9:53 AM

So there are no easy answers to today’s economic problems. With that said there are a myriad of ways out of the problem and opportunities to grow. This post is about the importance of having a business that is able to re-think, re-engineer and re-tool so you can increase sales in an economic downturn.

It’s an awesome sunny day and I hop in my old car (it’s a 2005) and fly off to the Apple Store to pick up a new case for my laptop. I arrive at the mall seven minutes early. It’s 9:53AM and there are about 10 people milling around the door, 2 men and the rest were women.

As I walked up you could tell a few of the folks were hurried. I on the other hand I was content that I had arrived seven minutes early and welcomed the short break from the hustle and bustle of being a business owner, husband and proud papa of 3 girls.

My attention turned to the three women who found a common bond in their iPhone. Being the proud papa of two iPhones, one MacBook, one MacBook Pro, one iMac and and a Mac Mini; it pains me to make the following admission; they were all having trouble with their iPhones. Here is the punch line of this blog. Two of the three women had the new 3G and the other one had the first version that she sheepishly referred to as the “old one”.

Get out! Since when did one year become the end of a product life cycle? All the businesses I consult for are still using flyers that are 5 years or more old and the product mix has changed so little that they can actually pull this off. Other than the printed materials being dated, their products or services have changed very little.

So what am I trying to say, change, change fast, change often or die. There is a reason Google has nearly three times the number of searches when compared to Yahoo who is second; Apple maintains 70% market-share of the iPod market and commands more profit per machine than any other computer manufacturer. Moreover, if you look at any other organization or individual that is number one, change and evolution is part of their DNA. Tiger Woods is clearly the best golfer, when he walks off the course, he shifts his attention from competition to figuring out how he can be better.

Exercise Room:

If clients lined up at your door from one year ago:
1.) Would they see any improvements in your service or product offering?
2.) Are there any product or service changes in your product or service pipeline that could be rolled out within a year?
3.) Do you have the mechanisms or individuals within your team that can drive change that positively affects sales results?

Call us to ask how we can help and check out Bob Kriegel to learn more about the importance of being change ready.

Often times, when my phone rings it is a company looking for strategic advice or creative solutions to resolve problems they are experiencing in their own business. My interest is peaked and I listen as the business owner describes the situation in detail. I respond by conducting a straight forward line of questioning which goes something like this, “Help me understand the problem. What are you trying to accomplish or what are the barriers to the situation?” My responses vary yet, as anticipated, the business owner will often say, “I already tried something like that once.” While the conversation winds down and the business owner thanks me for my time and new perspective, I find myself wondering why the heck they called if they are not going to try something more than once or entertain an innovative way of thinking. In fact, I wondered why people are reluctant to explore opportunities to improve, period.

I was reading the book Inside Steve’s Brain by Leander Kahney (link to cult of mac.com) and the answer came to me when Kahney shared the following, “Apple’s labs are littered with prototype products that never made it out the door.” Apple has accepted the fact that many great ideas and innovations will never make it to market. Yet, they continue to explore innovative ways to generate revenue while realizing full well many will never be implemented.

It struck me that businesses are afraid to explore innovative ways of thinking and new ideas for fear of not being able to return to their old ways of business. Companies typically do not explore new ideas or innovative solutions because they simply do not know how to say no to some of the prototypes. In light of their inability to say no, many companies tend to avoid any creative pursuits all together.

In a sense, innovation and breakthroughs are cut off at the pass because companies are concerned they will have to bring any new discoveries into fruition.

Apple, on the other hand, understands how to say no. They can safely make their way down the innovation trail because they know full well they will not execute all of the prototypes. When you are unable to say no, great ideas get stifled, companies cannot make the distinction between forward thinking and forward acting.

In addition, there is a huge difference between great ideas and the process of bringing a concept to fruition. Many times, an innovation or breakthrough can happen without making any radical changes to a product or service. Sometimes, a simple change of perspective can have a huge impact on the way in which a company resonates with a client.

The ability to say no is one part of the equation in keeping the throttle on growth idle. Companies today are missing the boat by having many “sacred cows” and in effect, remaining clueless about the “customer experience.” Please keep your RSS feeders on as I shed some light on the throttle to driving more profit for your company.

Exercise Room:

At some point it becomes important to step back and ask yourself some questions. If I strolled through your company today, how many artifacts (product or service concepts) would I find?

Is your organization guilty of squashing innovation and fresh thinking for fear you will have countless prototypes to develop? What impact would it have on our business if you could roll out one new product or service innovation that your clients are willing to pay for?