The business landscape in which we compete today is volatile, increasingly competitive and, certainly over the long term, unpredictable. It may seem on the surface to be a hostile landscape for anyone who wishes to start or build a business by purposeful design as there are so many shifting variables. However, there is ample evidence to justify precisely the opposite argument.
Throughout history, challenge and adversity have forged many great successes. More millionaires and billionaires are created during stormy economic times than during times of calm. Success has always required focus, commitment, and a journey of personal mastery. For business owners, business leaders, and entrepreneurs who embrace these principles, the world today is bursting with opportunities.
Through globalisation, the world has become one big business arena, and the emergence of the internet and technologies that surround it means that tools to compete are readily available to you. The pace of change is driving a never-ending surge of innovation with new ideas every day. The best ones have yet to be even thought up.
Whether you are a great inventor of new ideas, an innovator of existing ideas that reinvent the category they’re in, or a disruptor of markets through finding better ways to serve customers, the competitive edge is yours to steal. Opportunities abound.
The important thing is not to get overwhelmed. Change will always be a constant and you cannot control everything. If you master the art of controlling the things which are controllable, you’ll have a stunning platform for sustained growth in any economy that is built to grow.
So what is controllable?
- Creating a compelling business purpose – a WHY and setting the bar high in terms of audacious goals
- Understanding your market potential and where you can make a profound difference
- Creating a compelling value proposition which speaks directly to the needs of the customer now and in the future
- Placing the customer at the epicentre of your thinking and becoming obsessed in delivering memorable experiences every time
- Capitalising on disruptive, innovative marketing which maximises online and offline channels and positions you and your business as the thought leader in your chosen market
- Creating predictable, repeatable results in your business development and sales, resulting in accelerated, sustained, and profitable business growth
- A people strategy delivered through a compelling employee value proposition for attracting, maximising, and retaining the best talent
- Operational excellence as a norm throughout all the arteries of your business
- Robust finances that keep the growth agenda on track and governance as an effective conscience making sure it’s not just what we do, but how we do it
- And finally, inspirational leadership as the enabler pulling it all together.
Royston Guest is author of Built to Grow, a blue print to help entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals understand and apply the guiding principles of accelerated, sustained and profitable business.
Further reading on business management
