9 Questions to Determine if Your Business Will Survive
In today’s business, we have little actual influence in how the marketplace grows or what other business sectors do. We do, however, have complete control over what our mentality is, the level of service we offer, and how much innovation we introduce into our area of business.
One of the fundamental dangers many organizations face today is complacency. Even small, fast start-ups can quickly become complacent as they grow and begin to adopt more and more of the “established” business practices, the same practices that complacent, established businesses are practicing.
Bill Taylor, with HarvardBusiness.org explains:
When it comes to creating the future, the only thing more worrisome than the prospect of too much change may be too little change — especially in an economy where there are too many competitors chasing too few customers with products and services that look too much alike. Now is the time to rethink long-held strategic assumptions inside your company, to challenge decades of conventional wisdom in your industry, and to push yourself to learn, grow, and innovate.
What can the established companies looking for something to re-light the fire of innovation do? What can small start-ups do to prevent them from becoming like the boring giants in their field? A recent article in HarvardBusiness.org discussed 9 questions change agents should ask themselves. The questions are especially important for entrepreneurs and for business managers looking to develop an advantage over the competition.
1. Do you see opportunities the competition doesn’t see?
IDEO’s Tom Kelly likes to quote French novelist Marcel Proust, who famously said, “The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes.” Do you believe that what you offer is truly better than what the rest of the competition has to offer? Take a close look at your mission statement and your actual business practices. Do they clearly set you apart from what else is available in the marketplace?
2. Do you have new ideas about where to look for new ideas?
Ideas that are routine in one industry can be revolutionary when they migrate to another industry, especially when they challenge the prevailing assumptions that have come to define so many industries. Do you see that “next thing” that will be a hit to your customers and clients? Do you have a clear direction for your organization in the next 2, 5, and 10 years or are you simply just expecting things to be the same they have always been before? Do you see where the next great opportunity will be for your organization? Are you always looking for and making new contacts that may generate future business opportunities or partnerships?
3. Are you the most of anything?
You can’t be “pretty good” at everything anymore. You have to be the most of something: the most affordable, the most accessible, the most elegant, the most colorful, the most transparent. The marketplace today is saturated. So many areas of business have too many competitors competing for the same number of customers. If you are currently not the best at any one thing it’s best that your organization “re-think” who you are and focus on establishing yourselves as the premier provider of something. The new wave of organizational marketing is establishing yourself as the best at (something). Once you have done this, the customers will follow.
4. If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would miss you and why?
Simple yet profound. If you can establish yourself in a way that if you’re gone tomorrow your customers would clearly be missing something important in their lives, you’re set. They will keep you in business. It’s a little like the opposite effect of a monopoly. Just like monopolies are stopped because they create an over-dependence on one single company, you can establish the same dependence on your level of service…and it’s not illegal.
5. Have you figured out how your organization’s history can help to shape its future?
The essence of creativity, Psychologist Jerome Bruner argues, is “figuring out how to use what you already know in order to go beyond what you already think.” The most creative leaders rediscover and reinterpret what’s come before as a way to develop a line of sight into what comes next. Do you and your organization’s employees/workers know what the organization stands for, where it came from, and where it’s going?
6. Can your customers live without you?
If they can, they probably will. Are you just offering the sprinkles in your customer’s ice cream? Or are you the ice cream shop that offers the service and products that satisfy your customer’s needs? If what you offer is just a nice thing for your customers to have, there will probably come a time when they will do without your services. Re-invent your organization and its offerings so that you become the meat and potatoes to your clients.
7. Do you treat different customers differently?
If your goal is to become indispensable to your customers, then almost by definition you won’t appeal to all customers. Look for your best clients and make sure that their needs are met. Once you’ve solidified these clients, move on to developing new clients that use your services and develop them into your star clients.
8. Are you getting the best contributions from the most people?
These days, the most powerful contributions come from the most unexpected places — the “hidden genius” inside your company, the “collective genius” of customers, suppliers, and other smart people who surround your company. Does your organization allow for these hidden gems in your organization to be discovered? Is your organization open to ideas from the inside? Do you recruit from the inside when searching for talent to fill new positions? Remember, your existing employees know your business, services, and the environment of your organization better than anyone else on the inside. Tapping talent from the inside gives the individual in the new position an even greater chance of becoming successful in meeting the needs of the position.
9. Are you learning as fast as the world is changing?
Great leaders can never stop learning. How do you push yourself as an individual to keep growing and evolving — so that your company can do the same? Part of being a game changer in business is to keep yourself on top of the innovation. If you’re not leading the innovation, you’re likely not part of the core group that will survive in today’s marketplace.
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