When industry norms start to dies, people panic.  It's difficult to change when you think that you must change everything in order to succeed.  Changing everthing is too difficult.

Consider for a minute the pivot points available to you:

• Keep the machines in your factory, but change what they make.
• Keep your customers, but change what you sell to them.
• Keep your providers, but change the profit structure.
• Keep your industry, but change where the money comes from.
• Keep you staff, but change what you do.
• Keep your mission, but change your scale.
• Keep your products, but change the way you market them.
• Keep your customers, but change how much you sell each one.
• Keep your technology, but use it to do something else.
• Keep your reputation, but apply it to a different industry or problem.

Simple examples:

• Keep the musicians, but change how you make money (sell concerts, not CDs).
• Keep making guitars, but make bespoke expensive ones, not the mass market ones that overseas competiion has made obsolete.
• Keep the punch press and the lathe, but make large scale art installations, not car parts.
• Keep your wealthy travel clients, but sell them personal services instead of trips to Europe.
• Keep the factory that makes missiles, but figure out how to make high-efficiency turbines instead.

Technorati Links - Posted by Seth Godin on March 12, 2009