Be Different or be dead

August 19, 2019

Why a bad strategic goal to chase is to be ‘the best’

Source: Pexels

Why a bad strategic goal to chase is to be ‘the best’.

Every organization wants to establish a competitive advantage in the markets they serve. And they all look to creating a claim that establishes themselves in the dominant position.

These types of declarations pervade the communications space.

— “We offer the best network”

— “Our services provide the best value for money in the business”

— “Our customer service is better than our competition”

— “We have the best people in our industry”

— “Our sales support is best in class”

These types of claims don’t cut it in today’s world of intelligent discerning customers and intense competition.

A hope and a prayer

They are aspirational statements that don’t provide any meaningful guidance to people in the organization in terms of what they should do and how they should behave to live the strategy.

Lack of meaning

They don’t give customers any meaningful information that helps them understand the competitive claim. For example the largest Telecom Company in Canada claims to have the ‘best network’ among their competitors. Is this useful information to a customer? Does it explain the characteristic of their network that makes it the best?

No proof

They are difficult if not impossible to prove particularly in terms that address customer needs. In my experience, claims of this nature attract internal organizational statistics to ‘prove’ the claim and not specific attributes that are compelling to customers. They talk to the internal audience rather than the external one.

A competitive claim based on how different your organization is, on the other hand, forces you to define in precise terms how you are unique among your competitors.

Through the use of The ONLY Statement, a detailed assessment of the competition is done and is correlated with the critical desires of the customer groups you have chosen to serve. And it leverages the competencies and skills of the organization.

Here’s an example:

“We are the ONLY team that provides integrated safety solutions that go beyond the needs of our customers ANYTIME, ANYWHERE. We are committed to grow our customer’s business. We ONLY serve safety.”

The ONLY Statement informs the organization what specifically it intends to do that is unique in the marketplace and it declares to the customer what specific value and benefits will be delivered to them — it provides a framework for measuring and proving the competitive claim.

Winning is not about comparative and superlative claims in any event. They are not needed. You don’t have to be better than another company or best among your competitors to succeed and survive. You need to be different in some meaningful way.

Provide relevant, compelling and UNIQUE value to those you have chosen to serve and the spoils of the battle will flow your way.

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

• Posted 8.19.19 at 01:27 am by Roy Osing
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July 29, 2019

How a small business can be better than their competitors

How a small business can be better than their competitors.

If you own or operate a small business, how much time do you spend developing your business strategy? If you’re like most small business owners, not much.
Every small business leader is busy working IN their business; they don’t necessarily spend enough time working ON their business.

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.” They are consumed by day-to-day priorities and crises and have little time and energy left to develop a strategy for their business.

In addition, developing a strategic plan is often viewed as an expensive, complicated and time consuming activity that is an interruption to the “normal” flow of business.

The truth is that every business needs a strategy; otherwise progress can’t be measured and success never achieved.

Building your strategy doesn’t have to be a complicated time consuming exercise; I have developed an approach that results in having your strategy in not more than three days, and you can begin executing it on the fourth.

To not have a plan is to aimlessly bump and grind along, accepting whatever performance you can deliver.

My strategic game plan — SGP — makes it easy for you to plot your future. It can be created in less than 2 days with your small business leadership team in an informal and fun setting.

It’s called a ‘game plan’ because the focus is to build a just about right direction that can be executed rather than waste time trying to create the perfect plan which looks good on paper but no more.

My process is based on discovering the answers to 3 questions; the answers define the strategy.

#1. Growth — HOW BIG do you want to be?

Do you want $1 million in revenue within 24 months or do you want to be more aggressive and go for $5 million?

Most planning processes end with financial results. They calculate the growth results of executing the strategic direction chosen.

My process starts with your growth intentions, and builds the strategy from HOW BIG you want to be. The reason is simple: more aggressive growth goals require a more aggressive — and risky — strategy, and more moderate growth goals need a more incremental — and less risky — strategy.

The traditional planning approach forgets that there is an extremely tight relationship between revenue growth and strategic intent; my strategic game plan doesn’t and that’s what makes my approach DiFFERENT than others.

#2. Customers — WHO do you want to SERVE?

You have a goal to grow revenue 25% annually over the next 36 months. The next question is where are you going to get it? Where are you going to invest your scarce resources of time and money?

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 growth goals and that leverage the core competencies of your business.

It boils down to selecting a group of customers who collectively have the potential to generate the revenue you have decided to go after.

To get the right answer to this question requires an intimate understanding of the various customers you serve. You can’t choose the customer group to generate the revenue you covet if you don’t understand the propensity of your various customer segments to buy from you — discover their secrets and success will follow.

#3. Competitors — HOW will you compete and WIN?

It would be nice if you were the only provider of products and services to the customer group you’ve chosen, but that’s not likely to be the case. There is likely to be healthy aggressive competitors targeting the same customers you want to target, so the challenge you face is to determine how you will differentiate your organization from all others you will be competing with.

Why should people choose your organization when they have other choices available? What makes your team special in view of the alternatives available?

If you can’t give your chosen customers relevant, compelling and unique reasons why they should buy from you and not your competitors then unfortunately you have no other option but to compete by offering lower prices than everyone else, which is rarely a viable long term strategy for a small business with limited economies of scale and scope.

HOW to WIN is intended to explore the competencies of your organization that you can exploit to gain a sustainable competitive advantage over others who compete with you for the customers you’ve chosen to serve — the WHO.

My method is to create the ONLY statement that defines precisely what you and only you provide the customers you are targeting.

SGP soundbite — The final step in my process is to integrate the answers to all three questions as the high level summary of the strategic intent you’ve chosen.

“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 four seasons vacationers in Washington State. We will compete and win by being the only organization creating personalized experience packages that incorporate the many activities that Whistler has to offer.”

The traditional business planning process has its limitations for small business. It generally requires more time than the small business leader has to devote to the task, and it costs more than most small businesses are prepared to pay.

3 questions; 3 answers that will define an effective strategy for your small business because it recognizes the special challenges that small businesses face.

Give it a try.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 7.29.19 at 01:06 am by Roy Osing
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July 18, 2019

Practical ways mom and pop shops can succeed

Business competition is fierce, but even in the face of competition from big box retailers and the rising popularity of eCommerce, there’s still a place for the classic mom-and-pop shop.

Mom-and-pop shops, like the name implies, are typically small, family-owned businesses. They can take any number of forms, such as bookstores, specialty clothing boutiques, restaurants, or other types of physical storefronts.
Even though shopping options have expanded and consumer preferences have changed, in-store purchases still account for the majority of sales, and customers still value in-store experiences.

Mom-and-pop shops stand apart from large, mainstream retailers because they can offer a unique, personalized in-store experience that big retailers can’t quite replicate.
Knowing customers on a personal level and hosting in-store events can level up a mom-and-pop shop’s position in a local community and add character to what makes a city or town special.

Mom-and-pop shop owners, however, must employ strategies to help their businesses continue to stand out as retail continues to change.

Make the most of Independent Retailer’s Month this July by checking out this infographic courtesy of Fundera for actionable tips to help your mom-and-pop shop succeed against competitors.

— Meredith Wood is Editor-in-Chief at Fundera. Specializing in financial advice for small business owners, Meredith is a current and past contributor to Yahoo!, Amex OPEN Forum, Fox Business, SCORE, AllBusiness and more.

• Posted 7.18.19 at 04:04 am by Roy Osing
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June 17, 2019

Why is emotion really important to a winning business plan?

Source: Unsplash

Why is emotion really important to a winning business plan?

Without emotion, you’re business plan is lifeless and probably useless.

What makes one organization wildly successful and another either fail or achieve lookalike mediocrity?

There is no shortage of opinions on this. Academics, consultants, subject matter experts and thought leaders all weigh in on the ingredients necessary for an organization to outperform their competition and solidify themselves as consistent long term winners.

A good business plan

Having a strategy, of course, is important and it should conform to these guidelines:

—  It should be simple. It should define in simple language the end game the organization has in mind;

— It should be just about right. It should define in loose terms what must be achieved in order to be successful. A perfect strategy — one that management spends copious amounts of time developing with the belief that if more time is invested, the plan will be ‘more perfect’ — doesn’t exist;

A strategy is formulated with the best information and insights available when it is created, and by definition this is a flawed process. No sooner is the strategy finished, the world changes and some part of the information used to develop it is no longer relevant.

— It should be driven to carve out a unique space in the market. Value propositions that are similar to the competition will likely fail because they don’t provide a compelling reason why a potential customer should buy from them as opposed to their competitor.

The special sauce

But even a strategy built in the image of these principles won’t guarantee success unless it is mixed with a special sauce.

A strategy is useless unless it captures the hearts and minds of the people on an emotional level.

If people intellectually understand the strategy they won’t necessarily be compelled to deliver it consistently day-in and day-out.

They may understand that ‘unleashing the power of the internet’ is the strategic intent, but unless they are emotionally driven to act on it, execution is dysfunctional and lacklustre and no real progress toward realizing that goal is made.

A strategy without emotionally charged people to execute it will fail. The good plan on paper won’t progress beyond that stage if the special sauce is absent.

This is definitely NOT an OMG! moment for the reader; it’s not a revolutionary thought that you’ve never heard of before. Quite the contrary; the “we need motivated employees” notion is promulgated ad nauseam by the pundits of strategy.

So, if highly motivated people is a well known requisite to effective strategic execution, why are there so many strategies that fail?.

Here are 5 reasons.

1. There’s no ‘energized visioning’

Energized visioning is needed to get the juices flowing.

Communicating strategic intent must be an emotional experience for the employee audience. They must be excited and moved by the picture that leadership paints about the journey that awaits.

Pedantic, monotonic and left brained people have no place articulating the chosen path, for it will turn people off and do nothing for execution.

2. There’s no line of sight for people

Line of sight clarity is necessary for people to know what to do.

When people know specifically what to do to support strategic intent, magic happens.

The problem most organizations have is they don’t spend the time to translate what the strategy means to each function and each position in terms of the new outcomes expected and the old ways that must be discarded.

3. There’s not enough action people

Hiring people who love to do stuff as opposed to think about stuff is critical.

Pontificators block effective execution. They love to talk about possibilities rather than get down and dirty to start doing stuff.

You can’t train people to cast off their intellectualization proclivity; you must hire people who have a natural bent to do it — action must run through their veins.

4. There’s no serving leaders

Leadership by serving around unearths the grunge and barriers that get in the way.

Leaders in the workplace asking “How can I help?” separates the hyper effective executioners from the bland ones. Brilliant execution is all about a “clean” internal environment where barriers to getting things done frustrate people who want to deliver what is expected of them.

And this happens when leaders get out of their office or the boardroom and assimilates with the crowd of employees charged to implement. They discover what’s preventing amazing execution and they fix it (and people love them for it).

5. There’s not a ‘tries’ culture present

The more tries that are made, the greater the likelihood of success.

Strategic intent is never deterministic; it never turns out the way it was originally conceived. Despite the rhetoric of the academics, real progress is made when people try things — a lot.

The end game may be clear but the way to get there is not; and this requires different tactics: some work and others don’t.
The truth is, however, if you’re not maximizing the number of tries you’re making you’re unlikely to arrive at your desired destination.

Strategy is important but it is smoke unless it’s infused with passion and emotion.

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

• Posted 6.17.19 at 04:43 am by Roy Osing
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