The technology we currently use requires us to continuously deal with upgrades. Inevitably, products and their software become faster, less expensive, more user-friendly. Planned obsolescence. We expect it.
Sometimes we embrace it; other times we dread it. But we know it is inevitable.
Resistance Is Inevitable
Change comes more slowly than most of us realize. It has taken fifty years to get computers into most of our lives.
And resistance is inevitable.
“That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced.” – Scientific American, January 2, 1909.
More recently,
“There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.” – Steve Ballmer, USA Today, April 30, 2007.
In working with smaller companies (and sometimes, not so small companies), I experience a tremendous resistance to upgrading and improving their products and services. The fear is that, first, they’ll cannibalize their existing sales, and, second, they won’t get it right. They’ll fail.
Change Is Great…You First
This is probably no surprise: People like change, but they don’t like to change themselves. And companies are comprised of people.