When is Reinventing the Wheel a Positive Strategy?

We often hear the phrase “Let’s not reinvent the wheel…” It’s a common idiom with the general message of not spending a significant amount of time or effort to accomplish a task that already has a proven solution. This simple idea can help streamline a practice or procedure by reminding the decision-makers that it’s okay to implement a simple task to get a job done.

There may also be times in our day-to-day operations where reinventing the wheel can be a positive strategy. Often in the business of our lives we get caught up with doing things a certain way because “That’s the way we’ve always done it…”

However, there may be times that taking a hard look at the way we do things now actually requires an overhaul. For instance, the parking industry in recent years has seen a significant increase in the technologies and solutions available to execute our operations. Duties that we have performed the same way for decades may now have a solution available to significantly improve the way a job gets done…or even eliminate the need for certain roles and tasks.

Tasks such as obtaining and evaluating parking or customer data to effectively serve our communities, solutions designed to streamline the parking or valet process, and even smart technologies implemented to help increase revenues and reduce costs.

Sometimes a fresh look at “reinventing the wheel” can be a good thing. It may be uncomfortable to look at new strategies or practices that could change the way your organization runs each day, but it can come with great and sustainable benefits if it means helping to improve your bottom line, make your staff’s roles in their capacities easier and/or more efficient in the process, and enhance the customer parking experience.