Headnote
Remember Blockbuster? Well then, surely you've heard about Kodak, that is its untimely and altogether
avoidable demise? What caused those companies' failures is the very thing that enabled others like
Netflix to own the franchise in their industry: It's called Thinking Lean. Readers will learn that Lean is
more - much, much more - than reducing the head count, and is actually the platform for launching
industry leadership.
The economy has been languishing for several years now, an economy that I call a "sleeping beauty." We
know she will wake up at some point, and when she does, she will likely be terrific. We just don't know
when that will happen. In the meantime, we leaders and managers will try to wait it out. We don't invest
for growth, innovate or really drive the business. We wait for the economy to improve and then plan to
act.
This is not a strategy with which I agree. While the organization hunkers down, it also stagnates. Star
employees will leave for more interesting situations, customers get bored, and our competition likely isn't
sitting still. We need to be driving to "Next."
Yet, Next is a difficult place to get to, and the journey is fraught with doubt, failure, questions and
expense along the way. How do we know this is the right path for us? How do we know what customers
will want (especially tomorrow's customers)? Where will we get the resources? Key concerns indeed.