Change is a natural state.
Seasons change, weather changes, our bodies change. We change with age, with education, with experiences and with exercise, or lack thereof. Relationships change, people change, everything about our lives change.
Our markets and customers change continuously as well – just like everything else in our world.
As we plan for 2011 – ask yourself….
Why does ‘business focus’ usually translate to a static response?
Ask anyone about business focus and they’ll begin talking about staying the course, sticking to the plan, 1, 3 and 5 year objectives. We keep focusing on that same profit margin (or lately, cash balance) as our goal – and miss opportunities for growth, investment and new markets along the way. That doesn’t cut it in today’s dynamic world.
Focus is defined as a central point of attraction, attention, or activity. Focus does not equate to hanging onto the status quo, the same perspective, the same plan no matter what.
Yet that’s how we’ve come to exercise our business ‘focus’. Stay the course, execute the plan, stick with it no matter what. Meet that margin objective, even as our financial underpinnings change. When we have an obvious crisis, we execute a Big Bang change and move to maintain our new focus, no matter what.
What if we focused on leveraging change in 2011?
Not change for the sake of change, but the changes required for continuous success. Why not focus on leveraging the changes all around us to accelerate our growth and success?
Think about it. Change doesn’t have to be something to be avoided. Change can be our focus – a focus forward, a passion for evolving as needed for sustained success. Change offers the opportunity to evolve, to improve on our current Value, to take that Value into new Markets in new ways – to adapt and leverage the new opportunities emerging all around us – every day. Change empowers our businesses to thrive and move forward. Staying the Course keeps us stuck in the past.
So start to change today – the way you think about your value, the way you respond to your markets, the way you see your business. Change creates growth. Staying the Course – well, that leaves you stuck in the tarpit and sinking with the dinosaurs.
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