Moving past traditional hierarchy: To stay market relevant, business and enterprise are going to need a talent and resource scalability that is not present in traditional business models. “I think it is going to be increasingly difficult for enterprises to respond quickly in a traditional hierarchical organizational structure that’s perhaps focused on doing repetitive tasks more efficiently.

“In the future, many, if not all, repetitive tasks are going to be automated. It’s going to be an issue of how fast the organization can respond to market opportunities – and how fast the organization can transform, enabled by technology, to address those opportunities. Those sorts of criteria really change the nature of competition over time, and just about every enterprise must be ready to respond.”

Open organizations present a different way of thinking, engaging talent, and responding to market opportunities. In the next in this series, we’ll explore what Mr. Congdon calls the “need for speed, ” in keeping pace with the developing edge.

Learn more about the Open world and the challenges facing HR from Mr. Congdon at OHRMCon in New York City in October.