Every year organizations budget resources to improve their critical document and information processes; most will tell you mitigation of risk is the primary driver. Year after year studies show that improving document and information processes would reduce risks in business continuity by 60+%. Yes, more than 60%. But despite recognition of the importance of controlling risk, many businesses are at risk of not being around, and it's not just due to things we like to think we can handle, like improving document and data management and workflow processes; it's because the companies are getting tired. They're losing their "umph". Many are broken from something like a quietly growing cancer and they don't know it.

Additional studies prove my point. Reportedly about half of the people reading this are working for a company that is going out of business and no one knows it. The company will be closed or absorbed within the next 8 years. When I say absorbed, I mean bought out/liquidated not because of strategic planning on their part, but because they were in distress. Can you tell if you're working for one of these companies? Can you tell if you are one of these companies?

Ask yourself; are you or your company just getting tired? It happens. The company doesn't constantly look at how to do things better any more, the common phrase when someone suggests something is, "we're doing fine". There's no incentive for designing a new process and you don't have the spark that it takes to push for something different. I think that this is best described as a virus; a sort of business chronic fatigue syndrome that sets in, due to and resulting in a lack of energy and initiative. I know it's infecting the commercial real estate industry because the participants are getting old.  

The leaders are older and there's little incentive for the young entering the field to do anything different because their "mentors" have had a good career doing things the same old way. So even the young are "old", and entrepreneurship is not really strongly evident. Real entrepreneurship, defined as the art of finding profitable solutions to problems, someone who habitually creates and innovates, isn't common in our industry. Entrepreneurs operate in changing environments. And technology is a key component of change - retooling the way commercial real estate operates.  

Even after years of "change management", we still resist.  Technology isn't a panacea. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite "truths" is that people do all the work and technology only helps them do it faster. And while technology may at times be a pain until well implemented, at which point it becomes "just another process or tool", it has the ability to ward off the virus that can shut down "company systems".  

When an organization is tired, every time someone is negative about a new way of doing things, the virus gets stronger.  Widespread infection from the virus may not be apparent for years, yet once it has a stronghold, the result is always fatal.  

What can be done if anything to stave off the virus? What can stop the decline towards the "end"? There is a cure. Commit to staying young. Continue to doing most things the way you have learned, but make a strong effort to push for new ways of solving the problems differently than you've done in the past.  

Ideas, software and good implementers are out there to help you; you just need to be looking for opportunities to make something work for you. Can you commit to ensuring you or your company don't go out of business before anyone intends?

Come join our discussion on our blog, or I welcome your feedback through email.