If You Want to Stay Relevant…
Think back 20 years to who the most dominant contractors were in your geography. How many of them are still around? How many of them are still prospering? Have others passed them by, and, if so, why?
Please watch this week as Wayne bounces off a Family Business magazine article from earlier this year. What are the three tactics contractors must adopt in order to remain relevant in constantly evolving, constantly shifting markets populated by people who are also continuously changing? And why is “expert advice” sometimes so flawed as it is in this rambling, somewhat incoherent article? We’d like to know what you’re doing to stay relevant in your market(s); please share with us in the comments section.
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Hello, everyone. This is Wayne Rivers at FBI, and We Build Better Contractors. Along that line, our wildly successful, it just
really has exceeded expectations, Contractor Business Boot Camp, next class is this fall, November 3 and 4 in Dallas, Texas.
So, if you want some more information, click below and ask Charlotte for some info, and she'll get it to you ASAP.
This week, I want to talk about staying relevant. This came from an article in Family Business magazine from Amy Cosper.
Amy used to be the editor of Entrepreneur magazine. I've met her a time or two, a fine writer, a very professional person.
But I have to say this article is a little bit incoherent. I'll explain that to you in a second. And what about this is important
to you? Golly, is that not a challenge forever? Do we not always want to stay relevant in our businesses?
Think about this. Think back a quarter century, if you can. For me that would mean I would be what? 35 years old. And
that would be the mid-90s. And thinking about the marketplace here in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I live, what
contractors were on the ascent? Which ones were really the top of the food chain at that point in time? Do this for your
own market and see how many of those formerly prosperous contractors are still on top of the game. I can just tell you, if
you look at this market 25 years ago, there's been a complete inversion. Some of the folks are no longer around. Some of
them are a shell of their former selves. There are a few that have continued to thrive and prosper, and we'll get to some
of the secrets for how they've done that.
In Amy's article, she starts off in a very provocative way. I'm not entirely sure when it happened, but motorcycle maker,
Harley Davidson stopped being relevant a while ago. A 118-year-old company, but its enthusiast audience is dwindling.
Golly. The company hasn't had much success attracting younger, more diverse audiences. The target market for Harley
Davidson is going to croak out all at once. Wow. At which point it will join Blockbuster and Circuit City in the boneyard of
companies that are no longer relevant. Gosh. If you're a Harley Davidson person, that's scary.
So, she talks about what you have to do to stay relevant. She first of all says Harley's not relevant anymore and is not going
to be relevant. But then she says, "What three things do you have to do to stay relevant?" And I do agree with this part.
She said the first thing is you have to constantly innovate, and I agree with that. You think about the changes in technology,
the changes in demographics and psychographics as my group, the baby boomers are aging out of the workforce, and my
children's group, the millennials and the Gen Z’s are overwhelming the workforce now. So constant innovation is a key.
The second thing is know your market and your audience, so that you're not acting to trends. You're helping drive trends.
I love that. I think that's terrific. I don't know if we're that successful doing that or not, but I do think that peer groups and
bootcamp are certainly ways to dramatically change the construction industry. And we know that our members, because
they're ... What's the old saying? Iron sharpens iron. And when the members get together and they review each other's
companies and they constructively critique them, they're constantly being pushed to innovate. And some of our members
have been aboard for over 20 years. That's 40 peer group meetings, 40 opportunities for iron to sharpen iron. It's a great
thing.
And the third thing is you have to reinvent. I agree with this 100%. There was a study of family businesses a few years ago,
and it looked at family businesses that were at least 100 years old. And I think they also had to have at least $100 million
of gross sales, something like that. In other words, they had to be fairly notable and sizeable and successful. The article
mentioned that about 50% of the family businesses still owned the legacy business, and they trumpeted that as being a
wonderful success. But you know what? That meant that half of those very successful families in business were no longer
in the legacy business. They had jettisoned the legacy business.
That's what I'm talking about, reinventing. If you're going to stay relevant, you've got to reinvent yourself and your
company at every new growth plateau. For me, that means about every five years, you have to really think about blowing
up your company and starting over with a new template. I know I mentioned in a blog ages ago that I have a friend that
does that at his engineering company. He's unbelievably successful. But he just blows up the company department by
department by department on a rotating basis, and it really, really works for him.
Now, here's where the article becomes incoherent in the second half. She went out to this guru, frankly I don't know much
about, Seth Godin. I'm not sure. But popular guy on the web and YouTube and Ted Talks and all that kind of stuff. And
they find another business that has been successful over the generations, like Harley Davidson. And she said she asked
him the question, "How has this company remained relevant for 11 generations?" And he said, "The secret is the story.
And the company has to have an emotional connection to its customers." Really? Harley Davidson doesn't have an
unbelievable story? Are you kidding me? Harley Davidson of all brands doesn't have an emotional ... Are you kidding me?
Harley Davidson people are fanatics about the brand. So, this expert advice down at the bottom of the article is utterly
incoherent and inconsistent with the top half.
So, if you're going to read this article from the January, February Family Business magazine, read the first half and stop.
You really do have to constantly innovate. You have to know your market and your audience, so you're a driver of trends,
not reacting to them. And you have to reinvent your company and yourself as a leader periodically.
I'd like to hear what you have to say about other articles, perhaps that you've read in the business press. And what are
you doing to innovate, know your market, and reinvent? And share with us in the comments below. This is Wayne Rivers
at FBI, and We Build Better Contractors.
