Nothing stays the same
There’s a fallacy in how many organizations think around their overall position in the market. The same concept pertains to most areas of life. Here it is… “Things are staying about the same.” Nothing stays the same. Changes can be marginal, but it’s still a change. They increase and decrease, but never stay the same. There’s always a reason for the change. You are either gaining market share or losing it. Things COULD be the same in a philosophical environment where you have no competition, there are no substitutes for your products, you have no suppliers, there is no threat of new competition and finally… you have no customers. Reality is based on much more complexity than this, because your world is constantly impacted by other people and organizations.
Your position is ALWAYS changing. Attributes of your brand are constantly being impacted by customer experiences, and experiences of their friends and colleagues. Even when the numbers appear to be staying the same, it’s a result of a temporarily balanced set of factors supporting and resisting your success.
The assumption that your position in your market is safe is possibly the most dangerous perspective an organization can have. It’s related to the concept that success breeds complacency, which breeds failure. (ref: S curve theory)
Strategy is about repositioning your business, because you know you can’t sit still and survive. Businesses that have traditionally sat still and won’t adapt, aren’t around for long to tell us what went wrong.
When people within your team act like this is true, there’s an underlying assumption… either it’s someone else’s responsibility to do the thinking or that your business is bullet proof. Neither one of those perspectives are productive. It’s everyone’s responsibility to do the thinking and no one’s business is bullet proof!