Imagine asking Beethoven during his toil to perfect the Fifth Symphony: "Ludwig, why are you working so hard? Your First Symphony has established you as one of the most popular and successful composers of the day. You've already earned your place in the history books. Why do you continue to push yourself?" Can you picture Beethoven responding, "Why push myself? Because if I don't write a better symphony, then someone else else will. The competition is fierce and if I don't improve, I'll be pummelled by those fiesty foreign upstarts. Change or die. Eat lunch or be lunch. In this world, only the paranoid survive."
I frequently use that analogy to poke serious fun at the fear mongering that pervades modern management thinking. You can hardly pick up a business magazine, visit a bookstore or listen to a management guru without being assaulted by admonitions designed to frighten you into action: "You had better hop to it and (insert favourite word: change, innovate, improve, revitalise, revolutionise) or else."
Don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating that you stick with the status quo. Nor do I deny the importance of continual reinvention. Yes, the competition will blow you away if you refuse to improve. But that is not the primary reason you should change, improve or renew. I've never seen anything great and lasting created solely because "otherwise something based will happen”. As I reflect back on the research I did for Built To Last, I'm struck by how those who built enduring, great companies were driven first and foremost by an inner creative urge. They would have continued to challenge themselves and push forward even if they didn't have to. That is not only the reason they reached the top but also why they stayed there for so long.
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