Dinner at Schrafft's. Shopping at Korvettes. Then a night watching the DuMont television network.

Brands die almost as often as houseplants.
The three I mention in the title of this post were the Starbucks, the Target and the NBC of their day. And their day was not that long ago.

They are all dead now.

Because they became irrelevant.
Their service sucked.
Their product failed to adjust to consumer needs.
Yet business as usual prevailed.

It's been famously said that the world during Napoleon's time was closer to the world during Caesar's time than it was to the world 20 years later. In short, the pace of change is accelerating.

Or, to cite Alvin Toffler author of Future Shock, think about a graph of the speed mankind can achieve on Earth. From the beginning of time until about 1830 you have a flat line. From 1830 until today you have a line that is nearly vertical.

That's change today.

Business as usual reads: CLOSED.

Starting thinking about business as unusual.