This is the tag for the Starbucks Tasting Room campaign… yet it is so true for everything about business. Everything we do every day with our business leads us to the next move. We can choose to stay focused only on the present (TODAY) — never look beyond the day-to-day (which could trap us in a cycle of staying not expanding)… OR we can do something that moves us beyond that and focus on the goal rather than just on the today.
For example, maybe if Starbucks focused only on the day-to-day they might not have expanded drink categories or started selling non-coffee/drink items at all. Just focusing on and trying to satisfy their basic coffee drinkers was probably a lot of work and adding the extra inventory and expense to brand/market themselves as something bigger was going to be another thing they would have to put more hours and money into… Just coffee was definitely working, why change something that was working??? As a business owner you understand what it takes to expand product line but to expand store branding and strategy is yet another mountain to scale.
Just something to think about. Goals, big picture, growth, expanding, change, etc. It's always going to be work… BUT it’s exciting work! What is NOT exciting work is the work it takes to maintain something that is difficult because you are failing to look beyond the tree… you keep running around that same tree… Not looking ahead into the big forest of possibilities is exhausting work because there is no inspiration left in it and you've worn down the path. Eventually, you are going to get yourself wrapped around that tree like a dog on leash and your competition is racing by you — they are certainly not going to untangle your leash.
© Mary Carol Sullivan 04/01/15
MARY CAROL SULLIVAN IS A CREATIVE DIRECTOR who will challenge your established ideas and offer fresh perspectives.
www.linkedin.com/pub/mary-carol-sullivan/5/692/3b7/
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