Don't Let Change Take You By Surprise

As companies and individuals struggle to cope with a fast-changing, tech-driven economy, the future of businesses, and that of work, seems bleak. But Beth Comstock, former Vice Chair of General Electric, believes in reinvention and remains undaunted in the face of change. During her recent visit to India, she talked to Business Today’s Sanghamitra Mandal about her first book Imagine It Forward (penned with Tahl Raz), what it takes to become a change-maker, how organisations can survive uncertain times and future of jobs. Edited excerpts:

- Sanghamitra Mandal

You are a top professional, a mom and an author. How do these roles gel?

Beth Comstock: I think one thing leads to the other. You start out thinking about what you are going to do, but things are often very different. That is what I have tried to explain in my book Imagine It Forward: Courage, Creativity, and the Power of Change – this notion of opening yourself up to discovery, to what is new and next. I wanted to be a journalist, but I was not very good, and that led me to work in communications, then marketing and business and from there to innovation. Although we are talking of change, the one thing that has stayed consistent is that I am a mother.

You said in your book that there are gatekeepers who put up a barrier to one’s growth. Why does it happen?

It is fair to say upfront that most of us do not like change if we are not in control. Most changes are unsettling, but they do happen. But many times, people want the world to stop so that they can deal with change in an orderly way. But we do not have that luxury anymore. If you see a better way of doing things, you have to work around people who do not see the same thing you see. I call them gatekeepers.

How do we get around them and become change-makers?