One of the most obvious observations I have made in the last ten years, and more significantly during the recent generational transition, is that nothing is constant. Many corporations were caught unprepared to deal with the sharp changes in the marketplace.
For many, many years the approach “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” was a leading approach in the business world. I say to the contrary, in today’s world the more appropriate approach should be “If it isn’t broken, do fix it” is more true than ever.
“The speed of disruption is getting brutal. We say we have to reinvent ourselves every three years. You have to anticipate getting the market transition right. You have to have the courage for you and your leaders to dramatically change. We’ve changed more in the last year than we have in any five years before. When you disrupt yourself it’s painful and you usually get penalized by the marketplace. But if you don’t disrupt yourself, you get out of business.”
– John Chambers/ Cisco CEO
INNOVATION KILLER
Complacency is the prime “killer” of innovation, progress, and an organization’s ability to move forward. It has also been saying before that “if you do not move forward, you are moving backward” I believe that is even more accurate to say today. “If you do not move forward, you move out”. (Out of business that is).