Change Happens. Embrace It. Or Fade Away. It’s Your Choice.
My grandmother passed away at 104 ½ years young. She always wanted people to know about the ½ portion of her age. What a lady. Just think what she saw in her many years. And she embraced all of it. She had a cell phone and a laptop computer. She emailed constantly. Change did not scare her or diminish her resolve.
The same cannot be said for everyone. Change is a frightening thing. People like things the way they were. They talk about it constantly. And yet, when it comes to business and progress, there is this desire to advance; to be better than yesterday. Increase revenue. Extend reach and market share. Grow. Expand. And on, and on, and on. Let me ask you this - how do you expect to progress and grow if you constantly desire to be in the past? To have it the way it always was. Come on. Give your head a shake. Snap out of it!
Change is inevitable. It’s happening all around us every day. You need to embrace change if you want to succeed. Period. Full stop.
A fantastic example of change resistance is local ski hills. In particular, the people who have skied there for years. They know who they are. They are the ones that voice their displeasure when the cost of a lift ticket goes up, the menu in the cafeteria changes, or their favorite beverage is no longer on the menu. They want it the way it always was because those were the “good ‘ol days” and why should it change? It’s always been this way and it works for them. Riddle me this. How does a ski hill or resort stay relevant and maintained if they do not raise their prices or change their offerings to meet the demands of the changing landscape that is the ski industry? You can’t cobble together a ski lift or neglect maintenance. Labor costs are on the rise everywhere. How would you manage that little nugget? And a relevant ski hill or resort has to offer summer activities these days or it will fade off into the sunset. Don’t forget snow. If you make snow, well done. But don’t forget the maintenance involved with that. If you don’t make snow, well, good luck to you. Mother Nature is fickle. So, for the skiing public longing for days gone by, please embrace the change. It’s happening right in front of your eyes. Ski hill owners and ownership groups need to grab change by the proverbial balls. There are many examples of little ski hills trying to hang on because the old days were good and “everyone” in the area likes it the way it was. Owners grapple with this dilemma constantly. And many times they take the path of least resistance because it will either save them money or they don’t have the right people in place to manage the necessary changes. Perhaps they don’t know where to begin. Some have it figured out while others fake it until they make it.
For those that don’t ski or frequent resorts I have another one for you. This one is completely relevant today. The retail landscape. Love it or hate it, Amazon has changed the face of retail forever. We see it every day. That white van burning up the street and skidding to a halt in front of a house, maybe (probably) your house. The person jumps out with a package as we run to the door to greet them with a smile. Ah…at last, the order has arrived. The next day you/we/us/them decide to roll into the mall to look for a pair of new kicks (shoes to the lay person). We walk into our favorite shoe store and stare at the shoe wall salivating over the latest from one of the many fantastic manufacturers out there. We stand there for what seems like an eternity and finally, as if from under some mushroom, a salesperson emerges and asks if we need help. Do we need help? Are you kidding? What kind of question is that? Don’t they see the money burning a hole in our jeans? We point out the shoe we are after. The salesperson saunters away as if they were woken from their slumber. The following hour they return. They don’t have the size 10 you were looking for but they do have a size 8, would that work for you? Oh for sure. Cram your feet in. Kidding! Nope, not gonna do the trick. We leave dejected. Wait!! What are the chances we could find the same shoes online? Yup, you guessed it. With the magic of the internet and our savvy typing skills we located the exact shoes we were looking for, in the exact size we need. And how do you like them apples? They can be delivered to our door within the week with no charge shipping. And they are discounted to boot! What a glorious day!
Retail is interesting. On the one hand, we want to support local businesses. In fact business owners are quick to point out that we should shop local. On the other hand, many businesses don’t have the products on hand for that immediate satisfaction. It’s quite the dilemma for sure. And this doesn’t even touch on the state of the current workforce. Now, I have seen and experienced some fantastic customer service examples from people who truly love what they are doing. But, I have also seen some absolutely dismal examples of what not to do in customer service 101. And herein is the rub. Do we embrace the change that has occurred in the retail environment or do we go out and spend our days galivanting around looking for that elusive deal?
The ugly “C” word that we all went through may have changed things forever. Or maybe not.
Retail can come back. Maybe not to the same level it was before 2019, but it can have a resurgence. It is possible. Ski resorts and hills can be successful and embrace change if they want to. Customer service and simple human contact and interaction can become fantastic again albeit with some up to date changes and an eye to the future. Change is here. It just happened again. Did you see it?