Newton's First Law of... Human Behavior?

You ever notice that even when companies express a strong desire for change, their actual efforts cause them to remain where they are? A friend of mine is in the consumer durables segment, but was talking to an executive at a healthcare company. The executive recognized a talent in skill set in my friend that his company was lacking. So he encouraged him to send in a resume.

My friend did just that, but somehow the resume was intercepted by Human Resources, who proceeded to tell him that they are not interested because he has... you guessed it; no experience in the health care industry.

How many products and services have been launched only to fail because of the same basic reason. Research clearly shows there's a need, people express an interest, even a willingness to buy. However, the offering fails in the marketplace because people have no experience with it.

Newton's first law of motion states that "an item that is at rest will remain at rest until an outside force acts upon it". It seems that this profound law is just as relative to human behavior as it is to items in the physical world. Perhaps it could be restated as "People will continue on with their current behaviors until an outside force drives them to change". That makes it hard to launch something new (or enter a new career field) in a successful manner.

Researching a new product or service (or casually talking to an executive friend at an outside company) poses people with a theoretical outside force, so the answer they give is a theoretical response at best. The same people that were positive at the "theory", are often reluctant to adapt when faced with the reality of the offering.

Something to keep in mind the next time your chasing a "sure fire" lead or opportunity. What looks certain in theory, must overcome the concept of inertia in reality, and that takes force. Hmmm....