An Ever Shrinking Pool

I don’t like to be pessimistic, especially when it comes to business, but what are companies to do when customers say, “We don’t need you anymore”?

I think most people and business owners trust the economy will improve once the financial and housing markets regain their footings and the shakeout of the automobile industry is complete. Yet within certain industries, a general economic recovery will only reveal deeper, more fundamental problems that began eroding service-based businesses before the onset of the current recession.

In my previous column, I wrote about self-service checkouts and found I am not alone in my dislike of such in-store technology. Yet conversely, people widely embrace new technology that enables them to do more for themselves within their own homes and businesses. This trend has already started a winnowing process that will inevitably bring about the demise of some long-established professional services.

A case in point is the industry with which I am most familiar: commercial printing. For centuries, printing was a highly specialized field with its own unique language, tools and skills. Short of a typewriter and carbon paper, the average person had no way of duplicating text, let alone color photography. That has changed. Computers and the world wide web have made it possible for people to entirely bypass traditional printing services. Digital cameras, electronic clip-art and simplified design software are doing the same in the fields of professional photography and commercial art. The customer has become the competition.

Adapting to straightforward technological change is one thing, but redefining a company to survive after technology has fundamentally altered the dynamics of the marketplace is something entirely different and far more difficult. When I think of a dwindling customer base, I recall a survival program set in an arid sun-baked landscape. A school of fish were cut off from a river and confined to an ever shrinking pool of fetid water. Not a pretty picture, but a fitting analogy and one that imparts a sense of immediacy as I consider changes occurring within my industry.

I have taken a hard look at the capabilities of my existing personnel and equipment with an eye to the future. My gut tells me now is the time to strike out in a new direction, but I have been frozen to inaction by something I heard said in the local cafe, “The problem today is there is too much of everything.” It is a statement with which I cannot disagree.

In the absence of inspiration, people and businesses tend to fall back on past success or copy the actions of others. Almost everywhere one looks, there is a glut of duplication and clutter. I have no desire to be part of the problem.

I am in no position to advise other businesses on how to recover lost market share or energize slumping sales. I’m still trying to decide on the next step to take for my own company. The one thing I do have is an internal guide. When I first started in business I felt an unmistakable sense of purpose. There was no question in my mind that I was filling a genuine need and providing a unique service. When I hit upon something that gives me that same feeling, I’ll know I have taken the right step for myself, my employees and my customers.

Have a profitable day,
Jeff Irish