Timing your changes - Why is it important and how to get it right

I remember taking a driving course in India back when cars were more of a luxury and stick shift is the norm. I have not been to one ever since and frankly I have no idea how a driving course in US looks like. But the one that I took has dual controls with the instructor often overriding my  mistakes while shouting at me for not driving the way that I was told to... So you get the point - it wasn't very productive and  in the end, I hardly gained any proficiency.

 

Navigating turns on a curvy road

There is one thing that I still remember  : as part of the course, the instructor told us how to navigate turns . I didn't quite get it at that time, but when I look back it made perfect sense. What he told us is common knowledge though, the fact that I  need to start maneuvering the steering wheel before I  approach the turn and that I need to be looking ahead of the road for upcoming turns. If you think about it , thats exactly how we drive, even though we might not realize it. If you don't start turning before you enter the turn, you are probably too late and end up slowing down and making a nasty turn or worse end up in a crash.  On the other hand, if you maneuver the vehicle   too early , you are likely to get off road . So timing is paramount and looking ahead for changes will help ensure that you turn at the right moment.

 

This correlates with how we are supposed to maneuver changes in a fast paced business environment. Sometimes a big company might feel the urge to act quickly and adopt a new technology or market well ahead of its prime. But doing so will simply drain its  resources and not deliver the intended positive outcome. On the flip side, if it takes too much time in adopting the changes, it will end up being late to the party and out of contention. So again timing the change is very critical and this is where most companies fail. Of course it is not easy to determine the right time, but keeping a close tab on your business and customers and looking ahead for inflection points will help determine the appropriate time and as always having an experienced team at the controls makes a world of difference. We have seen big companies pull this off in the past. For example, IBM successfully transitioned from punching card machines to mainframe computers in the 60s by timing it right ... If you look back, IBM isn't the first one to come up with a computer, but it made sure to put its vast resources to work just before the enterprise demand for computers exploded . It is a hard transition  no doubt, but one that ensured its existence and continued success.