“If you want to be interesting, be interested.”

DAVID OGILVY, AN ORIGINAL ADVERTISING GURU

At the rate the world is changing, it’s easy for a business to get lost in a crowded and ever-evolving market. The speed of change and increased complexities for a growing business create new demands everywhere. To grow a business takes vigilant attention to staying relevant to clients, prospective clients, and shareholders. I’ve heard it said that a business is either growing or dying, that there’s actually no resting in place.

It never turns out well when a business loses its importance, loses its edge, or loses its relevance within the marketplace, and over the past year or so I’ve been encouraging clients to embrace the notion that it’s worth paying special attention to where they stand in terms of relevance. These conversations are always robust and fascinating.

Relevance may be especially on my mind because soon Transform, Inc., will celebrate our 21st birthday. I am pleased to say that we have successfully traversed and continue to navigate the winds of change. Twenty-one years after we began, staying innovative, renewed, energized, and engaged remains as important – if not more even more so – than it was the day we passionately kicked off Transform.

There’s always a new frontier of challenges and opportunities for us and our clients. Remaining relevant takes a commitment both by us and by our clients to serious growth, which is sometimes gut-wrenching and sometimes wholly delightful. Staying interested and passionate about business in general and your business in particular is paramount to staying relevant.

As you ponder relevance, here are some questions for your consideration. Does your company have the self-objectivity and the courage to acclimate quickly when needed? Are you nimble or set in your ways? Does the organizational ego feed itself on its own PR or are you humble enough to keep reinventing yourselves?

Let us never forget, as Ogilvy so aptly reminds us, it is being interested that has helped and will help to keep us interesting.

Cheers to our next 21-and to yours!

By Mary Anne Wampler,
PRINCIPAL, TRANSFORM, INC.