Planning for Obsolescence

If you’ve studied business models, you’re probably familiar with the strategy of planned obsolescence.

It’s a strategy where you plan for products that you release today to automatically become outdated a few years down the road.

Planned obsolescence is how the software industry works. Every few years, software programs (and operating systems) get a face lift. Eventually, old versions of the software are no longer supported, which forces people to upgrade.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Without planned obsolescence, I’d probably be stuck in the computing stone age. Plus, planned obsolescence forces innovation — which can be a very positive force.

Here’s an exercise worth doing:

Plan Your Own Obsolescence

Imagine that whatever you do today to generate money is no longer a viable option one year from now. What would you do to replace your income?

At any given time, and in any given industry, there are trends away from certain things and toward other things.

If your income is generated from an activity, product, or service that is in a downtrend, then you really need to be planning for your own obsolescence. Because it will happen whether you’re prepared or not.

Consider:

• The automobile brought about the demise of the railroad barons.
• The invention of fuel injection put carburetor mechanics out of work.
• Online journalism is putting traditional journalists out of work — and killing newspapers by the dozen.

And these are just a handful of obvious examples. There are thousands of subtle trends that are always shifting power (and money) from one area to another. Few people detect these trends until it’s too late.

Keep Your Eyes Open and Your Ear to the Ground

Always be watching the changes happening in your industry and in your area of expertise — both the big changes and the small ones. Sometimes small changes become big quickly (because of new legislation, policy changes, tipping points, etc.).

But most of all, plan for your own obsolescence. How can you maintain (or grow) your business if you’re forced to do something completely different than you’re doing today?

Even better, how can you maintain (or grow) your business without being directly involved in the day-to-day operations?

These are good questions to consider, especially in a day and age when there is so much change and uncertainty.

Here’s your assignment: Start planning for your own obsolescence. Begin making strategic changes now, while you have time and flexibility, instead of later, when you’ll be racing against the clock.

-Ryan M. Healy