The Only Thing That is Constant Today is Change

My old boss always used to say that the only thing constant in the company was change. Change was in our DNA and accepted by most employees as a positive. It is important, especially in these times with things changing daily, that you create a culture of positive change in your company.

This is the time of the year that most companies start to plan for the coming year. 2021 is going to be one of the most challenging years to plan for in my business lifetime. It is also going to be an anxious time for your employees and customers. Employees want to know if you plan to expand or contract the business. Your customers want to be assured that you are going to be there to support them in the future, as you have been in the past. You also need to evaluate your vendors, to see if they are going in the same direction as your company, to support your business plan.

A good way to keep your employees positive is to include them in your New Year planning. We used to send out an assignment to all our employees asking them to answer a few questions. One question we always asked everyone was “What can we do differently?” We were often amazed how many great ideas we received that could be implemented to improve the business. It also kept the people thinking about their jobs and viewing change as positive.

Change is everywhere whether you are driving it or not. I just read an article that quoted a study of 326 CEOs by Chief Executive Group and Myrtle Consulting Group from July 2020 that found 89% of the executives said that their companies were undergoing change. The challenge was to do so without losing sight of who you are and what has made the company a success.

While we do not know what next year will bring, most CEOs agreed that it’s important to make sure that you can scale your company to keep your service level meeting your customers’ expectations. Most were planning change that will put them in a good position to take advantage of the pent-up demand. Most reported that they are proceeding with the change they would have implemented before COVID hit. Investing in equipment and technology led the way to increase productivity. Most economists are saying the economy will come back strong. While the mystery is when this will occur, most agree your company needs to be ready with strong planning that will put you in a position to benefit. You should not put off positive change that will put you in that position.