What Will Your Business Get Wrong in the Next 18 Months?

At a recent talk, innovation leader Gus Balbontin shared a simple but confronting idea:

“The more outlandish the idea, the more you should take notice.”

I know that this sounds counterintuitive! Most businesses are wired to filter out ideas that feel too extreme, too early, or too unrealistic. But history shows that the ideas that feel uncomfortable today often become the baseline tomorrow.

The real risk is not that these ideas are wrong - it's that they are right, and you actively ignored them because they were not "comfortable" or broke a set in concrete process in your business.

What Will Age Poorly in Your Business?

Take a moment to consider this:

What are you doing today that will look outdated, inefficient, or risky in just 18 months?

Not five years from now. Not “someday.” Just a year and a half from now.

Because that is the timeframe where most businesses get caught off guard. Not by sudden disruption, but by gradual irrelevance and obsolescence.

Here are a few examples we are already seeing:

• Businesses still relying on passwords without MFA, despite clear evidence of rising account compromise.
• Teams manually processing data that AI tools can now handle in seconds.
• File storage scattered across desktops, shared drives, and email instead of structured cloud environments.
• “Set and forget” cybersecurity setups with no ongoing monitoring or validation.
• Backup systems that exist on paper but have never been tested in a real recovery scenario.

None of these feel “outlandish” to fix. But ignoring them will age very poorly.

The Ideas That Feel Too Early (But Aren’t)

Now consider the ideas that might feel a bit uncomfortable or “too soon”:

• Replacing repetitive admin work with AI-driven workflows.
• Moving from reactive IT support to proactive monitoring and automated remediation.
• Treating cybersecurity as a business risk function, not just an IT task.
• Implementing zero trust principles, even in smaller environments.
• Building real-time dashboards for operational and financial visibility.

A year ago, most of the above felt optional. Today, they are expected "leading practice". In 18 months, they will be the standards that we have moved beyond.

The businesses that move early gain efficiency, resilience, and competitive advantage. The ones that wait are forced to catch up under pressure and incur the costs that come with paying catch-up.

A Simple Exercise for the Next 18 Months

If you want to pressure-test your business, try this:

1. List three things you currently do manually.
2. Identify one process you “know” is inefficient but have tolerated.
3. Highlight one area of your business where security is assumed, not verified.

Then ask:

“If we were starting this business today, would we design it this way?”

If the answer is no, well, that is the signal that change is needed - not tomorrow, not next week, NOW!

Where Microsolve Fits

Our role is not just to keep your systems secure and running. It is to help you make decisions today that will still make sense in 18 months.

That means:

• Challenging assumptions about how your technology should work
• Identifying where risk is building that you don't see
• Introducing solutions that may feel early, but are rapidly becoming necessary
• Helping you implement change in a way that is practical and commercially sensible

The goal is not to chase every new idea - but it absolutely is to recognise which “outlandish” ideas are actually early warnings that give you a leg up and keep you in control and able to operate.

The Takeaway

The next time you hear something that sounds a bit too ambitious, too futuristic, or just slightly uncomfortable, do not dismiss it.

Pause and ask:

“What if this is closer than I think?”

Because in most cases, it is.