It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.
~ Charles Darwin
If you had asked me a couple years ago what I thought I’d be doing professionally in 2011, I can guarantee you I would have been 100% wrong.
Being in business is filled with uncertainty and risk. But for those who change with the times – the visionaries if you will – they are much more likely to skirt the hazards. And continually create what others want.
Too often businesses that fail believe they cannot fail. Look at the Lehman Brothers. They got comfortable. And where are they now?
Or more often, businesses don’t hop on the bandwagon soon enough. Take Sears for instance. Besides their hardware section, what is Sears truly good for anymore? Their famous Wish Book? I’m not sure about you, but I do my clothing, jewelry and toy shopping elsewhere.
This isn’t a sudden trend or something that just started recently. Al Gore and his damn Internets aren’t to blame either. The world is rapidly changing. And has been since before the industrial age. Technology simply fuels this rapid change in people’s needs and desires.
The oil industry refuses to acknowledge this fact. They are doing everything they can to pressure the ongoing dependency of their product. The industry is pretending the growing demand for clean energy is not a problem. All they see is the billions of dollars of untapped oil.
But what does this mean for your brand? (Besides the fact that your full-page ad in the yellow book was a waste of money?) It means you must do everything you can to anticipate upcoming trends in buyer behavior. For example:
Manufacturers: Sales’ drop on product X while M is finally taking off? Why is this?
Real Estate Brokerage: A factory just laid-off two thousand people? What will this mean for the middle-class housing market?
Service Industry: Currently focusing on the affluent executives in the area? How can you attract the growing number of retiring baby boomers?
Newspaper Publisher: Ad sales dropping? Give up already! … just kidding! I know newspapers still have a few good years left in them :)
Anyway, you get the point.
So as you look forward to the year ahead, you must be prepared to change. Business plans nowadays are only business guesses. Selling 100 widgets in Q2 of next year is impossible to predict.
Rather, plan to change. Money is to be made in years to come. Just keep in mind; no one truly knows where that money will be made.
What do you think will be the catalyst of change in your business? And what have you done thus far to stay ahead of the curve?
About the Author: Bradley Gauthier is co-founder of New Methods. And is passionate about helping big thinking entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. He has been a serial entrepreneur since the age of 12 when he created an online marketing firm. Connect with him on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn & Facebook.
