Businesses in the fast-paced environment of today have to make a crucial choice: either change aggressively or risk losing relevance.

The forward-looking companies of Starbucks and Deloitte show how they welcome change—not as a reaction to a crisis but rather as a means of industry leadership.

Both stories show the power of proactive transformation and how well it can turn potential mistakes into long-term gains.

An epic collapse occurred in the late 2000s for Starbucks, the world's largest coffee chain today.

By 2008 the business was facing declining sales, too rapid development, and a loss of brand identification.

Consumers felt Starbucks had deviated from the personal and premium coffeehouse experience it always promoted by becoming too corporate and transactional.

Understanding the decreasing trend, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz went back to lead a bold reorganization project.

To refocus on the customer experience, Schultz aggressively closed failing stores, stopped future openings, and made staff training investments.

He restored the fundamental integrity of the brand, put quality over quantity, and inspired innovation—including enhancing the online buying system.

Although Schultz's strategic vision made this turnaround challenging and expensive, it allowed Starbucks to recover its position as a leader in the coffee market.

Early in the 2010s, Starbucks not only turned around financially but also rebuilt itself as a progressive, customer-centric business.

Deloitte too realized in a world of change that its consulting strategy needed to be changed.

The company started Pixel in 2014 as a way to use freelancers and the public to find specific knowledge from all over the world.

Deloitte forecasted that the growing need for digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and data science solutions would not be met by conventional consulting methods—which mostly rely on in-house teams.

Pixel offered a way to access scaled, flexible expertise, which produced faster, more reasonably priced answers.

Though promising, Pixel ran across internal resistance. Senior managers worried about including outside knowledge since they thought it would compromise Deloitte's client relationships and perceived value.

Supporters like Matt David and Balaji Bondili, however, persisted using early successes to show Pixel's effectiveness. Deloitte changed their consulting model using this fresh approach instead of just modifying it. Pixel currently ranks Deloitte as a top innovator in consulting driven by creativity, stressing the need of embracing calculated risks.

Proactive change builds resilience and long-term success whether Starbucks reinvents the coffee experience or Deloitte redefines consulting.

I work in the healthcare sector personally, and generally this sector has been slow to welcome change. But in the fast-paced world of today, being sluggish is no more a choice. Patients anticipate more; markets move quickly; companies who try to ignore will be left behind. My advice is simple: adapt before the market does.

Prof. Awad Al-Omari