If readership and comments are indicators of success, this blog is performing well. So, it’s time to make a change, right?
That may sound counter intuitive, but making changes when things are going well is a philosophy we’ve come to adopt over the years and was validated during the recent recession. The changes we made during the good times allowed us to remain strong and profitable during the downturn and actually presented opportunities to expand into new markets through acquisitions. This philosophy also allowed us to hire top talent to position us for future organic growth.
When’s the Best Time?
When your company has a high-performing year, you might have a tendency to subscribe to the
“if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” philosophy and leave things as they are.
I would challenge that thinking. I’ve found this to be a better time to make changes than when you’re in a situation that forces change. Time is on your side and a crisis is not clouding your clarity. You get to focus on opportunity, think through implementation and make good decisions to increase the likelihood of success.
Whether we’re changing our sales compensation plans or selling our furniture business, we’ve made it a practice to implement these changes when things are already going well, even though it would not have been perceived as necessary.
Blog Changes
So, it’s in that spirit that I am making changes to my blog. I want to ensure that the content continues to be relevant and useful to the readers. So, what do you want to know from the CEO?
Starting today, I encourage you to write in, share your personal business challenge, or pose a leadership question (anonymously if you prefer) and I will provide my insight on the topic in a future blog. Consider it my own business version of Dear Abby.
My intent for this concept is to solicit relevant, real-life business situations that you are challenged with and then facilitate dialogue and give my personal input on the topics. For example a question might be, “I am a relatively new employee and want to get promoted, what is the best way to go about it?” Or, “We’re looking to expand into a new market, but don’t know where to start. What steps should we take to accelerate success? Please provide as much detail as possible so I can formulate a thorough response.
I look forward to hearing from you and hope, with my 30 years of relevant business experience, that I can provide a qualified perspective to your business challenge.
