May 27, 2009

BE DiFFERENT or be dead: Small Business – Get your Strategy Right

If you own or operate a small business, how much time do you spend developing a strategy that allows you to navigate the turbulent waters of the current economy? I often hear ‘I don’t have time to plan, I’m too busy running my business.’, or ‘Everything is so unpredictable these days I don’t see the point.’ The truth is that every organization needs a strategy; otherwise how will you measure success?

It doesn’t have to be a complicated time consuming exercise. Using the BE DiFFERENT approach you can build an effective strategy in three days and execute it on the fourth.

First, set your financial goals by deciding ‘HOW BIG do you want to be?’ ‘The numbers’ determine the character of your strategy: modest goals yield minimal change and a relatively low risk strategy; aggressive goals require more directional change for your business with higher attendant risk.

Second, decide on the customers you want to target by answering ‘WHO do you intend to SERVE?’ You have a choice here; customers are not all created equal and you need to focus on those who have the potential of satisfying your financial goals and leverage your core competencies.

Third, determine your competitive strategy through determining ‘HOW will you WIN?’ This requires you to define your uniqueness versus your competition. If you can’t give your chosen customers unique and compelling reasons why they should buy from you and not your competitors then unfortunately you will have to play the price game which is not a strategy for the long term. Try to develop your only statement. ‘We are the only ones that…’ This is an effective way to summarize your HOW to WIN work. It forces you to define precisely what you and only you provide the customers you have chosen to SERVE.

The final BE DiFFERENT step is to integrate the answers to all three questions into your Strategic Game Plan.

‘We will (HOW BIG) by focusing our scarce resources on (WHO to SERVE). We will compete by (HOW to WIN).’

Here’s an example:

‘We will grow sales revenue by 25% over the next 36 months by serving the needs of the four seasons vacationer market in Washington State. We will compete and win by creating personalized experience packages that incorporate the many activities that Whistler has to offer.’

Cheers, Roy Osing

Related blogs:

The Only Statement
A Makeover for your Organization
Strategic Renewal
Small Business Survival in Recessionary Times
BE DiFFERENT Quiz

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Posted 5.27.09 at 08:06 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 25, 2009

CUT the CRAP

If your new strategy development process does not deal with the CRAP you need to let go of it will surely fail.

There is no way you can renew your strategic direction and target new customers and re-vector your HOW to WIN position if you continue to do things that were part of your old plan. You simply do not have sufficient resources and bandwidth to do it all, and even if you did the past will create inertia that will prevent you from moving to a new place.

So, treat Cutting the CRAP as a fundamental part of your strategy building process. Once you have charted your new course, include CRAP analysis in your execution plan. What things are you now doing that are no longer necessary? How can they be eliminated? What resources can be made available to your new strategy by cutting the CRAP?

Create a CRAP list and make it long; create a KEEP list and make it small. Make it tough on yourself to retain CRAP. Subject each CRAP item to rigorous review before deciding to KEEP it. Remember CRAP represents potential resources to get on with the new.

Beware of those who possess the CRAP! These Custodians of the Past are people who are comfortable handling past activities; they enjoy them and they don’t want to change. These Managers of Irrelevance are critical to the CRAP elimination process, for if they are permitted to continue to do their thing they will infect others in your organization and prevent them from taking on the new direction. You need to identify these folks and manage them: either reassign them or, if they are unwilling to move to the future, exit them with dignity from your organization.

Designate a Cut the CRAP Champion for the task; make it a senior person in your organization that has the tenacity, perseverance and currency with employees to give the job the credibility it deserves. Charge this person (make it a critical component of their Performance and Compensation Plan) to make it happen. Review progress regularly. Communicate results to the organization.

Make it matter to everyone. When someone tells you they don’t have the resources to execute the new direction ask them how much CRAP they have eliminated. Make the organization accountable to CRAP elimination.

Share your successes with me.

Cheers,
Roy Osing

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Related Blogs
Role of Your Strategy Document 
BE DiFFERENT Quiz
Plan on the Run
Line of Sight Execution
Avoid Aspirational Intent
The Only Statement

Posted 5.25.09 at 05:34 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 19, 2009

Constructive Emulation: the Key to Innovation

The quest for the original idea, the break-through solution; the silver bullet - how often is it achieved and is it really necessary for success?

In most cases I would say NO! The fact is there is an absolute limit on the number of truly original ideas that can be discovered and transformed into business success. Sure, you can point to the social media applications and Apple’s iPod product line to conclude that originality is alive and well in the business development world. But relative to the amount of business seeking activity, silver bullets are few and far between.

In any event I don’t think they are truly necessary for organizations to build a BE DiFFERENT strategy to thrive and survive. In my book and my seminars I spent a great deal of time discussing the importance of getting your plan ‘just about right’ and executing it pristinely and flawlessly. I suggest that roughly 20% of your time be spent developing the essence of your plan and 80% on figuring out how to implement it. The issue is that rarely is competitive advantage the result of the essence of a plan; rather it comes with people working together day-in and day-out in the trenches executing it better that ‘the bad guys’.

I have learned that the most effective way of ‘getting the herd heading slightly west’ is to research the plethora of ways others are conducting business and find an idea that excites you. Take the idea, morph it to fit the particulars of your organization and then execute it relentlessly and with emotional energy.

My term for this process is Constructive Emulation: Learn, discover, adapt and execute.

So, go find an exiting idea that you think will work for your organization. Convince your colleagues that it has real potential and get on with it. The Holy Grail Home Run doesn’t exist, but small productive steps do!

Cheers, Roy Osing

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Posted 5.19.09 at 08:14 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

May 16, 2009

Queen’s School of Business….. the ‘only’ one

In a recent blog, I discussed that the ultimate manifestation of being different is the ability of an organization to compose what I call the only statement and I mentioned some examples from my book of where it is being used effectively.

One particular great example is the Queen’s School of Business in Kingston, Ontario. When I was writing my book I was impressed with their only positioning that read:
‘Only Queen’s provides personal development coaching… as well as specialized electives tailored to your specific career aspirations…’

Recently I found that they have extended their only work to make it stronger and more formidable as a competitive shield.

What appears to be their latest Executive MBA innovation is the ability to obtain BOTH a Cornell MBA and a Queen’s MBA through a singular program.Here’s the way the promotional material reads:

‘Two Internationally Respected Degrees. One Unique Opportunity. The only program of its kind in the world, Cornell - Queen’s Executive MBA offers… in fully integrated American/Canadian class sessions… No other program in the country enables you to learn alongside your American counterparts…’

Brilliant! A superlative example of creating an extremely high value MBA Holistc Offer (integrating MBA’s from two world class educators) and positioning it in the ultimate BE DiFFERENT way. My take-away is that this institution is student-centric, driven to innovate, focused on value creation and unmatched in the competitive educational field. Keep it coming Queen’s!

Cheers, Roy Osing

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Posted 5.16.09 at 10:38 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)