Overcoming Your Obstacles to Growth - Managing Lock-in

The Business Trendsetter Podcast

Often people see changes in their market. And they see new opportunities being created. Yet, despite awareness of new opportunities and the need to change far, far too often we don't change. We don't implement changes to overcome threats, and we miss out on new growth opportunities. Even when we know we should. Why not?

This podcast goes over how "best practices" causes us to "lock-in" our business model, and our business practices, behaviorally, structurally and with costs. We create a specific culture, and work hard to maintain that culture, even when the culture needs to change. We implement IT business practices, and IT packages, that make the business more efficient, but makes it very, very hard to change. And we make big investments in buildings, technology, intellectual property, people and other assets that we feel compelled to "leverage" thus refusing to develop a new cost model. By understanding these "lock-ins" we can identify them, and attack them, creating the space for change in our organizations.

Thinking points:

• Do you work hard to create a "common culture" in hiring, promotion and pay, thus limiting other perspectives on your business?
• Do you have assumptions about how business works that limit your ability to see new opportunities?
• Do you have processes designed for efficiency, but which are so complicated that they are impervious to change?
• What investments do you have that you feel compelled to leverage, keeping you from trying new business models?
• Do you suffer from "not invented here?" Do you have an internal expert who can kill new ideas? Do you have "sacred cows" that cannot be challenged?