Change is gonna come

Scott Anthony - an influential management theorist who points out that the rate at which industry leaders are toppled from their perch has doubled in a generation - expects three-quarters of the 500 largest publicly quoted companies in America to be replaced by new businesses between now and 2040. The old aphorism that if Uncle Sam sneezes, the rest of the world gets a cold isn’t quite as true as it used to be, but the scale of disruption is likely to affect the larger companies that buy wide-format print, so get ready.

1. Be clear about what you want - and why

Scott Anthony - an influential management theorist who points out that the rate at which industry leaders are toppled from their perch has doubled in a generation - expects three-quarters of the 500 largest publicly quoted companies in America to be replaced by new businesses between now and 2040. The old aphorism that if Uncle Sam sneezes, the rest of the world gets a cold isn’t quite as true as it used to be, but the scale of disruption is likely to affect the larger companies that buy wide-format print, so get ready.

Not all business transformations are the same. When managers use the term, it can mean one of three things: doing what you already do - but better; doing what you do now in a completely different way (the classic example being Netflix moving from DVD rental to streaming); or being transformational - the most risky but if you get it right (like Apple, pivoting from computers to consumer electronics) also the most rewarding.

Relatively few wide-format PSPs will want to strategically transform their business. Many, after all, retain a sentimental attachment to the print process. And yet Apple still sells computers although it makes most of its profit from iPhones. Maybe industry leaders should ask themselves whether they could broaden their base by offering different services. The obvious difficulty here is that buyers are hardwired to pigeonhole their suppliers and printers may find it hard to move up the food chain. That said, the effort may be worthwhile in the long run.

2. Ask yourself, do you really want to do THIS?

Let’s be brutally honest, a large-scale, Apple-type, transformation will not happen overnight. Depending on your particular circumstances, you may feel that it makes more sense to be less ambitious. And, if you are contemplating selling the business in the next five years, you’re probably right.

3. Be realistic about the timeframe

There is a knee-jerk drive to do as much as possible as quickly as possible which, however appealing, all but incentivises people to cut corners. At the other extreme, don’t dilly dally. A three-to-five year transformation plan is likely to lose momentum. As one consultant put it: “The trouble with five-year-transformations is that, probably around halfway through the process, your managers will be sitting around saying: ‘I can’t believe we have two more years of this to go through.’”

4. Talk about it

One of the biggest causes of unsuccessful change management projects is a disconnect between what the board thinks needs fixing, and what staff think. (Let alone what customers and suppliers might think.) Every employee will have the same three questions about any transformation: what does it mean to me?, what do I need to stop doing? and what do I need to start doing? If you can answer those concerns, you are better placed to prosper.

5. Think outside the box

Yup, it is a cliche, but one frequent mistake managing directors make is to focus entirely on their own sector. There may well be lessons you can learn from companies in other industries - for example about cashflows - that could enhance your bottom line. And, if we are honest, who of us is so brilliant that we couldn’t learn something from, for example, reading Walter Isaacson’s absorbing biography of Steve Jobs? Less fashionable, but just as useful, is David Halberstam’s The Reckoning, a definitive account of how America lost the car industry to the Japanese through short-termism, arrogance and a salami-slicing budgeting process.

6. Don’t flatter yourself

One of the cardinal vices of British management is to overestimate how much impact a modest spend can have. A common mistake is to invest in improving a product, service, or even a corporate rebrand and not invest adequately to communicate this change. The world is not as interested in your company as you may think. Given we live in a time of ever-diminishing attention span - a trend accelerated by the rise of Tiktok - what is the point of transforming your business if nobody notices?

7. Sing when you’re winning

Nothing stifles transformations quite as frequently as the shop floor perception that nothing is changing. Don’t forget to share - and publicise - successes, even in an oblique way (e.g. putting the spotlight on someone who has done something exceptional). At the end of the day, people want to be on a winning team - and to know their efforts have been noticed.

8. Don’t give up

Change is seldom easy but that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. As the great American management thinker Rosabeth Moss Kanter said once: “Everything looks like failure in the middle.” And remember, there really is no such thing as a ‘seamless transition’. As you press on, it’s worth remembering that, as JFK’s younger brother Bobby said once, “One fifth of the people are against everything all of the time.”

9. Don’t expect too much - and invest too little

Many experts warn that seven out of ten business transformation programmes fail. That’s not as stark a statistic as it sounds because, as with the T word itself, there are many different definitions of failure. It can be as minor as starting out with seven goals and only achieving five of them or as major as realising that your entire programme is fundamentally flawed. Often, programmes land somewhere between those extremes. Often, the real failure is not about outcomes but inflated expectations at the very start. It’s not so much as being careful about what you wish for, it’s a matter of knowing what you wish, why, and whether those wishes are commensurate with the resources you’re investing.

10. Know when you’ve won

The first question you need to ask, before you begin the whole process, is: what does success look like? It could be as straightforward as growing turnover or something a bit more ambiguous, like repositioning the business. Your definition of success will, almost inevitably, evolve along the way - which is fine as long as you don’t forget what you were trying to achieve in the first place.

Your transformation programme should be periodically reviewed, reappraised and, if necessary, redefined. And at some point, you need to claim victory. That doesn’t mean falling back into complacency but giving people the space to regroup and yourself time to judge whether the changes you have made are creating value for the business.