Tendency of Complacency

  By 2006 our company had experienced 25% growth for the past 6 years.  However, in 2006 we didn't achieve any growth.  The concern was that all of our employees expected increased wages and hours. Without increased revenue, there was no way we could increase wages without taking it out of the profit and there really wasn't enough profit to do that.

How did we get into this situation? The prior 5 years we had continually developed methods and services to increase the advantage we had over our competition.  The competition had watched closely and changed their services to match ours.  For whatever reason, we had become comfortable with our current advantages and it cost us growth when our competitors caught up with us.

How did we become comfortable with our competitive lead? When you are first starting a company with little or no money you often deprive yourself and your family of many necessities while you reinvest the profit into growth.  Eventually, you get to a point that you feel you can start taking more and more out of the profit to increase your family’s living standards.  The problem is that if it is done too soon it deprives the company of continued growth and advantages over the competition. The competition will not be satisfied with their market position and will increase their investment lowering your competitive edge.


How do we overcome the tendency of complacency? As a company, there must always be an environment that encourages improvement in all aspects of the business. Each person must take personal responsibility for their own areas of expertise. This also means that owners and/or board members must be willing to make the right investments despite their own interests.


In 2009 we started another company in another state.  For the first 4 years, we grew at a rate of 30% per year.  When we hit the 5th year we found ourselves in the same situation of no growth.  However, this time we had made a plan and had everyone on board. For the next 5 years, we continued our growth at 30% a year.  We did this by never being satisfied with being a good company.

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