Being the biggest should not be the goal in business. If being the biggest was a guarantee of success, we would all be using IBM computers, driving GM cars, shopping at Sears, using Motorola cell phones, buying music CDs at the store, renting videos at Blockbuster, drinking Maxwell House coffee, and eating at Shoney’s.

All of these companies had one thing in common. They lost their market share because they thought they were too big to fail. They all just assumed their market dominance would last. New competition is something to be reckoned with and every company will face it. If you go back 30 years ago and pulled a list of the top 20 most valuable companies in the world and compared the list to the top 20 most valuable companies today, shocker – not one of the companies from 30 years is on the list today. Not one.

Corporate magic (what really works) doesn’t always transfer from generation to generation and decade to decade. Just look at Sears. In 1970 they had been the largest retailer in the world for 70 years counting. Sears accounted for 1% of the total GDP of the United States. Two out of every three American adults shopped at Sears at least five time a year and 25 million American families had a Sears credit card. They were unstoppable,,,,until they weren’t.

There are some things that should never change like the way you love your children  and worship your God, but in business you must always be watching the curve and make sure what you are selling and the way you are selling it, is something the market still wants.

What is my point? The point is that there are areas of our lives that should never change but if you are in business, you should always be looking up, be read up, and be aware of what is going on around you because it is always changing. KT