Without a doubt. Complacency is a company killer. It’s a silent but deadly killer than can sneak up at any time and take down your life’s work. No matter how big of a company you are no matter how many sales 📈 you have, complacency can strike at any time and rip all of that away. And once it starts attacking your company, it’s almost impossible to stop it.
Now, what is complacency you may be asking? Well, from the Cambridge Eglish dictionary:
/kəmˈpleɪ.sən.si/
a feeling of calm satisfaction with your own abilities or situation that prevents you from trying harder:
Example: What annoys me about these girls is their complacency — they seem to have no desire to expand their horizons.
Generally, complacency is the self-satisfaction and lack of awareness with regards to dangers and deficiencies. This mindset leads you to stay in your comfort zone and not strive for better.
Optimism Bias
The worst thing about complacency is that humans are wired to be complacent.
Optimism bias is something that all humans have and it leads us to think that our chances of experiencing negative events are lower ⬇️ and our chances of experiencing positive events are higher ⬆️ than our peers.
So, when asked about your chances of getting divorced or laid off all resulted in answers lower than that of their peers. However, when asked about how long you will live for, or how smart your kids are, the answers were always above average. Now, by definition, it is impossible for everyone’s answer to be correct and above average.
This outlook on life can be both positive and negative. On the negative side, optimism bias can lead to poor decision making. It can lead you to not wear your seat-belt, allow to skip your weekly workouts, and can influence you to not put on sunscreen even if skin cancer is a risk.
On the other hand, it can help you have a more positive outlook on life and help you to achieve your goals if you believe that they are attainable.
Now, complacency only comes into effect when it affects you negatively. Your false sense of security blinds 👨🦯 you and limits your determination to become better and achieve more. As an individual, if you feel as though you don’t have to work hard anymore to become better then you have achieved complacency and it could very well limit you from achieving long term goals or lead you to make poor decisions moving forward.
How it Affects Companies
Complacency can affect your company in three major ways:
- Drives away good workers
Complacency can single-handedly drive 🚗 away some of your best workers. Your best workers are probably those who consistently do excellent work, are always on time with tasks, help others do great work, and always strive to improve.
This is good and all, but if your company has a complacent mindset 🧠 they probably won’t be sticking around for much longer. Those people like to be around other people who are working hard and striving for greatness as well.
But if your company isn’t looking to grow then a large majority of your workers won’t be as well. This will end up driving away your best workers leaving your company helpless and nearly unsalvagable.
2. Embraces mediocrity
Complacent companies love mediocrity 😐. They are okay with doing things kind of well and don’t strive for perfection. If this isn’t a big enough reason to not be complacent I don’t know what is.
For you to grow as a company, excellence and high standards should be your goal. Mediocrity doesn’t let us strive to be better, it is an excuse for laziness and doesn’t allow us to dream big and shoot for the stars.
3. Kills innovation
If your company thinks that once they are at the top of their market they don’t need to innovate anymore. THEY ARE WRONG ❌. That is exactly what a false sense of security is, and it will lead most companies to stop working hard and die.
That may sound a little harsh, but it’s true. Living in the world 🌎 that we live in today, the market changes so rapidly that if you aren’t changing your plan and innovating you will probably fall behind.
Or, once you have that false sense of security and take that foot off of the gas pedal, those companies behind you will catch up so quickly and you won’t be able to realize until it’s too late.
Take Kodak for instance, they were one of the leading companies selling film and film cameras 📸. At one point, they even had 80% of the market and film accounted for 72% of their revenue. In 2001 film sales peaked, but that also meant a treacherous valley soon. So, in the early 2000s Kodak released their digital cameras and managed to capture 21.3% of the market. However, that was declining rapidly 📉.
In 2003 they only captured 15% of the market and in 2010 it was only 7%. The main problem was that they weren’t making money from selling digital cameras. They actually lost $60 for each digital camera they sold.
This ultimately led to the death of Kodak and complacency was the killer. Now, I know you might be saying, “how do you know it’s innovation” maybe it was just a bad company.
Introduce Fujifilm. They were Kodak’s rivals and tried to profit off of film as well. Although, when digital cameras started taking over, they innovated. And in 2006, they came up with a 6-year plan to reform the company.
They downscaled their production of film and built facilities that focused on innovation culture and communication among engineers. Fujifilm adapted to emerging markets such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and highly functional materials. For example, they predicted the boom of LCD screens and heavily invested in the field. Today, they own 70% of the market for protective LCD polarizer films. 💰
Obviously, it wasn’t the digital camera industry that destroyed Kodak. It was complacency and therefore a lack of innovation.
Moonshot companies 🚀
Now there are plenty of books, articles, and videos to watch about how to become anti-complacent. And honestly, I feel as though different techniques work for different people. So, your first task as an anti-complacent is to find out how to overcome complacency and strive for greatness. 😁
On the other hand, here are some individuals and companies that you can look to for inspiration. Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Rigetti, Deep Genomics, Mammoth Biosciences. These are all individuals and companies shooting for the moon 🌑.
What is a moonshot company you may be asking? Well, it is a company that is trying to solve the world’s biggest problems. They are a company that is innovating and creating the future not trying to guess it. They are companies and individuals that won’t stop trying to be better even if they have solved their problems.
Take Tesla for instance. Most people know them as a car company that sells expensive electric cars. But in reality, they are a solar energy company that is trying to slowly transition the world to renewable energy sources.
Selling cars was their way of entering the market and to earn them enough revenue to continue with their master plan. Yet, their main goal is to change the world to become more sustainable and to build affordable electric cars in the process.
All in all, complacency is a silent killer of companies and it is something that must be avoided at all costs if your company wishes to survive. Even though everyone is wired to be complacent, there are ways to get out of it but that is for you to find out (don’t be complacent). Finally, some companies that aren’t complacent are moonshot companies such as Tesla or Rigetti and there is a lesson or two that everyone can learn from them.
Key Takeaways
- Complacency KILLS companies
- Everyone is genetically wired to be complacent
- Complacency will not only scare away your best workers but it kills innovation as well
- Kodak is a prime example of a complacent company
- Don’t be complacent find out how you can become anti-complacent (strive for greatness)
- We can all learn something from Moonshot Companies and their founders
