SUCCESS CREATES ITS OWN PROBLEMS

The Polaroid Corporation -- Its Success melted away in line with the rise of the digital age

How many times have successful enterprises challenged themselves to see what they should be doing in the future? Not very often it would seem. If things are going well and the money is rolling in, it is not easy to challenge whether things are on the right path. Senior management often thinks that the answer is so obvious that it just isn't worth instigating critical thought processes to think differently. We are okay, lets not rock the boat, our dominance will continue, we hope? Those who do challenge the present levels of success are seen as a bit strange ( Bozo's in Steve Jobs' terminology) spoilers, negatively attuned etc. There is nothing further from the truth.

It is a brave person who argues against success but it is a process which should be pursued for the long term future of the enterprise. Success makes an enterprise complacent. We think we have got it right for now and for all time and this is seldom the case. When an Enterprise is doing well no-one looks too critically  at the strategy,cash flow, finances,budgets and performance because everything is alright, isn't it? When the external environment becomes more difficult then greater scrutiny is undertaken and things start to come out of the woodwork. Things that an enterprise did not consider too serious when the cash was flowing in, now become more critical in more challenging times.Often issues emerge which should have been tackled in the good times but it is often too late to resolve them now or there aren't enough resources to tackle them. We should have fixed the roof when the sun was shining not when it is raining.

This is the case when future trends are not properly built into strategies and managers are seduced by their current success. Funds are not adequately set aside to change direction and if they are then it is too late. Profits are not adequately assigned to R and D.Take the example of the Polaroid Corporation which was dominant in the camera,film and instant picture market for so long but did not predict the rise of digital cameras and digital photography. The British motorcycle industry, successful for so long without realising that there would be intense Japanese competition just around the corner.

 

According to Peter Drucker, the most successful US industries in the 1920's were anthracite coal mining and railroads. Both believed their monopolies would last forever and there was no need to challenge the status quo and to think critically. Success was taken for granted. When an enterprise has seemingly achieved its objectives it should keep challenging itself. What is our business now and what will it be in the future? Without challenging current success the alternative is very often decline.

 

The publicshing industry is perhaps being more successful at this. In the last century the successful focus was on book publishing. In the future, publishers will need to transform themselves into multi-meida enterprises concentrating on the printed word in electronic format. Paperback book sales are flat whilst e-book and e-music sales advance at an increasing pace.

 

Success is often ephemeral and fleeting. Even a sustained period of success is often only a relatively small part of an enterprise's total business life.

So next time your enterprise is rightly celebrating success in a company meeting and someone challenges the roots and foundations of that success. Do not automatically think they are off their rocker, they may well have the future of the enterprise more at heart than those who are focusing on current success without planning for radical future changes in politics,science,economics, social trends and tastes and the impact of new technologies. The interaction of new technologies and social tastes and trends is particularly important here.

 

To celebrate tomorrow we have to plan for it and not revel in our current success as it may not last.