Thought Leadership may be the fastest growing "sub-industry" in the world. There are over 150 million blogs covering every subject under the sun. Everyone is clamoring to be THE Thought Leader in their respective fields. (Including yours truly, of course.)
While thought leadership is good, it can also be a trap.
In a popular 1960's TV show "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" the hapless hero, Dobie would find himself in the shadow of The Thinker statue while he contemplated his life. Week after week, he "thought". Week after week, his life, his love, his troubles remained the same. He never changed. This happens a lot in business. We think, we study, we assign committees, we study some more.....
Be a Change Leader.
Companies that are change leaders are as much about doing as thinking. They actively search for problems to solve…their problems and their customers' problems. When they solve one problem, they quickly move on to the next. Like a shark, they never stop moving. They never stop changing and innovating. Never. Companies that look for stability or equilibrium soon find themselves falling behind the change leaders. They start to look for ways to "save" rather than ways to "make". And as my friend Chuck Verrett often says, "you can't cut your way to success". Once they start down the path of cost cutting and price cutting, they soon become a commodity, margins shrink, sales shrink, customers leave. Ironically, they stop providing the quality and service that made them successful in the first place.
Opportunity is everywhere.
Whether your business is young and fresh or old and mature, there is opportunity for innovation and change. We've seen it with mop manufacturers, banks, industrial contractors, and oil heating products. You just have to look for it. Start by looking for problems. Solve them creatively and you're on your way to being a change leader.
