Success
is Not Linear: Temporary Or Permanent Setback?
In school, not all setbacks
are identical. Those at the end of the term
tend to be of greater importance. Mistakes
made at the end of your degree are even
more damaging, though not fatal. Imagine
if you learn during the second lecture that
a student in your group dropped out. Is
this anything worth fussing over? Of course
not, but imagine if on presentation day,
the student with the disk for your presentation
fails to show.
Some setbacks are temporary.
Imagine working on a marketing paper and
hoping for your preliminary research to
demonstrate the viability of a new product.
What do you do when results show that consumers
would not pay for it? Do you panic? No,
perhaps people were not informed of the
benefits. In such a case, the product label
and packaging can be altered to entice consumers
to buy. A temporary setback such as this
is a good thing in the long term.
Other setbacks are more
permanent but in the long-term fade in importance.
The airline industry suffered a mortal blow
as a result of the 9/11 attacks. Imagine
if a class was assigned to devise a marketing
approach for an airline company to increase
sales. Before 9/11, the group may have looked
at increasing sales generated by business
travel. This would have been a feasible
approach but after 9/11 the reality was
that the business flyer was the first one
to cut back on airfare. Corporate spenders
sought to shun spending on airfare and focused
on teleconferencing. A group in business
school would have had to take this into
consideration and alter their recommendation
if they were studying the case in the fall
of 2001.
Other
times, setbacks are permanent. A firm losing
a top
executive has to reshuffle the cards
and hit the drawing board again. The best
ones though do not miss a beat and walk
to the beat of their own different drummer.
Was This The War
Or Just A Battle?
Another
question you should ask yourself is whether
a setback represented a lost battle or a
defeat in war? There is a big difference
and how well you size up the situation will
determine what remedy
you prescribe.
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