The Slide

I’d been out of work for four months and my wife was starting to worry about whether or not I’d ever find a job again. A nasty case of shingles across the left side of my face forced me to take it easy for a few months, but at this point, I had run out of excuses. My career, up until four months prior, had been one long escalator ride straight up. But now I was at the bottom of the slide, feeling a bit bewildered about how I got there.

The slide is the ugly backside of the s-curve. The s-curve is used to describe the life-cycle of a business. Stage 1 is slow and difficult with little growth as depicted by the lower left part of the curve. Stage 2 is rapid growth and development as the business takes off. The curve is at its steepest during Stage 2 where growth and development are at their peak. Stage 3 is a leveling off point where growth rates decline as the business matures. As you enter stage 3 as a business, it’s time to start reinventing yourself so that you can jump on the next s-curve and continue your path up. However, if you fail to make that jump, you’ll find yourself in stage 4, which I affectionately call the slide. If you fail to reinvent at the top of the s-curve, you’ll be forced to do it at the bottom of the slide.

The classic example of the s-curve in business is the contrast between Blockbuster Video and Netflix. Blockbuster had built a national brand and put most of the independent mom and pop video rental stores out of business. It seemed like there was a Blockbuster on every corner at that time. Blockbuster didn’t see the top of the curve coming and failed to innovate their business model in any significant way. The shift from bulky VHS tapes to smaller format DVDs enabled a new entrant to offer a video rental by mail program. Nextflix used this more convenient approach to take down Blockbuster. It didn’t happen overnight though, and Blockbuster would have a long, slow and painful ride down the slide.

Netflix moved past Blockbuster and began to disrupt their own model. Just like DVDs enabled a new delivery method to get movies to people’s homes, so did the widespread adoption of broadband internet. Netflix began offering their streaming service before a new competitor beat them to it. They reinvented themselves and jumped to the next s-curve and currently enjoy a dominant position in their market. Will they have the foresight and courage to disrupt their business model once again and jump to yet another s-curve? Only time will tell.

The S-Curve and Your Career

The s-curve has traditionally been used to describe business life-cycles, but I think it applies to entire industries and individuals as well. It’s this last part that brings me back to my story. Having had some time on my hands for the first time in my 28 year career, I began to consider what led me to my current, unpleasant circumstance. As I considered the events leading to this point, it all came into focus.

At this same time, I was in the process of documenting my model of personal success, which will eventually be my first book. I’d put together a lot of material over the years and I really wanted to share it with my children and with anyone else who had an interest. In this model, my definition of success is pursuing your purpose, maximizing your potential and creating value for others. This is what really got me thinking about the last 5 years of my career in international freight forwarding.

I realized that the work had ceased to be purposeful for me at some point during the financial crisis and recovery. About that same time, my personal growth and development had stalled and I wasn’t doing enough to jump start it. Not coincidentally, my contribution declined as well and I had this uneasy feeling in my gut most of the time. I was failing all three elements of my definition of success, but I was trying my best not to pay attention to the signs. Change at that time was just too scary to even think about.

I was a senior executive at a good sized, publicly traded company. I had a generous salary, stock grants and other benefits that were hard to give up. My family was happy and comfortable and I didn’t want to relocate them again after finally settling down in North Carolina. My wife and I had our third daughter right about this time, so making a radical career shift just didn’t seem right. I was so distracted that I missed the sign that clearly read: Top of the curve ahead…reinvent now or start sliding! When you’re living in frantic oblivion, sometimes you miss the signs. The slide took five years and only now do I fully understand what happened.

In the early 2000’s, the freight forwarding industry was booming. My company was one of the darlings of the industry, growing from less than a $1 billion market cap in 2000 to over $3.5 billion seven years later. China was booming and companies were shifting production to lower cost countries overseas. International shipping was highly regulated and complex, which led most companies to outsource to professionals. Margins were solid and the growth rate was always double digits. Life was good!

Fundamental shifts happened in the industry following the crash of 2008–2009. Freight volumes declined, profit margins were squeezed and companies began to in-source functions that the forwarders used to provide for them. The market became hyper-competitive as the forwarders began fighting to keep their share of a shrinking pie. Companies in the industry, including my own, began to focus on cost cutting as a way to stay profitable in hopes that they could ride out the storm. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a passing squall, but instead it was a new economic reality that we all had to live with.

With the change in priorities from creating value for customers and managing growth to re-engineering for cost reduction, my skills were no longer a fit within the company. Eventually I left to join another company in the same industry facing the exact same situation. I guess I’m a slow learner! Despite my departure, my old company continued down the slide, all the way to the bottom. They were recently purchased by a larger competitor and I hope that it works out well for everyone. There’s plenty of company at the bottom of the slide.

Is Your Career Headed for the Slide?

Here are the questions to ask yourself to see if you’re nearing the top of the s-curve:

· Am I fulfilled in my current pursuit of my purpose (or goals that are purposeful for you)?

· Am I maximizing my potential and keeping my learning curve steep?

· Am I creating massive value for others?

· Are your company’s growth rates and profit margins increasing or decreasing?

· Are your company’s initiatives focused on creating value for clients or are they internally focused?

· Is your company investing in its people or do they see them as an expense to be managed?

· Is the current trend toward empowerment or is it toward centralization?

Ask these questions often and be honest in your responses. Don’t be afraid to use a coach or trusted advisor to help you assess the situation. Sometimes we’re just too close to the situation to see it objectively. It’s much easier to reinvent yourself at the top of the s-curve than it is at the bottom of the slide.

So what did I do? I did the same thing my daughter always did when she hit the bottom of the slide at the local park. I stood up and found a ladder!

I’ve committed myself to pursuing my purpose with every ounce of energy that I have. As a part of my personal disruption, I’m learning and growing faster than at any point in my life so far and loving every minute of it. With time and progress on my new path, I’ll create value for others in quantities that were previously beyond my comprehension. This is not an easy path, but I do recommend it for all. Pretending that everything’s just fine doesn’t work and hoping things will get better is not a strategy.

Chris Slotten is a senior executive, leadership and organization expert, thought leader, business coach and consultant, with more than 25 years of experience in helping a wide variety of companies to achieve outstanding results. View additional articles from Chris at: www.chrisslotten.com

Follow on Twitter @Chris_Slotten

Originally published at www.chrisslotten.com.