My boss refuses to take risks… even though they would pay off! Help!

Dear Aunty B,

I know you are nice to bosses but I am having trouble with mine and I know he reads your column… so I am writing to you with some expectation that he will see it and change his thinking, so don’t let me down!

My problem is this. I have been studying a competitor’s technology and think that by adapting it and finessing it we could go to market with a cheaper, smarter version of what they are doing and add a service component that could make us more money.

My boss – your reader – doesn’t want to even look at it. He told me that the competitor won’t last as they are small and our technology will prevail. Also that the new product will cannibalise several of our existing products and divert resources from redevelopment of our main product. And he thinks the service element will distract us and could well be a black hole, as our clients would demand more and more.

In effect he is saying it doesn’t fit the business model. He also says the costs for the first year are too big to bear. But my worry is that this small company will work out how to come up with a next version that will be smarter and cheaper and really will be a threat!

How do I get my boss to see that I am right and we have to take a risk on this?

Fighting a losing battle,
Mic

Dear Mic’s Boss,

Please close your eyes for a minute. Go on. Just shut your eyes and clear your mind. Now imagine you are a different type of person. You are no longer a cowering fearful servant of the board, hanging on by a fingernail to your job.

You no longer come to work and kiss your current business model, happy with its comforting familiar shape, content to work on how to improve its performance.

You no longer see the world through the industrial prism of product development, sell more of ’em, hire more resources and just keep replicating your way to success.

The type of person you are going to become is one that listens to my friend Mic. Your competitor will not go out of business but will thrive on the market share she or he is pinching from you. So you are going to be very respectful of the new threat, study what they are doing and make sure you adapt. You are also going to understand that product and service is an excellent way of adding value and you are going to open your mind up to its possibilities.

You are also going to stop being scared of cannibalising your existing products. If you change the way you see your existing business model and view it as an evolving, fast-moving thing, then you will look at the potential of new products and view the business from a different perspective.

Finally, you are going to be the type of person who does a financial assessment through what “can be”, rather than what has been and will be forever more.

And you are also going to look at your talent and realise that you love Mic and take him to lunch to pick his brain.

Be smart,
Your Aunty B

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