Change Agent - Issue 28

Real change, earth-shattering change, stay-up-all-night-worrying change isn't fun. At most companies, it's a huge threat, an opportunity for failure, a chance to see the stock plummet, to watch divisions get axed, to hear customers scream and yell. We're organized to resist big change at every turn.

The problem is that today we don't have a choice. We can't leave innovation to the small guys, the startups that have nothing to lose. Either we change our businesses, or they die.

Resisting change is natural, sometimes even healthy. In today's world, though, it can be deadly.

Businesses that don't change disappear.

Winners change; losers don't. American Express, Western Union, Reebok, Compaq, Penn Central National Bank, PointCast, Reader's Digest -- all are on my list of losers, because all of them hesitated and lost huge opportunities. Every one of them was king of the hill until they toppled off, all the while struggling in vain to make the world stay the way it was.

Federal Express is different. Talk to David Shoenfeld, senior vice president of worldwide marketing and customer service for FedEx, and sooner or later, ZapMail comes up. About 15 years ago, someone at FedEx got the bright idea of putting very expensive fax machines at key FedEx offices and having those offices act as middlemen for same-day fax delivery. ZapMail was a giant failure. By the time FedEx pulled the plug on it, ZapMail had reportedly cost the company as much as $300 million.

You'd think that would have cured FedEx's management of the urge to embrace change -- that forevermore, whenever someone came up with a business-busting idea, someone else would mention ZapMail, and people would roll their eyes and walk away. You know what? The people at FedEx do exactly the opposite. They're damn proud of ZapMail, of their willingness to take risks, of the mistake that proved their willingness to change.

At the Carousel Snack Bar, I learned three lessons that are just as valid now, 23 years later, as they were then. The first is that you should never take a job that requires you to bring your own grease rag to work. Second, jobs in which you don't initiate change are never as challenging, fun, or well paid as those in which you do. And third, companies that don't change vanish.

It's easy to see those lessons at work on the Net, but change isn't just about the Internet. When the Internet is old news, companies still will be turning over. Remember DeSoto and Pierce-Arrow and Dusenberg and Packard and American Motors? How about Borland and Spinnaker Software and Ashton-Tate and (almost) Apple? Or A&M Records? Or Orion Pictures?

In the long run, we're all dead. The same is true for companies, divisions, and brands. Sooner or later, the place where you work is going to disappear. You're not safe, no matter where you are. Your company is going to fail or be acquired or acquire another company, and you'll lose your job. Or you'll lose interest in your job.

One way or another, sooner or later, you're going to leave. So why not take some risks along the way? Here's the question: Are you going to be a change agent, or are you going to keep bringing your own grease rag to work?

The biggest gripe that I hear from folks at companies with two or more employees is that someone else in their company is impeding change, that "they" don't get it, won't endorse it, won't allow it to happen. If you're one of the folks offering up one of those excuses, I've got news for you: What you're looking for isn't change. What you're looking for is an official endorsement of the risk-free status quo.

It's possible to have a great corporate career, to make a difference, to add significant value to your company. But the best way to do that is to instigate and execute change, to risk your job on a nearly constant basis -- because every job risk enhances your career.

Imagine that you're on a boat. It's a big boat, and it's got a leak. Actually, it's got a hole. Belowdecks, your colleagues are busy bailing: They've got cans and hoses and even a pump, and they're bailing water as fast as they can. The optimists in the group are pointing out that no one has drowned yet, and that maybe a giant piece of kelp will come along and get stuck in the hole and plug it up.

Up on the deck, senior management is saying, "Full speed ahead." Sure, every once in a while a vice president notices that the ship isn't quite as high in the water as it was. And the rest can't help noticing that many of the boats around them are sinking. But, frankly, they've got a pretty good gig, and all of the alternatives that they can think of involve getting wet.

And there, about 50 feet away, is a brand-new boat, a boat with no leaks, no holes. And nobody's on it. So here's the question: Why not go for it?