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Shaking Up Everything, And It’s Good
By susan | March 3, 2009
When all the dentists in the world recommend soft bristles for your toothbrush, why are manufacturers still making medium and hard bristles? This doesn’t affect me that much directly, except when I go to buy a toothbrush and the soft bristles are sold out - in the color that I want. (That’s a separate issue; I see a color, want it, and discover it’s only available in medium or hard. Yes, I want the perfect product every time, and sometimes I did not know what that was until you showed me.)
It often seems that we get stuck in doing things the way they have always been done. Which leads me to the opportunities available in this shaken-up economy. When everything is running pretty smoothly, there is so much natural emphasis on keeping things as they are. I don’t know if that is productive. RIght now, with so many bets off the table, there are wide open spaces everywhere you look. Wide open because companies are afraid to move, to step forward, to do something. That’s a whole lot of opportunity for those who are willing to act, and at the risk of adding yet another metaphor here - to drive right into that big wide open space.
The best news is that in the current market climate, everyone is more free to ask this question: Why have we always done it this way?
Asking more questions tends to lead to better and more creative solutions. I am really looking forward to seeing what comes out of all this; especially in what will be created by those who are willing to move forward regardless of what “everyone else” is doing.
As for the dentists of the world, I do not know if all of them recommend soft bristles, or if it only seems that way. Maybe there’s more creative action going on right now than I think, and it only seems that a lot of companies are stuck right now.
Whoever gets unstuck first probably wins. That’s my bet.
Topics: customer experience |