Change has been a topic of this blog on a number of occasions. This political season drives the concept home quite emphatically.
From week to week, even day to day, the pundits are re-ordering their favorites to take home presidential nominations. Favorites on one side have included Thompson, McCain, Giuliani, Romney and Huckabee. Shuffle the deck and throw them out in a different order the next time. Oops, religion is the issue of the day, re-order them. Uh-oh, Bhutto is assassinated in Pakistan and foreign affairs experience is key- shuffle again and here comes McCain.
It is not so different with the Democrats. Is it Hillary or Obama or Edwards this week?
World events shift suddenly, and our world is affected. There goes our agenda- we must pick up a different one now.
Business is not so different. We are humming along, and then some external event occurs and all of a sudden we are shifted off of our priorities and on to some different ones.
A company that knows it has too many of its eggs in one basket but never makes the time to deal with it, is all of a sudden faced with the bankruptcy of its biggest customer, which also has a big receivable out there. Sudden shift required.
A company that has been so busy answering the phone and dealing with call in business that it has never marketed, suddenly finds that the phone isn't ringing nearly as much as it was. Now what?
"Loyal" employees start leaving and going to other companies and then you discover that your pay scale and benefits and workplace environment are not equal to those of your competitors.
What does it all mean? It means that we have to expect change, we have to be prepared for it, and if possible, we have to be out there ahead of it. Big international companies are always looking at global scenarios to see how certain occurrences would affect their businesses. They look at their various possible responses to those happenings and plan their potential courses of action.
Small businesses don't usually do that. But, for instance:
- What if we go into a recession -how does that affect you?
- What if there is another terrorist incident?
- What if there is a transit strike?
- What if your landlord raises your rent significantly?
Someone needs to be planning ahead, thinking, strategizing. Someone needs to be working on the business, more than in the business (to take a line from Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth.
It is easy to be caught by surprise if you are not paying attention.
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