If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

It’s an interesting saying and does answer a lot of lifes quandaries. But. The world around us changes. Peoples attitudes towards ‘stuff’ changes, and, is this because things changed, or despite of the fact that they did?

Perhaps, it just depends on the logical level you approach this from. At what level do we need to change? Is it our customer service, or is it the sales offering, or is it the location of our shop? Just ask MFI or Woolworths this morning.

MFI were the Goliath in their field when I was a kid, my brother used to work there and I remember those days vividly. Yesterday they went into administration. Were they always doing what they did? And, if they did (or didn’t), at what level was the change / non-change?

Their world changed with the arrival of Ikea and the growth of the Internet… choice. Did they adapt, did they innovate (like they did in the early days) or did they stop innovating and start copying, choking just trying to keep up?

Woolworths are the same. They used to sell stuff cheaply and it used to work. Then along came the pound shops.

Now, of course, I would always look at this scenario from an opportunistic point-of-view and ask myself… what other industries / businesses are still doing what they’ve always done and where lies the opportunity.