CHANGE TALK

This week’s DeepSeek incident sent shockwaves through global markets wiping out over 1 trillion in market value in a single day. The Chinese AI startup’s sudden rise—offering an alternative to existing AI models—led to a steep selloff in major tech stocks, including a historic $593 billion drop in Nvidia’s market cap alone. While this sounds like a once in a life-time event, the reality is: It's part of a very normal "faster, cheaper, better" innovation cylce. The sheer speed of brutal competition and disruption raises an essential question: Is your organization designed to embrace competition and stay ahead of disruption?

When organizations transition to flatter structures, they often aspire to empower teams, foster collaboration, and enable agile decision-making. Yet, one of the most common challenges we encounter when we are being called into an organization is the persistence of "zombie structures." These are legacy habits, processes, and behaviors that refuse to stay buried, undermining the transformation effort.

As we welcome 2025, we want to start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year! Reflecting on the past year, we’re deeply grateful for the positive impact we’ve created together with our clients. Now, we look forward to a year filled with adaptive organization design, business model innovations, and business transformation.

While the new year naturally brings action-oriented energy, it’s also a valuable opportunity to reflect, plan, and align with the goals that truly matter. What do we want to achieve in 2025? How can our business create meaningful change? And how can we ensure that the transformation we undertake leads to a positive, lasting impact—both within our organizations and beyond?