This year it’s different.
Three things we now expect every January on the internet:
– New year predictions.
– New year resolutions.
– Reviews of past years’ abandoned resolutions and failed predictions.
Why?
Humans crave the power to know and control the future. We also are creatures of habit & don’t change gracefully — not even to adapt for the future we want.
Gentle reader, I will spare you the standard January predictions, resolutions, and litanies of defunct predictions and resolutions. I’ll only say that both professionally and personally, all major changes in my life during the past 12 months would NOT have been in last January’s predictions or resolutions. They’ve been great changes — new clients, new house, new family member, business growth. But I didn’t sit down last January and map out that they were all going to happen.
Things will always happen tomorrow that didn’t happen yesterday. Macroeconomic shifts, natural disasters, decisions taken by clients and competitors, you name it. It is ours to prepare for alternative scenarios and black swan events — not simply to institutionalize what works today.
Obsessing about risk management means to constantly develop operating processes, tech tools, business partnerships, marketing campaigns, financial resources, etc, that let me adapt when things change. It means studying how others have successfully managed through tough changes. It means looking at my situation and saying, “What’s unsustainable about this? What’s likely to change? What are the what-ifs we should be ready for?”
It doesn’t help to obsess about past failures — these typically cannot be controlled. I’ve already learned from them.
Examples: ways to obsess about risk management
– In finance, conserve cash. With cash in hand, no one else (banks, investors, accounts receivable, factors…) controls your ability to seize an opportunity or survive a traumatic change.
– In sales & marketing, stay close to customers. If a given tactic doesn’t get a response, your customers can tell you why. If something works, customers can show you how to extend it. Simply knowing what happened doesn’t tell you why it worked (or didn’t).
The ability to adapt equals power to work with whatever future we meet. It is the basis of military success — fire and motion (thanks, Joel Spolsky). It is the basis of sales and marketing success. It is the basis of business strategy.
Whatever else happens, invest in flexibility. Then keep moving. All we know about this year is that it’s going to be different from last year.
Happy new year.
Related posts:
- What Technology Can’t Do
- Book Review: Sales and Marketing the Six Sigma Way
- Buying is irrational…like investing
- Doing things right the first time vs. learning as we go
- Marketers: under pressure for ROI? How to find accountability mentors.
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