Are you a business owner whose current success is keeping you from being very successful? Are you a manager who so enjoys your success that it is actually keeping you from growing your division or department? Are you no longer listening, no longer taking risks, no longer making the hard decisions? Some owners, leaders and managers talk about competition, but fail to do anything about it. Content with success, they slowly become risk averse and complacent. Good is good enough, don’t rock the boat, why mess with a good thing. We behave like the frog dropped into a pot of cold water. As the pot heats, the frog continues to swim around until the water boils and the frog is done. Change happens so slowly the frog never saw it happening.
There was a mid-sized consulting company (approximately 500 employees) in the mid-west. It successfully completed an IPO (Initial Public Offering, which was very popular in the mid 90′s). It was a very successful company – one of the top two firms in its market. At point, its market value approached a half billion dollars. What did they do with the money?
- - They bought other companies – but did not have an integration strategy
- - They leased more office space
- - They increased the number of executives (overhead)
At one point the company had close to 1500 employees, who were working in silos, sometimes at cross purposes and spending money. When the pull back in technology started in 2000, they were poorly positioned to compete. Pleased with their success, they continued doing more of the same, without looking forward and taking action based on what was on the horizon. The company was eventually sold.
How do you know if success is keeping you from being successful? Consider
- - Is your revenue growing?
- - Is it growing faster or slower than your competition? (Do you know?)
- - Is your customer base growing?
- - Is there a product or service being introduced (or anticipated) to the market that could make your product or service obsolete?
- - Are your departments (or staff) working with, against, or without the support of each other?
- - Are your best employees leaving?
- - Are you able to attract top talent? (great job candidates for your company)
- - Are you introducing new products or services into the marketplace and adjusting your offerings with the trends and forecasts?
You may say to us (or yourself) that these points are nonsense. How could a company grow in this economy? Complacency thinking. Companies are growing in this economy; businesses are maintaining market-share. It’s you choice. As Marshall Goldsmith so powerfully titled one of his popular and widely read books – “What got you hear, won’t get you there”.
Copyright 2009 Kubica and LaForest
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