Today's success is the greatest danger to tomorrow's success

Recently I was at the Hiswa te water, the boat show of the Netherlands in Lelystad. A boat is a luxury and goes with the grace of economic prosperity. The Hiswa has welcomed a record number of visitors this year, so if this is an indicator of how the Netherlands is doing economically, then it is going fantastically.

And that seems to be the case when you look back. Employment has continued to grow this year, the number of vacancies rose to a new record level at the end of June, existing owner-occupied homes were 5.7 percent more expensive in August compared to August 2018, Dutch industry continues to invest heavily and product confidence remains good. But still, there are uncertain times for the (early) cyclical technical industries. There is an undercurrent. For example, fewer cars are being produced, Tata Steel reports a declining demand for steel, there is still uncertainty about Brexit, thousands of construction projects are at risk of coming to a standstill as a result of the nitrogen decision of the Council of State and consumer confidence at the beginning of 2019 has been below 0 since October 2014.

The economic picture seems less favourable and I notice that in conversations with entrepreneurs. Business is no longer going smoothly everywhere and here and there people are being used again to pick up the phone for cold calling. Entrepreneurs who do this now are putting themselves ahead of the game and are consciously or unconsciously preparing for tomorrow.

But there are also entrepreneurs who haven't realized that yet. For example, after a 75-minute drive to the Hiswa in Lelystad, I wanted to order a delicious cappuccino from the American coffee chain with the green-white logo that is located next to the Hiswa. The people who work there are so used to getting customers anyway, that they made very little effort to provide me with a delicious cappuccino. Was it busy? Well, no.

'You will be helped shortly'

I was the only one at the counter with another lady who was being helped. This lady turned out to be an employee of the coffee chain in question and had a day off. Apparently she thought she would have a nice chat with her non-free colleagues. When I entered, I was kindly told that I would be helped in a moment. And that is a flexible concept, as it turns out. The colleagues were chatting away happily and the attention was no longer on me at all. When I had the feeling that they had forgotten me, because they really did not make any contact with me anymore, I cleared my throat somewhat conspicuously. I had expected eye contact, but my cough was without result. They were having a very nice time together.

After exactly 12 minutes I walked away and literally had a cup of coffee with the neighbours. But without batting an eyelid from the employees of the coffee chain with the green and white logo. I find that strange, because if consumer confidence decreases, that is a harbinger that consumers' willingness to buy is decreasing. Then, as an entrepreneur, I will want to raise the customer focus of my employees to a higher level now and initiate a change, because business may not go as smoothly as in recent years. For many companies, especially in (early) cyclical industries, now seems to me the time to initiate a change and prepare. Today's success is tomorrow's greatest danger!

How do you actually prepare for tomorrow's success? I'm curious about that. You can email me at ron.eman@isatraining.nl.