“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
-Socrates
We can’t ignore disruption. It impacts every single industry and if you think your business is immune, it will impact you hardest.
We can’t stop it, but we shouldn’t fear it, instead we should prepare for it. Here are the three best ways that you can prepare your company, while making more money in the process:
Think Like a Startup:
Starting a company teaches us about vigilance: we track every dollar, question every expenditure, and consider every new option for growth. But as our business grows, vigilance often falls away. We accumulate expenses with dwindling ROI, fail to motivate our employees like we used to, and fall into routine.
Technology is emerging all around us at unprecedented rates. Make it your job to be hyper-aware of it. Try to take at least a couple hours per week to read, learn, and think about how to adapt to the emerging technologies to prepare for the possible industry disruptions.
Get back to thinking about the essence of your business model. What need are you satisfying? How could you satisfy that need most efficiently? Go back to scrutinizing every dollar and think like a startup again, using those fresh ideas as new motivation.
Don’t Neglect Your Lower-Paying Customers:
It’s human nature to follow the money. Industries typically begin with a wide spectrum of customers. As time goes on, we tend to focus on the increasingly narrow segment of customers with the highest ROI, often without even realizing we’re doing so.
This leaves an increasingly growing number of customers out in the cold, who can’t afford the higher prices that successful industries gravitate towards. Those who keep paying-in start to feel taken for granted, providing the bread and butter while businesses focus on the richer jam.
Technology allows potential disruptors to reach those neglected customers quickly, pulling them away from you before you even notice.
Is your industry neglecting a large number of customers? Have you been catering your products and services to the minority? If so, you may want to strategize on how to better include your ignored “bread-and-butters”.
Stay Nimble:
If we were to read a list of established businesses that disruption managed to bury, we realize that many of them had the option to adapt, but chose not to. They were doing just fine doing with what they’d always done.
Disruption teaches us two things:
- No industry is safe, no matter the size.
- Flexibility works better than fear.
Don’t be scared of disruption, be adaptive to it. Never be satisfied doing the same thing, day in and day out. In a world as rapidly changing as ours, comfortability means you’re falling behind.
Always ask yourself: how can my business do better? How can we service all customers better? How can we improve processes for a better bottom line? How can we use technology smartly to be proactive against the inevitability of change?
