Reinvention: Key to Long Term Success

One of my customers, CCS Business Solutions, Inc. is celebrating their 35th year in business.

Maybe that doesn’t seem like a lot of years for some businesses but they are a computer company. Think back 35 years – what did computers look like?  Big main frame machines that took up an entire room in a company, cost millions of dollars and required special cooling so they didn’t over heat. Meanwhile the regular employees still wrote their correspondence on electric typewriters, using liquid paper and carbon paper.  Trust me – I know where of I speak – I kept Liquid Paper in business because of all the typing mistakes I’d make.

Jim Rutledge, Sr. saw an opportunity to help business owners by purchasing and maintaining the mainframe and allowing businesses to have Jim’s business do the computer work. In those days computer work was primary composed of accounting processing on hand entered data punch cards.

Think for a moment about how far we have come with computers. They no longer require a full room but can be stored in your pocket.

So what does it take to be a computer business and stay a vibrant and valuable resource for 35 years in an industry that has had more changes than “Carter has liver pills?”

Putting himself in the shoes of his customers.

Listening to how their needs have changed.

Reinventing how he can meet those needs.

It has been that reinvention that has helped to evolve CCS Business Solutions, Inc. over the last three plus decades and taken them from a local company to one that serves many states and Mexico.

How has your business evolved over the years? Have you looked at the possibility of reinventing what you offer your customers?

I guarantee your customers needs have changed – have you?

Apple is another example that Harvard Business Review wrote about in their article Reinventing your Business Model.