Nothing can make a business more irrelevant than saying, “That’s how we’ve always done it.” Relying on existing ideas and processes is attractive. After all, if your business is built on one way of operating, why would you risk trying something new?
Here’s one reason: of the companies listed in the 1955 edition of the Fortune 500 list, 87% no longer exist — primarily due to failures to deal with disruptive forces within their respective industries. Counterintuitively, it’s inertia that can kill businesses. The pace with which our world changes is only increasing, and failure to adapt to those changes can be fatal.
