Continuing my series of opinion articles on "Lessons for business in the Year of the Snake, Horse, and then Sheep, below is my list of lessons for business in 2016, the Year of the Monkey.

Clever and smart. Monkeys are above all, clever and smart. In today's rapidly moving and constantly changing business world, business people need to be smart and focus on working smarter rather than harder. Today's student needs to realize that learning is a lifelong journey. People today will take on multiple roles and undergo numerous career changes. In each change, new learning must re-occur. Old learning must be forgotten. Not only must individuals be clever and smart, so too must be the organization as a whole. For China in an Information Age, this means that every organization must see itself in terms of what Peter Drucker described decades ago as in the knowledge business and creating knowledge products through the efforts of employees as knowledge workers.

Opportunistic; adventuresome. Monkeys are opportunistic and full of adventure and mischief. This attitude is important in an age of disruption in which whole industries can suddenly be under threat and transformed by a breakthrough new business idea or technology. An example is the growing use of big data to get deeper insights into customers' needs and preferences and go from an age of mass consumer consumption to mass customization.

High energy. Monkeys are high energy. High energy is needed to sustain progress and maintain competitive advantage. As Emerson wrote, "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." Or, as one of my former bosses used to say: "If you are not fired with enthusiasm; you will be fired with enthusiasm." Organizations today need a bias towards action - getting a prototype out there and making mistakes in order to learn from them as fast as possible. This requires businesses to be more tolerant of failure and to see success as best defined as the constructive application of failure.

Sociable. Monkeys are highly sociable animals. We live in a "networked" world and the ability to form, nurture and leverage off of networks is a vital skill for business success. Organizations today have far more fluid boundaries, especially in a world of the "Internet of Things" where products are not just mechanical and/or electrical but comprised of software and/or hardware and related applications are in the cloud with a constant stream of data going back and forth and continual adjustments being made in a virtual environment.

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