Changing direction

It's easy to keep doing what's been working. The problem with that from a strategic point of view is that the world around us is changing. The opportunities and threats ahead of us are always morphing, new competition appearing. What was an open road can quickly become a dead end or even a wall.

IBM illustrates the point. It invented and dominated mainframe computing for business. But clones and PCs came along and blocked that road. So IBM changed direction and made hay in services and software. Then that road was disrupted by cloud computing. So this year IBM changed direction again to focus on cloud computing. Had the company not made these shifts, it now would be an afterthought, if not out of business.

Many companies have seen their path to success narrow or disappear, The smart ones changed direction to survive and grow, such as Netflix (which rented DVDs by mail), American Express (which delivered mail faster than the U.S. Post Office), and Apple (once just a computer company). Others did not and disappeared. Anyone seen Blockbuster or Nokia lately?

My question: Are you keeping an eye on the road ahead for change that will demand that you change? Better to change your services or your business model than ram into the wall!

Remember, strategy wins!