Plus ça change…

That’s a pretty ridiculous expression!

How can something that keeps changing stay the same? What does it apply to? Who does it apply to? Who uses the expression and is the expression itself in need of an update?

Well, in the business world it’s not very difficult to think of examples of change. When I first began working internationally, the trips were referred to as safaris and receiving a telegram from an overseas agent was not uncommon! This of course was quickly replaced by the telex. The telex was overtaken by the fax and the fax was killed off by email – and all that over a period of only 40 years or so.

Over roughly the same period I can remember clunky desk phones giving way to mobiles like house bricks. Car phones that filled the glove box gave way to the luxury of in-car hands-free communication.

When I made by first business flight to Durban with the very exclusive and business-like British Airways, little did I suspect how budget airlines would come along and totally transform air travel for all.

So, massive change and, as we all know, the pace of that change is now break-neck as we rush into strange concepts like internet specs and driverless cars and so on.

And yet, in the context of business I hear a lot of people saying lately that the old methods are still the best. I suppose the problem is, as with most fundamentals in business, old stuff looks exactly what it is and value is a difficult concept to sell. We all love the idea of something new and that little expression might just be useful in reminding us that the underlying values need never change.

People still buy people, as another popular expression goes, and for my money they always will.

Yes, it’s important to keep up in the race for “new” – how many consumer products get a new lease of life simply by the addition of the word “new” in bright letters on the top right-hand corner of the pack? But for long-lasting business success it might be a good idea to think deeper and work out what’s going on beneath the surface.

Clearly it would be Luddite to deny that the instinct for change, which we all have, is anything but a force for good. Optimism and inventiveness are all bound up with change and what business will not profit from having those qualities in the mix? We need to constantly renew and refashion as we search for better ways of doing things and more efficient ways of living our lives.

On the other side of the coin, it’s also good to remember that a vital sense of stability and security can spring naturally from simply not changing at all.

So it would seem that plus ça change may not be a tired old expression that’s outlived its usefulness – perhaps that’s why we keep using it?