{"id":2836,"date":"2022-07-13T22:51:31","date_gmt":"2022-07-14T04:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:10043\/?p=2836"},"modified":"2024-07-18T12:54:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T18:54:27","slug":"if-it-aint-broke-well-you-know-the-rest-but-apparently-gaylord-didnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atiba.com\/if-it-aint-brokewell-you-know-the-rest-but-apparently-gaylord-didnt\/","title":{"rendered":"If it ain’t broke…well, you know the rest, but apparently Gaylord didn’t"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared in\u00a0The Tennessean<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s summertime in Music City.<\/p>\n

Pedal taverns are pedaling, guitars are picking, and the kids are out of school. Swimming, boating, baseball, ice cream, and even soccer\u2014 aside from a little bit of heat and humidity, what\u2019s not to like?<\/p>\n

For me, summers were always my favorite time of the year.\u00a0 That is, until the infamous summer of 1997.<\/p>\n

Yes, that’s right.\u00a0Longtime Nashvillians know exactly what I’m talking about.<\/p>\n

It was 1997 when our beloved Opryland theme park was closed and replaced by a mall.\u00a0 For anyone here who grew up going to Opryland USA, the decision to close the park felt like nothing less than an apocalypse.\u00a0\u00a0No more cooling off on the Flume Zoom (also known as the log ride), no more screaming on the Screamin\u2019 Delta Demon or the Wabash Cannonball, no more getting soaked on the Grizzly River Rampage, and no more leisurely drives on the Tin Lizzies.<\/p>\n

Music on the Show Boat, visits to the Angle Inn, funnel cakes, and Roy Acuff sightings\u2014the list goes on. Just like that, the centerpiece of Nashville\u2019s summer for locals and tourists alike was no more.<\/p>\n

No one really understood why this happened, and 25 years later most of us natives are still carrying around some summer resentment.\u00a0Why would anyone choose to replace America\u2019s most famous music theme park with\u2014of all things\u2014a mall?<\/p>\n

Gaylord, the company that owned Opryland was under new leadership, and they claimed the park wasn\u2019t profitable. Their vision at the time was to get into the \u201cshoppertainment\u201d business and they felt that tearing down the theme park in favor of a mall would be a good business decision.<\/p>\n

Bud Wendell, the legendary former CEO of Gaylord had left the company a few months before the decision was made said the move was the \u201cdumbest thing I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d and that the park was indeed making money.\u00a0Wendell went on to say,\u00a0\u201cAnd the people that were responsible for it, I would think today would look back on it and say, yeah, it was a dumb, dumb decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hindsight is 20\/20, but just imagine if we still had Opryland today.\u00a0 With Nashville\u2019s growth, there\u2019s no doubt Opryland would have been a massive economic boon to the city and that Gaylord would have made a fortune (just look at Dollywood.) If Opryland was still here, tourists would not only flock to the honky-tonk scene downtown but would bring their kids along to experience all the music, food, and rides at the park.<\/p>\n

So, Wendell was right, closing Opryland might rank up there as one of the worst business decisions of all time.<\/p>\n

I find myself thinking about Opryland not only every summer, but every time our company is thinking about making any significant change.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, businesses that don\u2019t adapt to an ever-changing world can get left behind (remember Blockbuster video stores?).\u00a0 But on the other hand, fixing something that\u2019s not broken is extremely risky if not well thought out.<\/p>\n

In the ever-changing world of technology that our IT consulting company works in, there\u2019s been a constant pull between pivoting to take advantage of new opportunities and keeping our focus on what we know works.\u00a0 With new opportunities presenting themselves every week, it\u2019s sometimes hard to know what to do.<\/p>\n

The people who made the decision to replace Opryland with a mall I\u2019m sure thought they were adapting.\u00a0But given where Nashville is now, and the fact they ended up eventually selling off the mall, it seems they might have been wrong.\u00a0 They ignored the \u201cdon\u2019t fix it if it\u2019s not broken rule\u201d to their own peril.<\/p>\n

In order to avoid the same mistake, our company has tried to do three things:<\/p>\n