Adapt, Change, or Die: A Warning from 2016 President’s Conference Keynote Speaker

When met with a hard business decision, the safe route is to stick with what we know. With years of previous evidence suggesting your current path leads to financial stability, why would you need to change your plans now? Safety does equal security after all—or does it?

Take Kodak, for example. According to Jeffrey Hayzlett, primetime television and radio host, former Fortune 100 CMO, and 2016 President’s Conference keynote speaker, when Kodak tried to play it safe in 1975 by dismissing digital camera inventor Steven Sasson, they made the worst business decision of their history.

“They had the only product that people would run into a burning house to save,” said Hayzlett in a 2015 Media and Entertainment Services Alliance article. “[But Kodak] just did not adapt. In business, if you don’t change or adapt, you end up dying” (CMS Wire, “Ex-Kodak CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett Warns: Adapt, Change or Die”).

After years of running small and big companies, Hayzlett’s experience taught him that the scale of the business doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a difference in problems they face. Essentially, businesses must continue to look at their marketplace conditions and make adjustments to their business strategies or risk failure. “When you start to think that ‘we only do this’ instead of ‘we could be doing that,’—that is the day that you start to die,” said Faye Oney in his article “Jeffrey Hayzlett to Media Companies: Adapt, Change or Die.”

Hayzlett will talk more about his experiences at the 2016 President’s Conference in his keynote presentation, Think Big, Act Bigger. Based on his newest book by the same name, the program is a take-no-prisoners, no BS, attitude adjustment for those who call themselves entrepreneurs. Learn more about Hayzeltt’s session and the 2016 President’s Conference when you visit www.presidentsconference.com.