We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.

Carl Sagan

What do Jobs, Gates, Bezos, Branson and Musk have in common?

They understand the laws of physics that drive their organisations.

Every organisation evolves its own unique DNA and an equilibrium system energy level.

This is driven and maintained by a series of explicit conscious rules and powerful but unconscious implicit meta-rules.

The classic example of such a meta-rule can be found in many large organisations, such as legacy banks.  The CEO may say 'be innovative', but the powerful meta-rule may say 'Don't innovate!'  And the organisation remains stubbornly unresponsive.

In general organisations resist all tampering with their DNA structure, allowing only enough new energy into the system to equalise the loss due to entropy.

Effectively this system equilibrium energy level is the real de facto strategy of the system. 

Unless leaders are fully versed in exactly how to identify and change the core rules and meta-rules in the system, any efforts at change, regardless of how noble, will be doomed to fail.

The laws of physics apply to all organisations.  Change in any form requires both knowledge and adherence to these laws.  Any attempts outside of these laws can only come from our ever burgeoning compendium of management magic.

The conclusion is axiomatic.  Tomorrow's leaders need two core skills.  Managing people.  And managing the laws of physics.