Holding Steady

One of my sporting addictions is golf, as those of you who’ve visited here before well know. This past weekend, I was watching The Players Championship.  Tiger was having a not very good round on Saturday and yet moved from the top 20 into the top 5 and wound up playing in the last group on Sunday (for you non-golfers, the leaders go out last).  He was holding steady while all the golfers around him crumbled and, by doing so, advanced his cause. This, of course, got me thinking.We’re at a time when holding steady is perceived as progress.  Gas prices didn’t go up – good news!  Consumer sentiment didn’t decline – good news! We lost fewer jobs last month – fantastic!

Since when did holding steady become good news? Holding steady is playing defense and waiting for an opening.   The last few months have been when some companies quit investing in new businesses and start investing in eyes and ears.  I’m always shocked how many folks are neither hearing in near real time what’s going on in their industry nor what the digital world (blogs, tweets, message boards) are saying about them. Playing good defense is about knowing from where the attacks on you might come.

Over the next few months, using what you’ve learned from holding steady, the investment will shift to finding opportunities to launch attacks from behind the defensive walls.  Slowly, holding steady isn’t going to be good enough – we all know it certainly isn’t in good times.  What are you doing NOW to move forward?  Has holding steady lulled you to sleep or has it set you up with the information you need to advance?  If it’s the former, you need to contact me or someone like me right away.  Who knows – the rest of the field might start to shoot better scores and you don’t want to miss the cut.