“It is not the strongest nor the most intelligent of species that survives, but the one that is most adaptable to change.”
-Charles Darwin
Did you know that this quote may not be Darwin’s original words?!! According to one source, the writings of Leon C. Megginson, a Professor of Management and Marketing at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, the quote started out as a paraphrase. Megginson wrote in 1963:
“According to Darwin’s Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”
Megginson, ‘Lessons from Europe for American Business’, Southwestern Social Science Quarterly (1963) 44(1): 3-13, at p. 4.
Both variations of the quote are profound when you pause and consider what it takes for your business to survive. Successful businesses must adapt to change.
Let’s look at an example of what adapting – or rather not adapting to change – look like.
- Blockbuster, who helped create your in-home movie experience with its market share of video home systems (VHS), was late to attempt to get into the digital video disc (DVD) race. It failed to adapt to the emerging online DVD rental service and the rise of pay-per-view and on-demand movie services.
- IBM was on the brink of going out of business because the computer giant failed to adapt to the consumer’s desire for personal computers.
- Microwave Communications Inc. (MCI), a telecommunications conglomerate, for many decades, was too slow to adapt to cell phones, the emergence of local phone companies on the long-distance scene, and a glut of bandwidth capacity on long-haul data networks.
Change is constant and adapting to it is a mindset. You must recognize the need to change, understand where and when it is happening, determine how it will impact your business, and finally implement and manage the change.
Despite its necessity and regularity, change can’t happen in a bubble. As the business owner, you can’t just decide to change without the buy-in of stakeholders. Successful implementation requires not only that clients and customers welcome and support change, but organizational actors and members of the value chain are ready to adapt. Change readiness is not just talking about infrastructure, it’s talking about company culture.
IMS can help you consider the impact that change will have on your business’s ability to serve your clients. We can help you seek strategies and solutions that will help you adapt and manage change.
Posted by Dr. Drena Valentine to LinkedIn on April 7th, 2021
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