In 2003, the Chicago Cubs were on the brink of going to the World Series. If you follow baseball, you know that the Cubs have a long-suffering  history of not playing in a World Series since 1945 and not winning the Series since 1908. They were playing the Florida (now Miami) Marlins in the sixth game of the National League Championship Series. The Cubs had a 3-2 series lead in the best of seven playoffs. They also had a 3-0 lead in game six going into the eighth inning. The winner of this game would go to the World Series. Cubs fans were ecstatic. They were about to break what some had deemed a curse on the franchise. With one out, a ball was hit into left field along the wall. Cubs left fielder Moises Alou got into position to make the catch. Enter Steve Bartman, lifelong Cubs fan who was listening to the game through his radio earphones while watching from his seat along the left field wall. As Alou reached out his glove to catch what was to be the second out of the inning, Bartman also reached for the ball, tipping it just enough to deflect it from being caught. Fans were irate. Alou reacted in disgust. And the Cubs let the incident become the turning point, not only of the game, but the series as well. The Marlins went on to score eight runs that inning as mistake after mistake was made. The next day, the Cubs lost again and were cast aside as the Marlins were on their way to winning their second World Series crown.

You may not be a baseball fan like I am, but I suspect you can find the life lesson in this story. This sort of tale gets played out all of the time in business. Things are going well. It looks as if you are on the brink of something very good. Then comes the game changer. Something unexpected hits you and what looked to be good fortune changes directions. They are called momentum shifts, backbreakers, the intentions of unintended circumstances. What happens when something unexpected threatens to turn your fortunes around? Do you grit your teeth and trudge ahead or do you give up and start looking for the your next job? Neither of these may be the correct approach when unexpected change happens. If your course of action is suddenly leading you in the wrong direction, the last thing you want to do is to keep doing the same things. On the other hand, if you jump ship every time you encounter an unexpected roadblock, you will be doing nothing but jumping from one thing to the other all of your life. The real question is one of adaptability. Can you overcome the unexpected by adjusting your direction and commit to the new direction?

This is where marketing comes into play. A good marketing plan allows for adjustments to be made. You may be in the midst of building your marketing plans along with your budget for the upcoming year. You may be setting goals and creating strategies to accomplish those goals. That is all good. But if the market suddenly shifts directions and you are faced with the intentions of unintended circumstances, have you built in room for adaptability? Too often, marketing decisions are not made on feedback you are currently getting from your target market, but on what the budget dictates you should spend during this point in your fiscal year.