Cura Risk Management Software, winner of the Sustainability Award in the small enterprise category

Multiple futures await business in SA

If the path to success was a straight line, it would be a very crowded path. It isn’t, of course. There are multiple possible future and multiple paths towards them, and the steps a company takes now will determine which future it ends up in.

Cura Risk Management Software has already been in business for almost 20 years, which is an eminently respectable age for an SME in South Africa. It is banking on being around for a long time to come and with that in mind, is planning for the futures. (Note to reader: this is not a typo.)

“There is not one set future but multiple possible futures; that’s very important to grasp,” says Jessica Knight, head of Strategy. “When you assess multiple possibilities, you enhance your preparedness for anything that might arise.”

Here are just a few examples of the different futures that might be awaiting the company. “One is where we achieve our Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) of establishing a significant presence on every continent. Another is where we never achieve that. And another is where we no longer exist.”

That last possibility is not an option any company wants to imagine (with the exception of fly-by-nights and other short-termist enterprises). But if you don’t, your days could be numbered. So while thinking about your organisation’s demise might not be pleasant, it’s a prospect that can’t be ignored if you still want to be around in 20, 50 or 100 years.

“We are assessing all possibilities, doing risk assessments and learning from our clients and listening to what they want,” says Jessica.

Those assessments and learnings are constantly fed into Cura’s strategy document, which is a never-ending work in progress that ensures the business stays true to its strategic objects and moves ever closer to its BHAGs, while adapting to whatever curve balls might come its way.

The Covid-19 is a prime example of such curve balls, of course, providing many useful lessons for Cura to incorporate into its planning for the futures.

See you in the Antarctica in 50 years’ time?