When I sat down with Michael Galon of Coca-Cola at Field Service East this summer to discuss working together on a podcast, he brought up a topic I knew many would relate to: how does a leader ensure a company’s legacy doesn’t become a liability?

It’s a great question, and not one that has a simple answer. There are ample benefits for a company that has a rich history – they often have excellent brand recognition, have developed strong customer loyalty, and have created operational efficiencies and streamlined processes that come from decades of lessons learned. However, many of these companies can also find themselves within the trap of the ever-so-comfortable status quo. This is especially true when a company is performing well and feels stable in its existing state.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with the status quo; but it does create the risk of missing an opportunity (or moreover, a need) to evolve or innovate which is where it can become a liability. Within service specifically, there are a number of scenarios where this can take place – product-centric companies that overlook the potential of service and therefore neglect any innovation around the function, companies performing well enough that their objectivity around innovative potential or risk is clouded, and so on.

4 Exercises to Avoid the Liability of Legacy

The goal is to create a balance between leveraging the company’s legacy for the strengths it brings, while ensuring you don’t allow for it to become a liability. Sounds simple, right? Of course not! But here are some factors that can help prevent the liability of legacy from creeping up.

• Remain Curious to Avoid Complacency. The comfort level tends to come not only from what’s familiar but from the false belief that you’ve got it “all figured out.” And maybe you do, but the reality is circumstances always change. It’s important to remain curious. If you are asking the question, over and over, of whether your company’s legacy is creating any areas of liability, I think you’ve won half the battle.
• Seek Inspiration Outside Your Industry. Some industries tend toward innovation far more than others, and it’s important to remain aware of not only what changes are taking place within your own industry, but outside of it. If your industry is slow to evolve, you risk being disrupted by not recognizing a need for innovation before a new entrant or early adopter does. Further, customers in all industries today have expectations that are heavily influenced by experiences they have as consumers and across other industries, so taking into consideration only what they could expect from a direct competitor is a far too limited view.
• Get a Fresh Perspective. The reality may be that if you are working among heavily tenured teams, the ability to look at things objectively may be very challenging. Sometimes it can be very helpful to get some fresh, outside perspective. This can be in the form of brining someone into a role in the organization that has experience in a different industry, a different organization, or simply a clean take on things. Or it can come from working with a consultant or even from networking with peers across other industries or organizations. There’s tremendous value in seeking wisdom from others.
• Stay Close to Your Customers. Close customer relationships and an active effort to understand their environments and assess their challenges is essential to every business but can be especially important when it comes to ensuring your legacy offerings and ways of working are continuing to resonate, as well as what adjacent services or value they may be seeking. Customer loyalty is a wonderful thing, but asking the questions around what you could be doing differently, doing better, doing in addition to will not only strengthen the relationship further but give you valuable insight into where and when change may be needed.