Evolve or Die: The Choice is Yours

Your company is successful. Customers love you, employees want to work for you, and your financial results are strong. You’ve nailed the formula for success.
Don’t bet on it.
Ask yourself this: Are your competitors standing still? Do you customers continually want more? Is your industry changing?
It doesn’t matter how good you are, how good your customers think you are, or how good you are compared to your competitors. That will change. Everything does. That’s why your business has to keep evolving.
Formula 1 auto racing provides a compelling example. The global sport is the embodiment of relentless innovation and the obsessive search for ever-better performance. Take changing the tires, for example. If you go into your car dealership for a set of new tires, how long does it take? A half-hour? Now imagine they were waiting just for you and made it a top priority to change your tires as quickly as possible. How long would that take? Five minutes? Well, in 2011, the McLaren Formula 1 team completed a tire change – you’re not going to believe this – in 3.19 seconds! That’s the time from when the car stopped in the pit box until – with new tires – it started moving again. Amazing.
Now how could you possibly change four tires any faster than that? Surely, that has to be the limit.
It only took a year. In 2012, Ferrari crushed that time by completing a tire change in … 2.4 seconds! Astounding.
But we’re not done. In 2013, Red Bull Racing pared the time down to – can you even imagine this? – 1.92 seconds. Less than two seconds to change four tires! And that’s where the record stands.
… or more accurately, “stood”. Because in 2016 the Williams team carved away slivers of inefficiency to set the current record: 1.89 seconds. I don’t have any more superlatives. But I defy you to watch the following video and not ask yourself, “What the hell just happened?” Fastest F1 Pit Stop
Here’s the point: We have no idea as to limits of what’s possible. And if you ever think you’ve found those limits then you’re headed for a downfall.
Look back 10 years and see how much things have changed as far as products, services, people, processes and business models. And if you believe the pace of change is increasing, just imagine how much change we’ll see over the next 10 years.
Consider this: Today, a 3.19 second tire change is considered slow in Formula 1.
The lesson is clear: evolve or die.
Make it happen.
Michael
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