If It’s Not Broken It May Still Need Fixing
I recently heard a story about Albert Einstein that stuck with me — and that I think every business leader should sit with for a minute.
The Einstein Story That Reframes How We Solve Problems
Einstein had just given an exam to the seniors in the physics class he taught. While collecting the completed tests, his aide noticed a similarity between the exam the students had just taken and the one Einstein had given the class when they were juniors the year before.
When she questioned him, he admitted they were indeed the same exams. She asked why he wasn’t concerned that this year’s questions were exactly the same as last year’s.
Einstein replied, “Because the answers have changed.”
That got me thinking…
Why We Stop Questioning Solutions That Used to Work
Why is it that once we find an answer to a problem, we don’t revisit that situation later to see if there’s a better alternative?
How often do we present ourselves with only one solution to a problem and call it a day? Why do we tend to look at a problem from only one perspective, with only one focus? How often do we confine our solutions to a prescribed set of restrictions or parameters?
Is it because we assume nothing’s changed? Do we tell ourselves “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”? Are we uninspired, or do we just have other priorities? Do we lack the bandwidth or time we’d need to invest in new solutions?
Or is it because we don’t have the “know-how” or the confidence to even define the problem, let alone come up with multiple solutions?
Who Should Actually Solve the Problem?
If we don’t have the answers ourselves, the next question is: who does?
Is it an employee? An internal department? If so, do they have the expertise, time, and resources to do it well? Or do we need to go outside the organization to get it done — and if so, where do we go?
These are the questions that get put off when we spend most of our time working “in” our business — performing daily tasks and putting out fires — instead of working “on” our business and positioning it for the future.
Why Hard Times Are the Best Time to Reposition Your Business
Difficult economic moments give us all opportunities to become much better companies.
It’s easy to be successful when the economy is rockin’. It’s during the hard times that business leaders earn their stripes — when the assumptions get tested and the leaders willing to question their own answers come out stronger on the other side.
So how do you better position your company? Three steps.
Step 1: Run Deep Audits Across Your Business
Start with audits — and I mean deep audits. The areas that consistently surface the biggest opportunities:
Marketing Audit
Audit your full marketing program with special emphasis on your digital strengths and weaknesses — SEO, paid media, content, analytics, and conversion infrastructure.
Competitive Audit
Map your competitive landscape and how you’re positioned in it. Where are competitors gaining ground, and where are you?
Customer Experience Audit
Evaluate every customer touchpoint, from first impression through post-sale support. Friction anywhere in that journey is revenue you’re leaving on the table.
Operational Audit
Analyze your product and service offerings, distribution channels, and your CRM and workflow systems. The gaps here often explain why marketing efforts aren’t converting downstream.
Step 2: Decide What to Keep In-House and What to Outsource
Once you know where the gaps are, look honestly at which functions you want to bring or keep in-house, and which are better handled by an outside partner with deeper expertise, more bandwidth, or specialized tools.
Step 3: Prioritize Your Initiatives in Three Stages
Finally, sort everything you’ve identified into three buckets:
- Getting through the immediate situation — what has to happen now to keep the business healthy.
- Positioning yourself to take off when conditions improve — what you put in motion now so you’re ready when momentum returns.
- Driving the new company you want to be — the longer-term moves that reshape what your business actually is.
The questions facing your business may look the same as they did a year or two ago. But like Einstein said — the answers have changed.
Ready to Find Your New Answers?
If you’re ready to audit, reposition, and build the company you want to become, contact us — let’s figure out what’s changed and what to do about it.
