Break that Mindset!

The very word itself, mindset. It keeps us in a frame of mind that is set in its thinking.

What we really need to do is to break that Mindset!

In fact, stop using the word altogether!

We will need our frame of mind to be fluid and flowing. Always adaptable, always willing to seek new insights.

Be open and be respectful too.

If you look at the waves that have been happening over the last few decades, you will find some phenomenal changes that have happened. Some survived, some ultimately survived anyways but not at the expense of something else.

Looking back some 3 or 4 decades ago, you will find that companies were competing with each other largely on price. The, "You think you can go low?! Let's see who can go lower!" And obviously for these companies, the ones that were able to go lower win. Its like the Japanese dumping their goods in the US markets, only to drive the competitors out of business and then increase their prices thereafter. However, not every company is like the Japanese. Some can only go that low. Because there are still wages to pay, loans to service, bills to keep up. So, there is a limit as to how much lower any company can get, without lowering itself out of business.

Then came the, "Well, let's cut our costs so that we can go lower!" With this came the management restructuring, company downsizing, and process re-engineering. So you have a bunch of cost-cutting consultants who advise you where the fats are (not that you do not already know), where you can trim, how if you reorganise your shop floor will be able to streamline your processes, and hence viola! costs are brought down, you can go lower still, and drive out the competition.

After a while, it seems like we are streamlined to our neck! What else can we do? So, what if we do not carry stocks ourselves but let our suppliers carry the stocks for us until we need it? Great idea! Dell did it. JIT manufacturing became the next buzzword. Companies start pushing the baby to the guy lower in the value chain. That caught on quickly, and soon everyone is trying to do the same!

Now, there's no more costs to cut. So let's think out-of-the-box. Do more with less. Go for higher productivity. Let's do benchmarking. Go copy what the best in class is doing and if we can achieve that as well, we'll be ahead of the competition! So here comes the benchmarking consultants and their delivery of the best possibility frontier, to borrow an economics term. Now, we've copied everyone in the industry and more. What else?

How about we innovate? Develop a product where people will need where no one else is doing now! Great concept! Everyone now tries to create a brand, value-add, innovate, creativity. Then comes the creative thinking people. The ones who says you can use your left-brain and your right-brain! People start showing up at work with nose rings, ear-rings, nipple-rings, and what have you. Suddenly its cool to be creative! Let's drop the suit and put on our jeans. Lose the shirt and wear a round-neck. Having a goatie means you are a dude. Being bald is in! For a while, the deal was good.

Then of course, coupled with the fact that everyone was starting a new dot-com company faster than you can say dot-com! All projections and business models were written on napkins, back-of-the-envelopes, on your under-arm! Suddenly new players can now threaten the big boys! Boo-hoo! As you know it, the tech-bubble burst!

Now, everyone is out of job.

And the good news is, the change is not over yet!

It took 3-4 decades for all that to happen.

It will take half (or even less) the time for EVEN more changes to come on!

So, do you need to break that MindSet?

How you may ask!?

Stay tuned....