You can’t evolve if you can’t change. But most people are fearful of change, which is why change is not an instinctive human emotion. But what if we altered the emphasis from the word change to a new word: adapt, so every time we think about the uncomfortable notion of change, we think ADAPT.

For example: “I am forever adapting my business systems to make them more efficient.” “My business is always evolving as I continually adapt to match the drivers of change in my industry.” See how adapt now brings a new meaning to change.

When mega booksellers Borders and Angus and Robinson collapsed last month, the media announced their failure was a result of not adapting to the effect that the Internet was causing traditional book retailers. For a bookseller, these were words that Red Group Retail, (the owners of Borders and A&R) hoped would never be written.

In 2008, we closed our business Toombul Music for similar reasons. Shortly after this, I delivered a keynote address at the Red Group National Retail conference and warned them that the Internet was about to do to books what it did to music. The industry opinion was that ‘people would always want to collect physical books’. ‘That’s exactly how I felt about music’, was my response, ‘We evolved our business by adapting to new industry trends.’

Evolution is the ultimate time machine that encapsulates the success or failure of all enterprises. The adaptation process is how we evolve. It’s the transition from old to new, good to great, extinction to survival. Just as Charles Darwin’s discovered that each species of life became stronger from the survival instincts of its predecessor, ‘the survival of the fittest’, the same principles of adaptation apply to the survival of twenty-first century business.

Here’s what I mean. In nature, vulnerability exists in the young and the old. Both extremes of their lifecycle depend on the support of others of their species to survive. If you think about business in the same context, 80% of new businesses fail in the first three years because of lack of experience and capital. Conversely, businesses that have been successful over a long period of time eventually reach their ‘used by’ date, because they continue to do what they’ve always done.

In both cases, they need support to survive because they are not keeping up with the forces that are driving change in their industries. Or in Darwin’s words, it’s a case of ‘the survival of the fittest’, and adapting to ever-changing environments.

The reality of life is that everything is continually evolving around us whether we choose to participate or not. If you don’t adapt you will be replaced by a competitor who does. Who would have thought 20 years ago, that McDonald’s would be selling salads, Apple would be the worlds biggest music retailer, Australia would have a female PM, and I’d be here to remind you!

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“A business only assumes a life of it’s own with proactive leadership. ‘Taking the bull by the horns’ is my call to action.”

BB

Taking the bull by the Horns business seminar

Do you want to learn the secrets that most small business owners will never know about how to really stand out from your competition?

I will be sharing my simple, proven, step-by-step strategies to business success at my forthcoming seminar: Taking the Bull by the Horns being held on the Sunshine Coast April 5^th. You will learn how to evolve your business and how to take the bull by the horns and engage the biggest driver of change in the world today –The Internet. But you’ll need to book now. Click here for details…..