Exit9

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Your scared. You resist change. You don’t even know what “Business Evolution” is. Well, regardless of what you believe about the Creation vs. Evolution debate, business evolution is a current reality. (Photo Credit: Practical Owl)

What is it, Joshua? Business evolution is the culture in which all businesses exist. It is survival of the fittest, evolve or die. It’s the School of Hard Knocks, as some call it. Others say it’s a “dog eat dog world out there” and many other proverbs we hear (at least in America). I’m sure you can add you own punch line (please do comment and share yours!) but you understand what it is.
(Photo Credit: Negotiations)
Examples of evidence of business evolution are:
- Everything is going digital (newspapers, tv, radio, etc)
- Car Companies are going out of business
- Twitter; is a new form of email and sharing
- iPhone; a fun easy to use small computer as a phone
- “Green Energy” is the latest trend in supplying the world with power
- Kindle and Apple’s Tablet

We at Exit9 LLC (my company) have the privilege to work with the “latest and greatest” start-ups. Like a revolutionary case study that changes everything for an industry to creating a Craigslist like site (that makes money). All of the start-ups are very ambitious with a sea of passion. But reality is that 50% fail within the first 5 years. After that, it’s up the creek with no paddle! (Photo Credit: Implementing Scrum)

I read in a Harvard Business Article that less than 20% of Top 100 companies in 1920 are still in existence today. (I can’t find the link and I’ve searched for hours; so take that statement as a grain of salt.) Even without the source, it’s a believable find and is partly the basis for this post and also because newspapers won’t stop complaining and blaming people for their lack of innovation.

Reality is companies stop innovating and re-structuring their business models. They think in a very boxed manner. They say “but we are a CD company” or rebuttle with “but the Atari is our product.” They give reasons on why they can’t change, when they should be asking questions like “How should we change to expand our reach and continue our profits?” They become driven on what their literal product is today but don’t realize that they are selling a concept and evolving it’s model overtime.

Another example is Sony Pictures CEO. They are whining and crying all the way down the hole of recession. They are pointing fingers instead of taking actions. Sony Pictures CEO whined about the leaked release of Wolverine on the web because he said it “hurt profits”. The truth is, it helped them because it was a good movie, therefore Word of Mouth drove more people to the theaters to watch it. Also, newspapers are pointing their fingers at Google. I’m sure there are hundreds of additional examples of businesses failing to evolve (share them below, in the comment section).

At the end of the day, I wouldn’t be suing x company for my shortcomings but I guess that’s what happens when you think more about money than about people. Each of these large companies have large amounts of cash that they could fund innovative tech projects that benefit their company but they don’t want to take the risk. Therefore, they get no reward. So, they are going to waste their money on legal battles and court costs and get no return on their money.

So, a note to newspapers and anyone else that is complaining about the recession and their loss of revenue: CHANGE OR FILE FOR BANKRUPTCY!

Since we deal with a lot of new startup ecommerce business merchants, a softer note to you (because you rarely complain): 3 years from now, your business will be different. If you own a restaurant, you won’t be able to market via newspapers because they will be out of print, nor magazines. Go online, use social media, think of new ways to reach your customers. If your a product company, throw money at R & D (research and development) or you’ll be extinct in a few years. If your company’s goal is to make the fastest car in the world, increase it’s speed by x miles per hour over x days, don’t stop improving. Move, shake, rattle and roll.

Times are tough. Businesses are shrinking because banks don’t want to lend. So, it’s forcing your company to weather this storm. Don’t complain, act! Act on your gut, take risks because in the end, the only one you can blame for failure, is yourself. Also, please note, when times get better, spend money on R & D (research and development) and innovate new ways to reach your customers.