THE NATURE OF CHANGE

Have you thought about how fast change is happening? Change is constant and a person who can manage or get in front of change will survive and thrive. The nature of change was brought home to me as I was reading account of how current business owners had spent the last 10 years. There were drastic differences within just the last 10 years.

If these business owners did not make the changes, they made they might be out of business.

The expression “If it’s not broke don’t fix it” could more appropriately be stated “If it is not broken yet it soon will be.”

You can wait for change to force you to do something and then react. But that is not the best option. The best option is to predict and get in front of change. These are some of the things you should you should be doing proactively:

1.        Make sure you know what business you are in. Whether you are in real estate, construction and contracting, graphic design, or consulting you must define what you provide to the customer. For example, Kodak should have realized that it was not in the film business but in the image and impression sharing business. In real estate are you selling houses or assisting buyers in improving their lives?

2.        Get in front of change.   The best way to this it to look into the future, understand the trends and how they affect your business and move yourself into them. One example may be the use of webinars vs. in person meetings. While arguments can be made about current quality of delivery, getting your arms around it and having a strategy to shift will keep you leading. There was a time when a digital camera was not an alternative to high quality film but by not leading that new technology, Kodak failed.

3.        Assess your business. Take inventory of where you have strengths in the market as well as where you are weak and vulnerable. With that information look into the future to assess not just opportunities in your industry but also dangers and threats on the horizon. If you have done good business in an area where you know you are weak and you see new external threats on the horizon you may want to move away from that offering. On the other hand, look at new opportunities where you can exploit your strengths.

4.        How do you communicate and market. The method and costs of marketing and communication have already changed drastically. Today, who looks to find something in the Yellow Pages? You need to embrace the new media. However, I caution you to evaluate and create a strategy first. Don’t simply follow the latest shiny new media application.

5.        Understand generational differences. Different generations have different needs, communicate differently, and engage with your business differently. If you are doing well serving one generation, learn why. Are the things that engage that generation of no value to the next generation? Failure to understand that dynamic will result in increasingly lost revenue.

These steps are great starting points. If you have not looked at your business in the last three years it should be done now. What will you change? It is vital to your future success.

Are you ready to create your own change?

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