Just when you figure it out, they change the rules!

Business is brutal no matter what line of work you’re in. Successful companies are always changing to keep up.

Is your company thriving? Or is it in turn-around mode?

Either way, the marketplace is talking to you and forcing you to take a hard look at what you sell, how you sell and the process to deliver the goods. If you don’t, you’ll never cross the finish line!

In the last 90 days, I’ve seen the market for what my company provides change radically. All of a sudden, mobile devices are where it’s at. This week, the amount of traffic on mobile devices overtook web traffic from laptops and desktops.

Sure, smartphones and iPads have been around a while, but only now, mainstream companies have decided to invest money in developing websites and apps for them.

Technology changes faster than perhaps any industry except for healthcare. The emergence of mobile represents the third time What’s Up Interactive has re-invented itself. We started out 20 years ago as a company that designed press releases by fax. It was cutting edge at the time and provided a lucrative living.

Then the marketplace changed and faxes became obsolete. Yet there were people on my staff — those who produced the faxes — who were bitter that we exited the business.

Even big businesses aren’t exempt from radical change. In the early 1950s, A&P was the second largest retailer in the US. Then there’s the story of GM. The government forced General Motors to allow Chrysler to hire its CEO because GM was so dominant – in a move to help level the playing field.

Not long ago, Microsoft was so dominant in software and computing, governments in the US and Europe focused on reducing Microsoft’s power. Not so much the case anymore. Microsoft still innovates and produces wildly profitable software, but its era as a leading innovator has passed. (ReadWriteCloud)

Today RIM, maker of the BlackBerry,an $83 billion dollar company a mere three years ago has collapsed to a mere $15 billion dollar company today. RIM’s collapse begs the question: who would want to buy it? (AllThingsD)

And Apple, which was close to liquidation in the late 1990s could use its cash hoard to buy Nokia, RIM, HTC, Motorola and RIM.

What’s the lesson here? You have to be paranoid. You have to run your business for what the marketplace determines are the opportunities. And if you’re red-hot Apple, the moment you become complacent, you’re headed down.