Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

As managers or business owners we need to understand something concerning change that has a tremendous impact upon our decision-making processes. We need to realize that technology changes at tremendous rates of speed while people change a lot slower. It is when we get these two areas confused that we can make huge mistakes with our businesses or departments.

This is why I always say that technology is never going to be the differentiator when it comes to successfully serving the marketplace. The reason why is that once everybody has the technology and perform their continual updates, there is no difference from the technology side of things between companies. Customers don't care what type of technology you have; they won't do business with you based upon that.

When considering the endless promoting of the speed of things, keep in mind that it can only relate to technology, not people. People can and will only change at a certain pace. Try to get them to do it beyond their desire and ability and they will rebel and resist.

This is why people that help industries to understand where they need to go, are really people you diligently study the past. They know that because people change slowly, they can count on the past to indicate where the future is going, based upon certain behaviors.

All of this is important because people will try to get you to do certain things based upon speed. When it comes to technology this is legitimate, as we need to keep on top of how it can help us do our jobs. When it comes to people, it is completely different. The only times we need speed there, is if we haven't paid attention to the gradual changes in the marketplace and have fallen behind. In other words people have gradually adjusted to change and are ready to take the next step and the business hasn't kept up with it and aren't able to serve the consumer.

The American auto industry is a good example here as they didn't respond to the increase in gas prices and the obvious response by consumers that they would want vehicles with better mileage.

The point is that we don't need to panic or be pushed into an endless crisis mode by being made to think that we have to be perpetual motion machines to serve the consumer. If we pay attention to and keep current with the market we serve, there should be no reason that we have to react in a panic and open ourselves up to numerous mistakes. People just don't change that quickly.