The Problem With Success

11 posted on September 11, 2009

POSTED IN: Blog Posts, Culture, Leadership, Marketing

Apple hosted their Rock & Roll Event on Wednesday rolling out new features for the iPod Nano (a camera) as well as huge price cuts on the entire line of iPods including the popular iPod Touch (which can now be picked up for less than $200).

In spite of those announcements and the return of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Apple’s stock fell $1.79 by the end of the day on Wednesday. The reason? Disappointment that the company “did not add as many new features as some analysts predicted.”

Forget about the fact that Apple has already sold 220 million iPods to date making it the most popular portable music player in the world by a huge margin. Nevermind that Apple bucked industry trends and partnered a mobile phone deal on their terms which has since over 30 million iPhones. Nevermind that iTunes is the #1 music retailer in the world selling over 8.5 billion songs.

On all accounts Apple has done an amazing job of reinventing itself over the last ten years. They did it by amazing innovations that have left competitors scrambling to catch up.

However, the challenge of creating a culture built on change and innovation is that your people begin to expect it. More change and more innovation = higher expectations.

The Challenge Of An Innovative Culture

The title to this post is a little misleading. Success through innovation isn’t necessarily a problem. However, it is a challenge that churches and organizations need to be aware of when creating a culture of change.

Initially people resist change. Just ask all the market analysts who said the iPhone would never sell (“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.” – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer). But soon they begin to tolerate change and then eventually come to expect it.

Just remember as you build your organization: every building block of change and innovation that you lay on your foundation of excellence increases your chances of success, but also exponentially increases the expectations of your followers as well as their disappointment when you fail to live up to those expectations.

Thoughts?

TWEET THIS

This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 8:08 am and is filed under Blog Posts, Culture, Leadership, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Comments

Share yours!

Visit My Website

September 11, 2009

Permalink

1 Shaun Groves said:

I heard a pastor says once that whatever attracts people to his church is what will retain them. Just another way of saying that what they choose his church for is what they will expect more of from his church. So, he purposefully doesn’t have music every week. He doesn’t preach every week. He doesn’t allow himself to make any major changes within less than a year of announcing the change.

All of this, so that what people expect is stuff he thinks is more important than music, preaching, innovation or even him.

Good reminder, Brad.
Visit My Website

September 11, 2009

Permalink

2 Brad Ruggles said:

Great point Shaun. I love the idea of keeping your church used to changing environments, speakers, and music so that they don’t get to used to any of those things.
Visit My Website

September 11, 2009

Permalink

3 Jay said:

Here’s a question. What’s the benefit of getting the new iPod touch for $199 when you can get a refurb iPod touch (2nd gen) for $149?
Visit My Website

September 13, 2009

Permalink

4 Jeremy Hart said:

The Need for Change:

There are some humans that need change on a constant basis to feel good about their world. These types of people tend to be creative in nature and enjoy an everchanging creative experience in this world.

There are other types of people who need a static and stable world in which to thrive.

Each of these types of people tend to seperate into like minded groups in order to find comfort with like kinds of personality.

The rigid personalities will always resist change and the the creatives will always be pushing for more change.

What if apple only had creative personalities in the fold. They would most likely innovate themselves right out of business. Without accountants and lawyers they would be put out of business.

The body of Christ is the same way. Both personality types need each other in order to thrive. Some of the largest mega-churches attract both groups and learn to sustain the needs of both.

As a pastor of leader of any group or business, it is a challenge to keep both groups in check. I think it helps to have a little of both personality types or at least a good understanding of the needs of each type.

Afterall, if you want a trully dynamic organization that lasts the test of time you will have to decide as a leader when it is time to change and when it is time to rest inside the current structure you have built.

Steve Jobs for instance has to strike this balance between apple product consumers who expect constant innovations within the product line and shareholders who expect to first reap the profits off of past innovations.
Afterall with change their comes the cost of development.

In the end both the apple consumer and the shareholder must both compromise in order to keep the business afloat and progressing.

Within the scope of the church pastors must also find a way to strike this balance without growing stagnet.

It is a constant challenge for any organization to keep change and development in check with the need to collect returns on past innovations.

And so I think the “$1 Million Dollar Question”, that each leader must answer is when?

When is the right time to implement change?

Before the climax point, at the climax or after ascending returns turn into dimenishing returns on the change or innovation has been implemented.

I guess it would depend on how successful the innovation in question actually is out of the gate.

Now I am going to stop because my brain just fell our of my left ear. I wonder why it did not slip our of the right ear instead?

Oh well, I have no way tu no cause brain is gone bye bye*
Visit My Website

September 13, 2009

Permalink

5 Brad Ruggles said:

Jeremy – Thanks for that long and very insightful comment! You raised some very good points and questions. You’re right, the tough challenge for leaders is knowing when, what and how much to change in an organization.

Hope you find your brain.