Our industry, and the majority of businesses operating within it, will soon face serious challenges. Some already are.
Some are related to the current economic downturn; low consumer confidence, job insecurity, lower asset prices and reduced access to credit. Some are related to the industry’s maturation; increased competition, consolidation, rationalization, commoditization and downward pressure on prices. And some are related to the industry’s unwillingness to innovate in response to shifting customer and market expectations.
To be brutally honest, from what I see, I don’t think that many businesses are positioned well to meet these challenges. Those who choose to simply keep doing what they have always done will be most at risk.
Renowned American psychologist Abraham Maslow said ‘if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.’
The response of many business owners and managers to the challenges in front of them will be simply to hammer harder. Unfortunately, no matter how great your hammer is and no matter how proficient you are at wielding it no amount of hammering will produce the outcomes you require. You need to expand your entire tool box.
The first critical step towards improving your business is to realize that you don’t know what you don’t know. Leave room for the possibility that there is a better way then your way and understand that doing what you have always done will get you what you’ve always gotten.
It is not easy to change firmly entrenched thinking; it takes serious courage and a great deal of conviction. But if you don’t I can only see two possible outcomes:
- You will get hammered, or
- You will get nailed
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