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After more than two years and 119 issues, I am pausing Business Fluency to focus on a new project. I have genuinely enjoyed writing it and I hope it has been useful. I will share news of the new project here when the time comes. Thank you for reading.

While researching venues for a driving event in the UK, I noticed something unexpected.

Three of the venues I visited had each been affected by fire at some point in their history. But there was another connection: each was a thriving business in a sector completely different from first intended.

Let's look at what adaptation really looks like.

Oulton Park is one of my favourite race circuits in the UK because, unlike most, it is undulating (hilly).

Despite visiting as a spectator for over 30 years, I had never thought about how it became a circuit. Oulton Hall was a country estate owned by the Egerton family for nearly 500 years. It was destroyed by fire, rebuilt in 1715, then devastated by fire again on Valentine's Day 1926 when six people perished. The owner received only £80,000 of the £200,000 insurance he needed to rebuild, died in 1937, and the army commandeered the land during the Second World War. The remains of the hall were destroyed by German bombers. The Mid-Cheshire Motor Club saw the potential to use the army's roadways as a race venue and one of the most characterful circuits in the UK was born.

Adaptation has meant that the land is now being used for a profitable business, while many country estates in the UK are in financial difficulty.

Unlike Oulton Park, where fire ended one chapter, at Palé Hall fire kept one story alive.

Built as a private family home in the 17th century, the hall has served as a royal retreat — Queen Victoria is believed to have stopped there on her way to Balmoral — a military hospital during the First World War, a nursery for children evacuated from cities during the Second World War, and a private shooting estate for the Fourth Duke of Westminster, whose regular guest was Winston Churchill. Then, for 22 years, it stood empty. Rather than being left to rot during the cold and wet Welsh winters, the hall was preserved by 18 electric fires running day and night. This was only possible thanks to the hall's own hydro-electric system supplying electricity at little cost.

The hall finally reopened in the 1980s as a luxury hotel. Palé Hall has lived through more reinventions than most businesses manage in a lifetime.

The venue with the longest history is The Bull at Burford, which has stood on the same High Street for over 600 years.

In that time it has been a butcher's, a coaching inn, assembly rooms, a theatre venue, a stop for farmers and market traders, a destination for touring cyclists, and a motor garage. The property adapted quietly as each generation of travellers passed through. Fire visited twice: in 1797, when a candle ignited stable straw and the town raised funds for its first fire engine, and in 1982, when a passing driver spotted smoke curling from the roof and a major firefighting effort saved the building.

Today The Bull is a thriving hotel and gastropub. It never reinvented itself dramatically — it simply never stopped adapting.

The three venues in this newsletter adapted in different ways.

Oulton Park and Palé Hall had no choice. Fire, war, and economic reality forced change upon them. The Bull is a more instructive example: it adapted continuously over six centuries, not because it had to, but because it read the times and responded. In my own motorsport business, I did something similar in the late 1990s when, spotting a gap in the market, I shifted almost overnight from rear-wheel-drive Escorts to front-wheel-drive Novas, Corsas and Astras, where there was less competition and more opportunity. Rather than being forced to change, I changed because I believed the opportunity was there.

The question for your business is not whether change will come — it will. The question is whether you wait for the fire, or light it yourself.

None of the three venues in this newsletter set out to reinvent themselves.

They were forced to by circumstances — fire, war, financial loss, changing times. Steve Jobs took the opposite approach: he chose disruption before it was imposed on him. When an executive warned him that pursuing a revolutionary new technology would blow up their existing business, Jobs is said to have replied: "Better we should blow it up than someone else." Oulton Park, Palé Hall and The Bull survived by adapting when they had no choice.

Jobs argued that the best businesses adapt before they have to.

Your opinion helps us improve and lets you suggest topics or ask Business English questions for future issues.

Blow up — phrasal verb — to explode or destroy something violently; in business contexts, to deliberately disrupt or completely transform your own business model before circumstances force you to.

Literal meaning: In this context, blow up is associated with destruction — a physical explosion where something is gone in an instant. In everyday English it also describes losing your temper ("he blew up at the meeting"). In business English, Jobs borrowed the destructive meaning deliberately — sometimes the right move is to destroy what you have built before someone else does it for you.

Note - register: This is an informal expression. You will hear it in interviews, podcasts and casual business conversations. In formal writing or presentations, use "disrupt," "transform," or "overhaul" instead.

Blow up your business model — deliberately disrupt your own operations

Blow up overnight — grow or change very suddenly

Strategy: "We need to blow up our pricing model before a competitor does it for us" (= proactive self-disruption)

Innovation: "The new platform blew up the traditional distribution model completely" (= dramatic transformation)

Informal meeting: "Sometimes you have to be willing to blow up what's working to build something better" (= embrace radical change)

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This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. The information contained herein is generic and does not take into account your individual financial circumstances. You should always consult with a qualified financial professional before making any investment or financial decisions.

Additionally, the authors and/or publishers of this newsletter may hold investments in securities or other financial instruments mentioned herein. These are included for illustrative purposes only and should not be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell such securities or financial instruments.