for organizations to find smart, capable and self-aware people. The more employers become fanciful, the more they need to create differentiation in their hiring strategies.