Time to Reinvent Yourself?
This week, Noma, One of the World’s best restaurants, announced that it will close its doors next year and reopen as a test kitchen in 2025. Chef and Owner, René Redzepi, said “To continue being Noma, we must change. Serving guests will always be part of who we are, but being a restaurant will no longer define us.” That is a pretty bold move for a restaurant that has been named world’s best restaurant five times and has three Michelin stars.
When Tiger Woods was the number one ranked golfer in the world in 2004, he did the unthinkable and reinvented his swing. He changed coaches and underwent the laborious process of changing the most critical part of his golf game. His coach, Hank Haney, would later write about Tiger in a book; “He wanted to always be consciously doing something to get better. It was as if he needed the stimulation and the challenge to stay motivated. It was a compulsion.”
In the early 2000’s, Ecolab was an 80-year-old firm growing 10% annually and leading the way in their industry. In 2011 with a market cap of $12 billion, they listened to their customers’s concerns about access to clean water and made a huge move by acquiring water technology company Nalco in an $8 billion deal. At the time, CEO, Douglas Baker Jr, said; “We broadened our mission and our purpose statement changed to clean water, safe food, abundance energy, healthy environment. As our teams widened their awareness of global issues, our pride has been enhanced.” The combined company is now one of the worlds’ leading suppliers of chemistry, hardware and software that helps customers become more efficient users of water and is now valued at $58 billion.
You’ve probably heard the phrase: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” - the problem with that statement is that it breeds complacency. Companies that simply try to maintain their position at or near the top risk employee boredom, success fatigue and professional burnout. Like the examples above, the best of the best consistently find ways to reinvent themselves before they are forced to. It’s one thing to make major changes when outside factors essentially demand that you change (many of us experienced this during the pandemic). It’s another thing to make changes when you are on top. These changes are not necessarily always about getting bigger, more importantly it’s about getting better.
As we charge ahead into 2023, I challenged our team to think about how we will reinvent ourselves this year. It might not be a wholesale change to our operation, but I know there are a number of areas within our business that are ripe for “mibe-ing”. With some intentionality and a willingness to let go of what has gotten us to where we are today, I know we can make huge strides toward an even brighter future.