Failure is not an option

We all want to do well, we do not want to miss our goals, and end the year on a negative note. We all want to end on a positive note.

As a business/team leader that will be how we want our team to behave, all wanting to end well. We do not want them to fail. But if we do not keep ourselves up to date with the rapidly evolving business environment and continue to approve budgets or plans to allow our team to do the things they are doing now, we are setting them up to fail.

As Marshall Goldsmith puts it elegantly, “What got you here will not get you there”.

The path to success is strewn with missed opportunities and failed businesses that did not see the need to change

Year 1876 “This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communications – Western Union internal memo

1902 “Flight by machines heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible” – Simon Newcomb, Canadian-American astronomer and mathematician

1946 “Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night” – Darryl Zanuck, movie producer 20th Century Fox

1977 “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home” Ken Olson, President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment

A bit more recent we will have Nokia, Kodak, Myspace, Blockbuster etc.

So, what are the changes that we desperately need to see? Just to name a few, Cloud, Social Selling, Digital Marketing, AI, Big Data etc

Understandably most people are afraid of change. How should we go about it? Well, here is the good news, some changes are easier than others, especially those that provides a 1) Low barrier of entry, 2) low cost and low risk 3) it’s an add-on that can be easily reverted.

Example would be, when I conduct change management sessions for businesses to sell or adopt Cloud solutions. Some of the key points I make are, Cloud has a low barrier of entry, low risk in adoption and provides maximum gain. We are not asking you to migrate your infrastructure to the cloud, it is simply to grow your current infrastructure into the cloud. Why would customer not want it? Or Why should businesses not adopt it?

Very similarly, social selling. It has a low barrier of entry, low risk in adoption and provides maximum gain with no downside. Importantly, this is an add-on to what you are already doing in sales today. Why would businesses not want it?

Remember all you need it’s a strategy. Think Big, Start small. (Hey, I have just gotten my topic for the next article)