Much like the ill-fated emperor in the Hans Christian Andersen story, "The Emperor's New Clothes," any IT company that encourages groupthink and discourages those who question the status quo will eventually be an organization in trouble, and possibly, heading toward extinction, according to Simon Dudley, CEO of Excession Events.

During his presentation at the XChange 2015 conference hosted by The Channel Company, the publisher of CRN, Dudley gave attendees a glimpse inside his book, "The End of Certainty." The book highlights Dudley's own professional experience in the IT industry, and insight into a space fraught with change and in which only the nimble survive.

Criteria for success in any market changes over time, but have a particularly high turnover rate within the IT space, he said. Dudley pointed to the cell phone market. In the beginning, the smaller the device, the more sales and success for the device manufacturer. Now, the emphasis on the size of the form factor is all but gone, in favor of the currently successful internet-enabled smartphones with all the bells and whistles, like the iPhone or Droid.

During the opening keynote at Xchange, companies experiencing 5 percent growth and above were asked to stand, demonstrating that the majority of vendors and channel partners were having a good year. But Dudley challenged that the success of a company shouldn't be marked by one wining year, but rather, a company that is still around after 10 years or more.

"Many companies start out great … But what matters now is the ability to change quickly," Dudley said to attendees. "All wins are temporary. Many companies can do 10 percent [growth] every year, right up until the year when they do 0 percent and are bankrupt."  

The problem typically starts at the top, Dudley said. Many businesses have a nasty habit of believing whatever the CEO says to be true, without question, he said.

"Everyone is a narcissist," Dudley said. He challenged attendees -- especially those higher up within their organization -- to try to recognize that people are likely to have very strong opinions on things they may not know enough about. He cautioned attendees to resist the urge to stick to those ideas.

"We have a habit of coming to conclusions that we want to be true," He said. "We have to learn to ask the right questions instead of worrying about having the right answers." 

Fresh ideas can lay the groundwork for innovation, Dudley said. If companies want to get new answers to the same questions, creating a highly diversified workforce is a good starting point.

Picking team members with different backgrounds and experiences will help businesses move away from coming up with the same ideas, but it’s a practice that works against normal thinking, Dudley said. "If someone comes in for an interview that looks like me and has the same opinions as me, I'll probably hire him, and that's why most organizations look similar," he said.