“Past Performance Is No Guarantee of Future Results”

“Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

If you look at the 11 companies Jim Collins identified in his 2001 book “Good to Great,” most underperformed the S&P 500 in the years since the book came out*.

(I saw a quote from Collins where he said there was no promise these companies would always be great, just that they were once great.)

Without minimizing the complexity of these businesses, their failure to adapt to a changing environment led to poor decision making and flawed execution.

It’s the same with your team’s performance. And your own.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

When you discover your value proposition has been commoditized, automated, or is insufficient to distinguish your performance from that of your talented peers, it can be a real shock to your system.

To get moving again, start with asking yourself these questions:

–          Are you aware of how your “network” – business partners, managers, colleagues, team – has changed its definition of success?

–          Are your priorities and performance in sync with it?

–          What’s one new thing you can do to keep pace with the change going on around you?

If your performance has gone from good to great over time, well done! Now, how will you sustain it?

 

*One went bankrupt (Circuit City).

Another almost imploded in the mortgage crisis (Fannie Mae).

Others faced regulatory actions or costly litigation (Philip Morris / Altria Group and Wells Fargo) or significant industry disruption that compromised the value of their core business (Pitney Bowes).