Rose Matlock Consulting

Posts Tagged ‘unplug’

Jim Collins, celebrated business professor, researcher, author and all around smart guy, published an article over 10 years ago that resonates deeply in today’s tight credit environment.  For those that know me, I have been talking for the last 12 months about how the change in the economy is not necessarily as intuitive as previous recessions.  We will be entering a period of lower credit availability.  In other words, there will be less money,  thus individuals and business’ will become much more picky about what they choose to buy or invest in. 

The takeaway for business is to think critically about what products and services they are putting into the market.  Are you targeting your most profitable client?  Is it a sustainable advantage?  What would happen if you had to re-price to the down side by 5%?  10%?  Worse yet, how about 50%?  Answers to these questions are best viewed use a blank sheet or Greenfield approach.  Collins, in building off this analysis advocated by management guru Peter Drucker, argues that you need to challenge yourself with what you might need to “un-plug”.  Companies and individuals simply cannot be all things, at all times to all people.  Attempting to do that or worse yet, failing to move on to the new expected product or service evolution can lead to irrelevance or failure in a blink of an eye.   

In a contrasting example, I watched one company grow from zero to $10 million in revenues almost overnight, based on the founder’s ability to create revolutionary products. Unfortunately, the company stalled out and was eventually acquired, because it never made the transition from being a company with an innovative founder to being an innovative company. The founder tried to solve the company’s problems by working extra hours on new products—in short, by more doing…he should have done less, which would have forced the company to become innovative independent of his genius. – Jim Collins

What do you need to un-plug from in 2010?  Given the chance to start from scratch, with what you know now…what would you do differently?  Do not be afraid of the answers because no one said the changes had to be implemented overnight but with reality based assessments here, you can build a rock solid implementation plan for the future..