If Necessity is the Mother of Invention Then is Success the Mother of Complacency?

Op/Ed by Penny Parks

I recently had the opportunity to hear William Espey of Chipotle speak about what day his company went through in the last year with their issue about sourcing fresh products and the E. coli outbreak.  He spoke about how his company wished that they had not waited until a crisis hit before they started innovating, re-looking at processes and looking for ways to integrate their value system. 

It made me think about the companies that I’ve helped restructure over the years and how they wished they had not waited until a crisis occurred before they cut costs, re-looked at processes and innovated.  So what can you learn from this experience?

William Espey will tell you to make things right before they’re wrong – fix it now.  Get your team to commit to your values and your brand and what you stand for. Look at your processes and commit to constantly evaluating those processes. Don’t always accept the status quo; just because you have done things one way for a long time doesn’t mean you should continue to do it that way. Stay hungry. Complacency leads to inertia. 

That’s what I recommend to my clients: to continue to push to innovate, to inspire and to take your company to the next level.