Pushing Buttons.

Taking down Christmas decorations along with the tree on New Year's Day, then transportng it to our storage locker, I got stuck in a goods lift for a couple of hours. It wasn't exactly the Chiliean mining disaster but it was dark and dank and there was no tube to be fed leftover Christmas ham. I could hear people outside discussing what to do and they all seemed intent on pushing every button a 100 times to see if it would eventually free up the lift. It didn't of course and it got me thinking about what was going through their minds doing the same thing constantly and expecting a change?

Like the old business adage of insanity, where you are doing the same things and expecting different results, people just kept pushing buttons. Someone eventually decided to disconnect the sensor, reset the lift and bring me back from the depths. Free, free, free at last!

While in the " hole " I got thinking about the last few years and the many companies caught in the lift just pushing buttons with no results.

What happened to Blockbuster Video who didn't see the online threat of Netflix and Hulu and continued doing the same thing while their customers were looking for alternatives of convenience? Going into bankruptcy, Blockbuster is calling it a " prearranged recapitalisation ", if you call closing a 1000 stores recapitalising. Will the same thing happen in Australia as Quickflixs works on the convenience side of the tracks, so you never have to jump in the car and visit the DVD store ever again?

What happened to Pan Am and countless airlines who kept hammering away at legacy systems and expecting passengers to just show up and pay the exorbitant fares? As the airline industry evolves past LCCs into a high tech model of efficiency, where does that leave the airline companies who have not changed and are still pushing the same old buttons? Who will be the next Blockbuster of the air?

The same can be said of many business methods and processes you are no doubt still using because they worked last year and the year before, but what about 2 - 5 years from now when everything you know about business is being done in a different way? Will you still be pushing the same buttons, expecting different results? What mobile technologies do you intend to use in the future that will will keep you connected with your customers? What modes of communication will have the greatest effect on your business? Who will you turn to in times of change?

Questions you need to consider as the buttons disappear and you can't push them anymore. People will move to the path of least resistance and most convenience, which begs the question, which path is your business on?

The only button that always works, is looking someone in the eyes, shaking their hand and conveying to them that doing business with you, is business with integrity, credibility and a future.

Some buttons are still worth pushing.