Are you frozen in the past?

“ Study the past if you would define the future,” said Confucius.

What if you are obsessed with the past?

Managers  are sometimes frozen in the past.  A significant number of managers, (and brands too )  are  seen  to stagnate  in the past achievements. They presume that they can continue to hold on to market shares by  capitalizing on their past achievements, ignoring  the future. Business then is  at the peril of losing business. An ambitious, innovative competitor will gnaw in to your market share through his adaptation to customer needs.

Examples: IBM made a mistake by not buying operating software from Microsoft. It happened to the managers of Hindustan Motors in India whose Ambassador cars were on the roads of India since 1948. These cars ruled the roads till the 1980s. Then came the Suzuki raiders. They just knocked these cars off the roads and  took away a massive share of the wallet. Hindustan Motors' managers kept on refusing to read the writing on the wall, harping on nonexistent nostalgia. Like Penguins, they walked slowly. Typically , they might want to innovate but then like penguins,  in close proximity they become nervous. India's affluent were then seeking international brands. Hindustan Motors lost out on a lack of agility. 

So strategic nimbleness is the key in a dynamic world. The inability to respond to the market pushes companies in to irrelevance if not oblivion.

Innovate. Do not let your company be a collector's item.  Companies and individuals need to seize the moment. 

 (Excerpts from the author's manuscript on the IoT Manager. Copyright vests with  the author)