BUSINESS:

NEW AND NOW (OR THE DICHOTOMY OF CHANGE)

We are starting 2010, a post-analog, post-meltdown, post-green-dawn time. Established (or better said, passé?) products and services are being replaced by new 'applications' at a dizzying rate. As evidence, consider how connected the disappearance of Gourmet Magazine, the birth of the tablet and IBM's decision to sell its laptop business really are. One could not be blamed for optimistically welcoming the new decade as a time ripe for reinvention. Out with the old, in with the new!

Unfortunately, the thrill of the promise can easily give way to confusion, as evidenced by some hopelessly old ideas being hopelessly retried these days. If you think this sounds exaggerated, consider Yahoo!'s new 'it's You' campaign, being eclipsed by Google's explosive mix of products, applications and services; or the auto industry's asinine reaction to the rising cost of oil and global warming, and the absurd endurance of the large platform in their product lines; or the sad-to-witness contrast between Delta's sustained efforts to improve the travel experience through innovations and technology, as opposed to American Airlines' refusal to even refresh its cabin decor. And the list goes on to touch every sector of business and every aspect of life.

Are we that lost? Change is inherently risky and disconcerting, but it's one thing to not know exactly what to do, and another not to know the way forward. There are plenty of good examples, companies that are embracing connectedness as way to build the new day. Like Apple, still leading in OS and product design, retail experience, and about to rock the media world once again; or Pepsi, re-casting the brand to a new 'next generation' under the "Refresh everything" campaign (incidentally, a word 'stolen' from Coca-Cola's vernacular, who used it for decades); or Clorox, targeting a new customer mindset and taking a small first step in cleaning-up its act by launching Green Works; or the Obama presidential campaign, setting an all-time national record in 'customer engagement'. Thankfully, this list could also get long.

Those in the lead, do it by reflecting the new times we live in. They don't think of 'change' as a new rhetoric ("the only way to be ready for the future is to be involved in making it.") They recognize that what's coming demands staying open and connected to the external world. They use creativity (exploration, innovation, collaborations) to shape the new, and keep an open mind when evaluating results. They are excited to use any and every new tool or application to help (us and them) make sense of the confusion and contradictions that change brings along. For them, as long as the direction is forward, it works.

Those lagging have closed their eyes and ears, and continue to push the old. They have set their goals too short, and are trying to remediate things that don't seem to be working, and in the effort they fail to stay connected with the customer. To make things worse, after a couple of tries, even the 'next new' seems old. They make people, both inside and outside their organization, stop believing.

What's behind this dichotomy, separating those leading and those lagging behind change, is not an ability to juggle practical implications but rather their identity. Identity is what makes enterprises open to what's coming (how they think, talk and act.) Identity is also what lures people (inside and outside the organization) into re-creating businesses and markets out of new visions. A clear sense of identity provides the clarity needed to re-create a business and re-engage people.

Change doesn't stop or wait. But new has been done before, and it can be done again.

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