Be Different or be dead

February 21, 2011

5 simple ways to craft your unique competitive advantage

Source: Unsplash

5 simple ways to craft your unique competitive advantage.

If you’re not DiFFERENT, you’re dead. If you’re UNReMARKABLE, you’re invisible. If you’re an indistinguishable member of the competitive herd you go unnoticed.

And the end is near.

The ONLY Statement is your way out. It’s your way of clearly defining how your organization is different from the competition, and is expressed by “We are the only ones that…”.

Here are the critical five steps to create the ONLY statement.

1. WHO to serve?

Decide WHO you are going to serve; the customers you intend to target.

You can’t be all things to all people. You don’t have unlimited resources. You need to focus your efforts on those customers who love what you do and who have the potential to satisfy your financial growth goals.

2. WHAT value will you deliver?

Determine WHAT you intend to deliver to your chosen customer groups. You must deliver VALUE (it’s about what your customers receive, not what you produce), BE relevant (you had better address the top wants and desires of the customers you are going after).
And and BE Unique (you must be the ONLY ones who do what you do).

3. Craft your ONLY Statement

“We are the only ones that….”. If you are able to express the relevant and unique value you deliver to your target customer group, you will have a competitive claim that your competitors won’t be able to touch.

4. Validate your ONLY Statement

Before you start using your ONLY claim, however, reach out to your frontline people and the WHO. Check with them to determine if they see your ONLY Statement as relevant (does it address the top wants of your target customers?) AND true (do you really deliver what you say you do?).

Don’t get carried away with your own thinking. Do a reality check before pronouncing your ONLY to the world.

5. Strike your action plan

Develop an action plan to implement your ONLY. Test it for relevance and believability. Communicate it internally. Translate it into behaviors you expect people to exhibit every day. Include these behaviors into your performance management system to make it matter.

Compensate folks on the ONLY behaviours. Decide on the critical few things you need to do in order to implement your ONLY Statement.

There you have it. The lens through which you can grow your organization and stand-out from all others.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.21.11 at 10:59 am by Roy Osing
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February 17, 2011

How to build your business plan around chaos

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Your business plan must be built around the chaos of the times; it must be execution driven.

Your planning process must fit the realities organizations are confronted with these days. Volatility. Randomness. Chaos. Unpredictability. Relentless change

Yet in spite of these dynamics, traditional Business Planning 101 is still advocated by educators and is used by most organizations. SWOTS, in-depth issues analysis, predictability modelling and mathematical assessment of alternatives pervade the planning process.

The objective seems to be to seek the last bit of perfection in the plan and then assume that it will be effectively executed as written.

This is a big mistake. Nothing ever turns out the way you planned. Nothing.

Nothing is ever perfect and trying to seek the 100% solution is unproductive in any case.

The planning model to fit current times must be flexible. It must accommodate unexpected change. It must achieve results. It must generate enthusiasm . It must scare the pants off the competition.

Here are three things you can do to to make your planning process more relevant:

▪️ Get your plan just about right —  It will never be perfect so why bother?
Get it directionally right. Don’t tie yourself down to a specific outcome when there are so many unknowns that influence it. Be flexible to pivot when you need to and your original vision is no longer relevant.

▪️ Execute flawlessly — Take your imperfect plan and be brilliant at executing it. Spend 80% of your time figuring out how to implement it and 20% determining it’s essence.
It is a failure of leadership that plans fall short on execution.

▪️ Learn and adjust on the run — Learn what’s working and not working through execution. And adjust your plan based on this learning.

Build in a feedback loop so you get real time information on whether or not your expectations are being achieved.

Get comfortable with the fact that your future is uncertain.

Get comfortable with imprecision. With a bit of vagueness. With the fact that you can iterate yourself to success if you pay attention to your results and learn from them.

Execution driven planning is what is needed to distinguish yourself from the competitive herd.

Take the step.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 2.17.11 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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