“You can’t just keep doing what works one time, because everything around you is always changing. To succeed, you have to stay out in front of that change.”
With change being the one constant that we can all count on, we have to discipline ourselves to not be victims of it, but "to stay out in front of that change," as Sam Walton said.
If we aren't out in front of change, we then become servants to it, something we can't allow to happen. If we become servants to change, rather than getting out front of it like some competitor will do, we then will be their followers and continually adjusting our strategies and tactics to adapt to them.
Change is real, not just a descriptive word - it has substance to it. So we either ride at the head of it or follow up behind it, but either way change has an impact on how we do business. Our job is to make sure the change we're getting ahead of is change that's here to stay, and not change that is a fad.
Staying out in front of change in relationship to the discipline I mentioned, is knowing the market you serve better than anybody else. We must live and breath the market we serve. We need to know where the people we do business with want to head. If we know where they want to go, that's how we get ahead of them and lead them there.
Those that do this the best are always the market leaders. They are also those that are considered leading edge companies.
This is why success is one of most dangerous activities to enter into. Success will seduce you to stay on something long past its usefulness and relevance.
To live and breath our market means we need to live and breath our customers. We need to listen to what they're saying and see how we can get them there ahead of our competitors. To do that we need to ignore success and look at how we can breakout into new areas our customers are looking to head for. From there just get in front of them and lead them to the promised land ... over and over again.
Other Sam Walton Sources:
Sam Walton: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Business
Sam Walton - Retail Success Story
Sam Walton: King Of The Discounters
Sam Walton: Great From the Start
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