Driving in the Impact Zone
Are you unknowingly operating your business in the “Impact Zone”?
The concept of the Impact Zone was born out of the auto-insurance business. All of us know about it, often experience it first-hand, but never think it can just as easily apply to our businesses.
Have you ever been following someone just a little closer than you should, and the next thing you know you are crashing into the back of the car in front of you? These fender benders happen all the time because we are driving in the Impact Zone. By following too closely, we have removed the time necessary to prevent a crash, guaranteeing an eventual accident. Most people don’t realize how much reaction time our brain requires to stop when a sign of danger or impact is imminent. Why not? Because we can drive for thousands of miles and never hit anyone. When we get away with driving in the Impact Zone for long enough, we begin to believe an impact will never happen to us.
The same is true in business. We can be operating our business in the Impact Zone and never be aware. We may be doing something extremely risky and if we get away with it for long enough we don’t see the danger. Then one day, our business has a minor crash causing some damage.
When we are involved in a fender bender, we repair the car and hopefully we change our driving patterns. However, when the impact happens in our businesses, we often don’t repair the damage and sometimes blame the damage on someone or something else without ever assessing or correcting the actual problem. Consequently, we continue operating in the Impact Zone and history repeats itself.
Over time, impact after impact, without repair or correction, we become like the driver with no insurance who keeps driving in the Impact Zone. Eventually, the car that carried him everywhere no longer maintains any value and can carry him nowhere. It can be the same for our businesses if we choose not to acknowledge the risk we are taking, do not correct our choices, and do not make the necessary repairs.
For the sake of ourselves, our employees and our businesses, we have to avoid the Impact Zone. We need to plan ahead, read the market, regularly assess our business plan, and be aware of potential impacts. Then when unexpected events happen or someone cuts us off, we are prepared to assess the damage, repair it and make the necessary changes.
If you need help in assessing your business, please contact us at www.sdgcommunications.net.
