Change Doesn’t Have To Be Bad

Technology

In case you missed it, the Apple World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) just happened. Among striking changes to Apple’s mobile operating system iOS for its 8th iteration, there were a number of changes to their desktop operating system, OSX, for its upcoming release, Yosemite. You can watch the full keynote on Apple’s Event Page, but for now we’re focusing on something as seemingly minute as a font change.

As Fast Company reports, Apple is migrating from the Lucida Grande font that has been the operating system’s hallmark text for over a decade. Apple didn’t explicitly say the font was Helvetic Neue, the iOS font, but it’s a safe bet that it is because one of the largest underlying objectives of this OSX update was to bring it closer to the iOS experience. And that brings us to our point:

Don’t be afraid of change: I had a business professor a long time ago that was famous for his appropriation of this Mark Twain Quote, “No one likes change except a wet baby.” Most of the time that’s true, but don’t be afraid to switch things up—even if you’ve been doing it for more than a decade and it seems simple—if it helps your overall strategic vision. Someone will inevitably upset about it, like they’re sure to be about the Apple typography change, but if it helps create a better product then it’s worth it.

This goes doubly for anything that’s not working they way you want it to. If your accountant screwed up your taxes, you’d get a new one. Don’t be afraid to apply that same sort of logic to your e-mail server, web hosting provider, technology partners and every other aspect of your business. Change is hard, but it’s not impossible.