Leadership
Stop Focusing On Your Core Business
It has become the fast track to oblivion.
“Where Have All the Flowers Gone” was a 1960s antiwar hit for Peter,
Paul and Mary. The “flowers” meant soldiers dying in Vietnam. These days we might be tempted to sing,
“Where Have All the Mighty Corporations Gone?”
That is the first paragraph to my latest column for Forbes magazine. A laundry list of notable failures the last few years is driving home the point that “focus on your core” is insufficient to even survive – much less thrive! And don’t blame “the government” for these failures – as all were related to management decisions intended to keep the company “on track.” Instead, these leadership teams “doubled down” on the old Success Formula until there just wasn’t any more juice left in that orange!
On the other hand, Apple demonstrates the value of seeking out new markets. “The iPad is Already Bigger than the iPod — and Half as Big as the Mac” is the Business Insider article.
By distinctly not focusing on its core, and instead entering new markets, Apple — and Google as well — keep right on growing. Ignoring the “Great Recession.”
So is your business strategy intended to have you keep doing more of the same? Hoping if you do more, better, faster, cheaper things will return to the sales and profit growth of an earlier time? Or are you entering new markets, putting out new solutions that meet emerging market needs? Are you planning for a past era to return, or for the emerging future? Do you use scenarios, or historical trend lines? If you are hoping to be glorious by focusing on your core, give this Forbes article a read. You just may decide to change course.