A recent Fast Company article noted that ““You simply can’t afford to be sentimental about the past. Future-focus is an imperative for businesses: Trying to replicate what worked yesterday only leaves you vulnerable.”

It has never been more true that ‘what got you here won’t likely get you there’.  Outside of hard work and creative thinking, whatever you did ten years ago isn’t likely to give you the same results in the next ten years.

Fear of deconstructing and reinventing a historically successful business model is holding so many companies (and people) back today. For me, it feels like pent up innovation when I go in and talk with clients about growing their business – after years of focusing entirely on the cost side of the margin equation, they literally don’t know how to think of their business in any other way as a collective.  What’s worse, individuals lower in the organization who might have great ideas get lost in the maze of governance, idea funnels, and gating processes, and the executive suite is too focused on the day to day to really envision something dramatic.

Take a good look around. Is your work – meaning what you personally do – becoming irrelevant (be honest with yourself, you don’t have to tell anyone else)? What about your company’s products and services?  If they haven’t changed in the last 10 years, there’s a good chance they are.