The Greatest Risk in Business is Complacency

It is a risk to do the expected. As it was stated on a recent episode of the Scratch podcast from Rival, “If it’s expected, you need to push farther.”

I currently spend the majority of my time working in the financial services space and the number of times I hear organizations say that all they need are “how to” videos on how to use Online Banking.

I scoff at the notion that a Gen Z consumer doesn’t know how to transfer money. They do. They have Cash App, Venmo, and Zelle. They understand how to move money. What they don’t understand is money itself. That’s fair game. But, even I, an older Millennial am perfectly capable of navigating any number of online banking platforms. (The support is needed when things can’t be found, but that is a User Experience (UX) debate for another time.)

But back to the original point that the greatest risk to any business, especially marketing teams, is complacency. I will never forget the first time I “interviewed” for a Marketing Vice President role. (I put it in quotes because it was an internal emergency discussion to fill a sudden vacancy, and wasn’t formal.) The CEO and I chatted about my vision for the department and the organization and he asked me what I wanted to do. I bounced around some thoughts and ultimately landed on, “I want to do cool shit.”

Yeah, I said that. I was a punk 30 year old who was trying to push a legacy organization forward into modern relevancy.

What I didn’t account for was my audience. If I could go back into that room, here is what I would say (and mean the same thing):

“I believe this organization has the potential to be a standout partner to the communities we serve by stepping out from the norm and putting ourselves at the forefront of media, content, events, and marketing.”

Today’s marketing organizations have the opportunity to do the unexpected. To stand out from the noise and do something authentic, novel, different, while still aligning with values to strategy.

What I tell senior teams today is this: If it doesn’t work out, you’ll be none worse for the wear. But if you keep doing the same thing and it doesn’t work out, what does that mean for your business?

It is a risk either way. But I would rather err on the side of pushing ahead and dreaming bigger than being comfortable with the status quo.