Ian Baillie of Maintenance Magic
Good business leaders adapt to trends as they happen, some falter and others fail to respond to change and thus, their businesses suffer.
Take the London black taxis, they weren’t prepared for Uber and its ‘tap-in’ and ‘tap-out’ card feature because they didn’t adapt with the modern interactive world. Uber saw the gap in the market and took it; now the amount of people using Uber continues to rise and that’s not because the London taxis deliver a poor service, but because they didn’t adapt at the right time and force change when they needed to.
Adapting to a change in personal circumstances can also be a challenging time. Take Maintenance Magic for instance, a start-up business we recently supported. The company was established by former SSI engineer Ian Baillie who was made redundant after a 30-year career in the steel industry. Being faced with unemployment led Ian in a whole new direction as he followed his passion for gardening and domestic repairs.
Change always offers new opportunities, and with the recent election and Brexit yet to take effect, uncertainty is surely ahead and if businesses aren’t prepared to change or adapt, start-up businesses and entrepreneurs will be lying in wait to pounce with new innovations and solutions for their customers. Those wishing to start a new company can sometimes have an advantage when change occurs; depending on the scale of the change, start-ups and budding entrepreneurs often have more scope to spot opportunities, tailor their idea and respond quickly to signals for change while established companies may be so set in their ways that they fail to prepare for change.
Another company that were forced to adapt was Nokia, the communications giant was trumped by Apple and their slick smartphones, leaving Nokia to play catch-up, but the Finnish firm eventually realised the threat and released their own smartphone, and still produce smartphones to this day.
Here at the BIC we offer free start-up workshops and one-to-one support to all of those who wish to start a business. To speak to our business advisers please call 0191 516 6149.