That’s hard to do you may think… And you may be right but let’s explore this.
Right now, you are in a business and you know what your challenges and opportunities are and you may have a clear plan of implementation in progress, but then again you may not.
We are experiencing challenging times right now regardless of where your business is at and what product and services you provide. There are brilliant opportunities to move ahead of your competitors and win more market share.
I would like to share with you what the best businesses around the world have done to get ahead of the competitors and stay ahead of the curve.
- Review, refine and document your vision.
- Obtain feedback from your team and clients and incorporate the key comments into your vision to obtain the maximum buy-in to what you are trying to achieve.
- Develop a plan of action & implementation that holds all parties accountable for the desired results. The best plans are built on knowing your strengths and developing a targeted approach to build market share.
- Develop a winning team culture. Shore up your weaknesses and develop contingency plans to insulate and protect your business as much as your resources will allow.
- Celebrate your success with stakeholders.
- Clearly communicate your point of difference & deliver loads of value to your target audience and ensure your clients condition is significantly improved as a result of buying from you.
- Develop and attract talent.
- Manage your critical success factors daily and weekly and take corrective action. Be courageous and act quickly (not hastily).
- Know your key financial numbers and breakeven – build a financial dashboard and monitor regularly. Reinforce this with monthly management meetings.
- Continue to evolve and innovate. One of the best mechanisms to fend off competitors or theft is to constantly innovate, evolve, differentiate, be bold and stay ahead of the curve.
Fine tune your strategy to be consistent with your objectives in the context of short, medium and long term goals to maximise your return on energy & investment.
There are no guarantees in life however, an action plan supported by a never give up attitude certainly helps.
I look forward to hearing about your success.
Alec Blacklaw 