Repeat after me:

Change is valuable.
Change fuels innovation.
Change generates profitable growth.

Once you believe this, you realize that all changes (including changes in the economy) serve as the basis for growing your business.

Remember this three-step process derived from two terrific books on innovation, Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker and The Innovation Formula by Michel Robert and Alan Weiss:

C - Clarify The Changes

List the changes that have occurred in your organization, your industry and society in general in the past 24 months.

A - Anticipate The Opportunities

Have the members of your team examine each change and answer the following question, "What opportunities does this change create for us to add more value to our customers?"

T - Target A Specific Customer Need

With a specific customer need in mind, combine two or more of these opportunities together to generate a new product or service that meets the need.

A classic example of The CAT Method occurred within The Walt Disney Company during the 1950s.

In the early 1950s, American society experienced four major changes. People had more automobiles, televisions, expendable income and leisure time than at any other time in history. Prior to this time, The Walt Disney Company generated all of its income from animated films and licensed products. These changes could have been catastrophic to The Walt Disney Company.

However, Walt Disney realized that the changes brought extraordinary opportunities to his business. He created two television series, Disneyland and The Mickey Mouse Club, the theme park, Disneyland, and synergy between all of the components of his business by cross promoting them. The television shows promoted the new films and the new theme park. The films featured the theme parks and television shows. The rides at the theme park featured many of the most popular film and television characters. Walt Disney saw opportunity whenever change presented itself.

As a result, The Walt Disney Company experienced a series of financial quantum leaps during the 1950's. (Source: The Magic Kingdom by Steven Watts.) In 1950, The Walt Disney Company generated gross income of $7.3 million and net profits of $720,000. In 1959, gross income soared to $58.4 million and net profits to $3.4 million. That's 800% growth in revenues and 370% growth in profits in 10 years. And that was after the company had already been around for 22 years and Walt was over 50 years old!

Send questions to Dan Coughlin at The Coughlin Company, Inc., a firm specializing in enhancing the effectiveness of top performing executives, groups and organizations.

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