When there's Kudzu in the Forest, nothing thrives

So what does your forest look like?
Do you have a combination of old growth and new growth?  Is there room for the young saplings to grow and thrive? Or does the old, towering growth, shut out  all the sunlight and rain?

I think of this analogy when I think of organizations, especially business organizations.

I have seen corporations fall because they refused to adapt.  Making bad decisions because the old guard feels threatened, disputing evidence and data, relying on old allies can all contribute to their failure.

For example, please think of a company that used to be the leader in vinyl flooring. To diversify, they purchased a tile manufacturer.  This was a natural fit, right?  Yet, the old guard saw it as direct competition to their divisions, and did all they could, successfully, to destroy the alliance.  Not being able to adapt and change became the destruction of this company.  Once on the cutting-edge of products, their stock price fell, from a Fortune 500 to an negative value.  There were other errors, including hiding from the damage of the asbestos-based ceiling tile division, until after the lawsuits began.

That happened many years ago, and some of the management salvaged and redeveloped the company.  Now, in the town where I live, I see this inattention to details and lack of adaptation to the new Century occur with a hospital.  In the past few years:  waiting to implement electronic records until nearly too late, one purchase that was destined to be a money-loser from the beginning, the choice of a new name/brand without researching a conflicting name in a neighboring state, and the errors continue.

There are ways of embracing the future without abandoning the past.  We have seen that happen recently, when a national retailer recently hired a CEO who did not understand the importance of The Sale to the customers of the company. He said, "I'm going to break them of their addiction to sales," without listening to the customer first. Needless to say, the customers of this retailer never understood the new concept of always-sale prices, and the entire enterprise nearly collapsed.  Whether or not the rescue of the company will actually result in the saving of the corporation has not been determined.

A forest needs both old growth and new growth to be stable over centuries.  Are we planning in our businesses for the long term? Are we listening to the young, and paying attention to customers? Or, are we just skimming across their ideas, ignoring the pleas of customers?

Let's resolve to plan for the long term, for decades, then centuries, rather than the imminent needs exclusively.

~ Posting 11/17--- text of a letter I sent to Nonprofit Leaders I know.  
I'm working on changing this into a Presentation, minus some of the personal references.