It’s interesting that it took Washington Trust Bank only about two centuries to decide to venture north beyond South County into the environs of Kent and Providence Counties, ground that the company now sees as fertile for its future development.
Within a year the company expects to be up and running with a branch in Warwick and can be expected to expand in Cranston and Providence in the not too distant future.
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Call it conservative growth if you will, or call it focus, an understanding of your product and reasoned and responsible growth.
As I’ve witnessed the activities within this business community, those companies that are successful are the ones that know themselves, can understand their focus, develop a vision and have the flexibility to change with their customers’ needs and with technological advancements. Successful companies do so even in a business climate that has become difficult.
The successful companies are the ones that realize there is no shortcut to success, that rarely does business succeed when strategies are developed by conjecture or hunches.
Particularly now, in what has been a deteriorating business climate, it becomes important for companies to revisit their roots and understand the product they manufacture or market, and their original mission. That’s not to say that flexibility and innovation, that technology and creativity should not be applied, but those elements should have all been a part of a company’s original vision.
There are many examples of companies that even in this slugglish economy continue to be successful. Washington Trust certainly, a South County bank that has expanded deliberately both in products and geographically, understanding its limitations as well its potential. Add to that Bank Rhode Island among the smaller regional banks, and look to the likes of Citizens that has distinguished itself by making a series of successful acquisitions in now growing the company to join the largest financial institutions not only in the region, but in the nation.
Nortek, Textron, CVS remain among the most successful companies nationally because they have never ceased to understand the businesses that have made them successful. And there are numerous medium to small sized companies throughout our state that continue to thrive because they have that same understanding.
But for every successful company, there are a multitude of others that may flourish in a growing economy, but struggle to maintain their focus as the economy – and cash flow – begin to slow.
Companies also need to learn to adjust, courageous enough to take bold and innovative steps to assure their products continue to meet customers’ needs, even if that means redefining the products, and be willing to embrace technology as it comes along to improve the quality of their product and the productivity of their workforce.
We have found too often in Rhode Island, companies that are unwilling to change, and companies unwilling to invest in research that will give them a solid foundation upon which to develop future strategy.
It takes sound management to understand that there is no conflict between tradition and innovation, but that the two can be married if the courtship includes some solid research and is based on a mission that is well focused.
