Innovative Thinking: How to Lead in an Era of Disruptive Complexity*

The article explores the skills requirement of leadership thinking skills in the discipline of business environmental scanning and sustainability through business model flexibility. In the context of organisations-business and other-the article uses the discipline of scanning the environment to illustrate the thinking skills required for effective management in today's times. Scanning is viewed as an act through which organisations gather information which in-forms and guide their strategy selection. The article questions the fundamental philosophy that strings together the thought paradigm of established scanning frameworks such as PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces. The critical analysis highlights the threat of accepting a conceptualised reality as an ontological truth, without considering the fact that the reality to be scanned is most probably more a function of our individual perception (epistemology) than some reality out there to be discovered (ontology). The article leans more towards a systems thinking approach, providing more completeness in terms of a conceptualised environment. The article compares frameworks conceptualised through an analytical thought paradigm with those of a systemic thought paradigm for purposes of reframing such frameworks. This leads to a recommended shift from strategy as the primary building block of competitiveness to that of flexible business modelling (Casadesus-Masanell and Ricart, 2011), as the driver of sustainable competitiveness in the future.

The study's findings present organisational leaders with a thought paradigm to better manage current volatility, unpredictability and randomness in the organisational environment of the twenty-first century.