A few years ago, whilst Chairman of a 92 years-old manufacturing business, with a deeply embedded culture and flawed Modus Operandi; I was introduced to a harsh reality, that all businesses should, every 3 – 5 years, re-invent themselves. Those that choose not to, had essentially accepted that any competitive edge had been reverse-engineered, copied, or improved on by others and that the slow and guaranteed death of the business had been set in motion!
“Absolute Nonsense” I replied naively – 9 months later I had to restructure the business, take it through Administration and created a Phoenix business. This new business had a new culture, a modus operandi based on lessons learned rather than learned helplessness and a new level of energy and excitement. The business is still in existence, is profitable and provides less than 20% of the products and services that formed the 92 years of prior “muscle memory”.
Before you dismiss the severity of this message, it is always worth learning from others rather than making the same mistakes. It is one thing to accept the message and an entirely different thing to do the right things about it. To help you, I have listed 8 questions to ask yourself, that when considered, will move your business towards an enduring offering.
1 – Is my business exactly as I envisaged it or has it simply arrived at where it is? In other words, given the opportunity to do it all again, would you change anything? If you would, then NOW IS THE TIME to make the changes.
2 – What problem is my business trying to solve? You may think that you have the best product/service in the world, if it solves nothing, no one will pay for it!
3 – Who is most affected by this problem? If you can identify who has the problem, you have defined your TARGET audience.
4 – What does your company do to solve the problem? Remember that your OFFER starts with the realisation that it is about the client’s problem – It is NOT about you or your product/service.
5 – What gives you an enduring competitive advantage? The more unique and better your offer is than anyone else in the market, the more enduring your advantage will be. It will also attract more competition to eat into your differentiator, hence this is an ongoing exercise.
6 – What does your customer’s World look like when you’ve solved the problem (Q2)? If after the problem is solved, nothing is better, then it was a problem of convenience (or a 1st World problem).
7 – How will you know when you have solved your client’s problem? We must measure progress, growth, or improvement from a baseline to growth to a higher state/level.
8 – How will you monetise your offering? It is arrogance to claim remuneration for the value you believe you add, it is sound business practice to charge a proportion of the success you enable.
Use this opportunity to ask these 8 questions and create the business of your dreams with an enduring competitive advantage.
