Returning to What Worked in the Past

Today I was watching one of the news channels and I was snapped to attention when I heard a phrase I've been hearing a lot lately. An "expert" talking about the U.S. said, "We just need to return to what made our country great in the first place." I've heard that sentence or one like it recently applied to businesses, churches, professional teams and now the country. While it sounds good, it's bologna.

Tactics that worked in the past, rarely will work forever. For a tactic to work eternally, everything would have to remain static. The competitive landscape would have to be the same, the consumer's attitude would have to be the same, the economy would have to be the same. This would rarely, no strike that, never be the case.

We are facing the most expansive changes we have ever seen. The economy is in a drastic flux, the competition is using methods not even dreamed of 5 years ago, and most importantly, consumers have fundamentally changed due to their new found digital power.

Tectonic changes are taking place, returning to what worked in the past is a recipe for failure.