Beware of the Lure of the Status Quo

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Think what you’re offering just needs tweaking? What if it turned out that one new product (or service) would have a dramatic impact? What if that innovative experiment opened a window that made two or three more new products possible…and led to an exponential impact?

The chart represents Apple’s revenue and profit over time.  It just shows from 1985 to 2009, but it clearly illustrates what I want you to see.

Know what happened in 2003?  The introduction of iTunes.  The iPod was introduced in October of 2001 and when paired with iTunes…well, you can see for yourself what happened.

The launch of the iPhone in January of 2007 catapulted Apple’s revenue and profit and the introduction of the iPad escalated it even further.

The chart makes it easy to see.

But just think if in 2001 the status quo had won?  What if the board of directors had said, “No…looks interesting, but we’re a computer company.”  Hard to imagine?

What if you said, “No…this host idea might work at Saddleback, but we need to stick to our knitting.”

Or how about this, “We’re known as a Sunday School church.  It’s working for the 60% of our adults who come.  How can we get the other 40% to come?  And maybe even the other 38,000 adults within 20 minutes of our campus?”

One more?  How about this, “We already have a daytime and an evening on-campus study for women.  Why complicate things by starting off-campus women’s groups?”

What do you think?  Have a question?  Want to argue? You can click here to jump into the conversation.

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