The Seeds of Failure? part 1

Eighty percent of growth strategies fail. Only 20 percent of all growth strategies succeed. This startling statistic applies to adding a new product or expanding into a new market, as well as involvement in mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. If you have had a degree of success in your current business, you're one of the lucky few who actually succeed. However, being successful in one business, does not guarantee success in another. Applying the rules you've learned in one business, may actually lead to failure in another.

Fred Smith, founder of FedEx, modeled ZAPmail after FedEx's highly successful overnight delivery system, but ZAPmail would be delivered in 2 hours! The problem was the business model didn't fit the technology ZAPmail used fax machines located in FedEx office to achieve its two hour delivery miracle. Now we all have a fax machine and FedEx lost millions on ZAPmail.

This doesn't mean you should never move out of your core business. It does mean you should do so with extreme caution and a clear understanding of the risk. Overconfidence can be costly, if not deadly.