Why Telling Businesspeople to “Embrace Change” is Meaningless

What is the right advice? It’s definitely not to “embrace change” because businesspeople deal with intended and unintended changes every day. The right advice is to make sure that whatever planning process is employed, even if the most informal, that it is more robust than it was before and is capable of detecting change sooner and point to the best long-run options for a profitable and proactive response. That planning process must include good controls and the ability to act decisively to be sure that the desired results are attained. No one should be creating opportunities that satisfy your customers’ emerging needs other than you. If your planning process does not enhance your ability adapt to a marketplace and provide renewable and superior value to your customers, then it’s not worth planning, or being in business, at all.