S.O.S : SUCCESS OR SURVIVAL – ADAPTION IN BUSINESS

Every living organism understands a fundamental rule for survival, aside from feeding,
reproduction and the rest. It understands MOVEMENT and in this case, adaptation is the bulk of
this process, without which it would be irrelevant, discarded or albeit go into extinction.
Every enterprise is the same, a living, breathing organism, some macro, others micro, but an
organism with its place within an ecosystem. A business environment is an ecosystem that
embraces this law of movement (in the right direction) vehemently. Because every level of the
food chain needs to be satisfied, every level has its accrued resources, which come with their
respective limitations and opportunities. Understanding that each link/level in the chain has its
allocation fixed in place, most times it is designed to keep the wheel just greased enough to
sustain and stifle the organisms therein, it’s nothing personal, it’s a survival tactic each
particular link is designed to have in order to serve it’s role in the ecosystem. Keep the insiders
and the outsiders out.

This explains why moving up the food chain could be quite challenging, a business transitioning
from a small to a medium enterprise with it up scaling eventually could seem to be hitting a
glass ceiling with all their fantastic strategies and modules. The level you want to leave is
immune to change from the inside, the one you choose to move into is resistant to change from
the outside. Interestingly, its being done daily, with transitions that defy statistical projections,
it will always be done, but will you do it?
Every Company that boasts of being a fortune 500 company, either currently joining the list or
being knocked off it have a key arsenal that unifies them, the former keeps firing their shots,
while the latter have their weapons holstered – ADAPTATION
Recognizing that timing is a cardinal element when it comes to adaptation, it is the bridge that
separates the successful from the ex-successful. Most don’t see the bridge for what it is, only a
mere mirage which they will fall through if they dare cross, not knowing that often times they
need to build the bridge to be the first to cross over it. Several businesses have rode the bicycle
of time into their good fortune and some always seem to have a flat tire!

Definitely certain factors are peculiar to different markets and what makes them tick doesn’t
guarantee a tock for another. But there are primary forces that cut through every market across
all strata.
 CUSTOMERS: paying close attention to the appetite and ever evolving needs of the
customers/clients is a non-negligible factor to measure how you are moving with the
times.
 TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT: how current you are with the technological leaps in
your field and what is most obtainable to gain maximum efficiency with its introduction
into your processes.
 THE COMPETITION: never be too arrogant to underestimate your competitors, they
might have more than a card or two up their sleeves you might learn from, hopefully it’s
not the full deck.
 POLICIES: every business operates within an environment and most of its success
hinges on prevailing winds in policies, how often they change and how easily the
venture to adjust to fit into new atmosphere could be the difference between the boom
and the doom for the business
Every business that has turned deaf ears to these forces have always heard the loud sounds of
loss, by turning a blind eye, they have lost all sense of direction from which some are still
struggling to recover from. Some businesses are living proofs of the statement, ”opportunity
comes but once”. It is not a fact of life, but it addresses when timing is missed with certain
opportunities, playing catch up will only be that, playing.