Scarcity mentality in people is very dangerous. And if applied in organizations, it is doubly lethal.

It can cause organizations to be reactive, defensive, and insecure, hoarding the little asset they have thinking that it would protect them from the ravages of change.

With little that they have, they are afraid to invest in strengthening their core and increasing their value, thereby getting stuck in diminishing returns.

They are not ready to innovate, experiment, take prudent risks, change anything substantial because they are afraid to lose.

Being afraid to lose instead of going for the win is what separates the winning organizations from those that have decided to stay behind and wait. 

Who says that space travel is still a dream? Not anymore. 

NASA just announced that they will be commercializing some of their work which means going towards space tourism since the US government will be withdrawing support for their operations in the next few years.

Commercializing space travel is the next frontier for those in the affluent sector where millions of monies are taken for granted.

What kind of services, products, and experiences would space travel need for various customers and clients?

What innovation would it usher next?

Why it is important to get there first? 

I can't wait to see and find out. This is not for the future.

This is definitely for now.


"Fly me to the moon
Let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like
On-a Jupiter or Mars"

Don't let a dramatic event stop your tracks before you get the lessons learned or get the message.

Improve your value and organizational value rapidly by cutting off the status quo that no longer serves your mission, purpose, and strategies.

It is easy to be riding on the waves when the economy is on an upswing, everyone likes the ride up there, the air is thin but fresh.

When the economy tanks out, everyone thinks about cutting their losses and downsizing to manageable levels.

It is time to stop reacting to world events, economic catastrophes, outside offers, and deals. It is time to start innovating and building a better base for tomorrow by thinking for the future, not for the past and the present. It will be stale by the time you launch it.

Remember- stop waiting for a dramatic event. By that, it means one thing- you are being let go and the organization has suffered more to deserve a radical shakedown. 

 

I had a former boss who always had to had a post-mortem examination of events, situations, and scenarios that transpired. With the 20/20 hindsight, you can diagnose so many things that have gone wrong with the purpose to improve it or avoid the more-than-once mistakes, errors, and miscalculations.

This is a great exercise and a good habit to have by executives and managers. No stones unturned. But the best managers and leaders start from a point of preventative rather than having to deal with a fall-out of a bad and terrible event. This is by asking the primarily question: what could have gone wrong in this situation and how can we mitigate the risks?  bad weather, last minute cancellations, no-show speakers, bad sound system, missing presentations, etc., etc. The list can go on and on.

Preventative mindset is a proactive approach to ensuring that you have the opportunity to take control of the situation on your own terms, can redirect resources to mitigate them, and then of course, have contingency plans in case the preventative action fails.

In life and business, you can only assume that everything will be alright but that is not the case for reality. You always have to have a back-up plan. There is a great reason for that!

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Abraham Maslow said "if all you have is a hammer, everything that you see is a nail."

Very true.  We have a cognitive bias for that one skill, method, approach, thinking, acting, doing.  We think that it will solve all the problems in the world or perhaps in our household. 

If organizations are one-trick ponies, not capable to adapting and innovating to the changing times, the hammer that they will be using will become obsolete (including the nail) one day and that is the end of their utility.

Learn to adapt to the new needs, ride on the wave of new needs. or create the need itself, then think about how your organization can service them. 



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Have you heard lately that Payless is closing all of its stores in Canada, some in US and Puerto Rico? According to the news, the reason for the closure is that the prior reorganization was ill-equipped to account for the current retail realities -which means that the management made a big mistake by not accounting for the growing online shopping in Northern America.

It is quite revolutionary that the buying patterns of the public has led to massive reorientation and bankruptcies of major retail players, Sears, ToysRUs, Macy’s, to name the recent ones that have folded or beginning to fold up.
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While Payless caters to the lower segment of the market where price is a sensitive issue, it wasn’t immune to the competition that is happening online when buyers shifted the way marketing, merchandizing, branding and promotions, distribution, delivery, payment systems, and customer services are done with retail. Big box companies are beginning to see the follies of the mantra, “big is big.”

What should be obvious is the Walmart remains the number 1 competitor in industry.  Walmart is trying to succeed in the online shopping space where Amazon remains the industry leader with selling things online. Amazon and Walmart is up to the races to the future of the marketplace. Let's see who will win but at present, these two companies have shown that it pays to be adaptable and to listen to your customers!