One of the best ways to breathe authenticity into your business is to define your core values…
It may not seem to be a priority to define your business core values, but the sooner you make the effort, the faster you’ll reap the rewards.
Simply put, core values are a high-level checklist for your business; they help you and your employees define a consistent way of working that breed deep characteristics for your brand and reputation.
When you have your business core values in place and you consciously check in with them, every product or service you deliver reinforces your values to your customers, to yourself and your team.
Developing business core values adds texture and character to your brand and is one of the best ways to breathe authenticity and authority into everything you do. And since authenticity and authority are two vital components of all of your marketing efforts, it follows that developing your core values is an important aspect of your business that you shouldn’t ignore.
So, how do you define and develop your business core values?
1.What are business core values? Business core values are very similar to individual values. They are the essence of your business identity – your principles, beliefs, philosophy and ways of doing things. They are the guiding principles your business employs to manage its internal processes as well as its relationship with your clients and potential customers. The list of possible values is endless but here are some common ones:
Trust
Integrity
Passion
Transparency
Accountability
Creativity
Pride
Respect
Boldness
Sense of adventure
Simplicity
Pushing boundaries
Problem-solving
Innovation
Diversity
Quality
Exceptional customer care
Equal opportunity
Fun
Environmental responsibility
Social responsibility
Human rights
Mind-body connection
Collaboration
2.Make a list
Now you know what business core values are, you can begin to brainstorm values that are important to you. Those that you love and those that you hate.
It’s important to look at both sides of the coin (the good values and the values you don’t like). If you have a value you dislike, then it’s not something you should incorporate into your business core values. If you do, you’ll end up feeling out of alignment with your business.
Your list should include:
Values you like and dislike
Other people’s brand values that inspire or repel you
Questions you might ask yourself:
What’s important for my business?
What’s important to me?
How do I want others to view my business?
What would make me delighted with the way my company operates?
In what way is my business different from my competitors’?
What values do my competitors have (or appear to have)?
What would make me walk away from your business?
Look into other people’s brand values. Are there any that you might like to add to your list? Look for the values that stir something in you, and be sure to list those that you like and dislike.
You can research other brands by searching for examples online, or looking at the brands you love to see if you can determine what their brand values may be.
3. Distill more values from values you dislike
Don’t just discard the values you dislike. You can use them to find more values that you care about.
For each value you dislike, think about what the opposing value is. There’s a high chance that the opposite is something you’re very passionate about.
For example, if you’re turned off by exclusivity (which is a brand value that works for many businesses), chances are that you’re passionate about building communities around your brand.
When you’ve completed this exercise, you’ll have more positive values to add to your original list.
4. Consolidate your values
Now you’ve got your list of values, run through the list and highlight the most meaningful values on the list that you know you’d want to include in your business.
These will be the base of your core business values.
5. Display your values proudly and clearly
The final step is to document your values and keep them close by.
If you’re a one-person band, make a point of reviewing your values regularly and to remind yourself of how you want to operate your business.
If you have a team, make sure everybody knows the core business values and understand that they need to operate within those values and stay consistent in the messages your business puts out.
There is a big difference between selling your cost versus selling your value…
These are words that can be difficult for service-based business owners to respond to. Most of us are not too comfortable with selling in the first place. And when someone questions how much you’re charging for your services, it can dent your confidence and make you doubt yourself.
Let’s start with how you shouldn’t respond…
Don’t automatically assume you’ve lost this client. When you hear these words – recognise it as an indication that you’re at the start of the sales journey with somebody who might actually be interested in what you have to offer. It’s just that there’s still some work you need to do to help them arrive at the right decision for them.
Don’t panic. Don’t immediately lower your pricing out of panic when someone says you’re too expensive, otherwise they’ll assume that you were over-charging to begin with. That’s not what you want. And you’ll miss a chance to open a dialogue that can lead to better understanding of your client’s requirements and concerns.
Don’t defend yourself. At the end of the day, it’s your business. You don’t have to defend yourself or your prices, unless you want to. Just as your client has the right to object to your prices, you have the right to stand by them. This is especially the case if you are happy with your current workload.
Don’t take it personally. Objections around price are just part and parcel of the everyday business negotiation, so don’t take it personally. It’s not about you. In fact, think of it this way… if you’ve never been told you’re too expensive, you’re probably not charging enough!
How you can respond
Start a conversation The good news is that when someone says you’re too expensive, it needn’t always be the end of the conversation. Often, when a potential client mentions your pricing, it’s a signal that they want to buy from you, but may need some convincing in order to overcome their reasons for hesitating. These objections may have nothing to do with your price and everything to do with where they’re at. Sometimes they’re either not 100% committed to a particular course of action, e.g. they may just be price shopping, or they may simply be using price as an easy way out for not wanting to buy. Whatever the case, by asking your client a few simple questions in a non-aggressive way and listening to their concerns, you can find out if they really want to work with you, or are using price as an excuse.
Acknowledge that you’re expensive Communicate to your clients the real value of your work, the processes and time involved to help them get results. Explain to them that it’s taken years of dedication for you to build your expertise and knowledge in your field. So yes, you are expensive. But if you can convey the true value of what you do, then your clients will realise that your services are worth the price tag.
Ask yourself: “Is this my ideal client?” If not, let them know you might not be the best fit for them and recommend someone else that would be a better match. If the person is your ideal client, you’ll have to explain and show them the quality and value of your work with a bit more dialogue and a closer look at their actual requirements and what you can do to help them.
When a client genuinely can’t afford you. If a client genuinely can’t afford you (yet!), ask them what budget they have in mind. You can then offer a reduced solution to match their lower budget, if you want to. If their budget is too low, then politely tell them you’re not a good fit right now. Be firm but nice and keep in touch with them – the situation may change further down the line.
Why People Don’t Buy
There are many reasons why somebody might decide not to buy from you. Many of these reasons have nothing to do with the customer’s initial perception of price, but have everything to do with how they perceive the value of your product or service. Research suggests that ‘the price is too high’ is the least common reason why people don’t buy.
What reduces the perceived value of a product or service?
Your product or service will lose perceived value if the customer :
Doesn’t feel as though you’re taking them or their needs seriously.
Cannot see the value in your product or service.
Believes the risk of purchase is too high for them.
Doesn’t understand something about your product or service.
Lacks the desire for your product or service.
Is not ready to buy now.
Feels as though they are getting too little attention.
Experiences errors which remain unresolved.
These examples above represent some of the real reasons behind why a customer may not buy. And of course, there will be some occasions where the customer cannot afford your product or service.
Positioning your service to remove these obstacles for your prospects will significantly reduce the number of times you hear that phrase ‘you’re too expensive’.
Tips for creating incentives to encourage your prospect to buy
Here are some ways you can position your product or service to give customers reasons or even incentives to buy:
Create irresistible offers.
Offer testimonials, case studies and quotes that demonstrate the effectiveness of your product or service.
Develop a coherent brand that gives your customers a sense of trust.
Pay attention to your customer service and seek to delight your customers.
Learn to speak the language of your target audience so they feel “Yes! It’s like you’re talking about me!” Feeling understood and heard is a huge emotional motivator when it comes to buying.
Meet your potential customers wherever they are in their buying cycle and build a relationship with them so that when they’re ready, it’s you they want to buy from.
Create deals with more advantages for the full package.
Find ways to make your service a good investment and then communicate those to your audience.
Don’t forget to demonstrate how your product or service solves your customer’s problems and saves future losses.
Add genuine scarcity – if you can. This can be exclusive one-time offers, closing dates for courses or something else.
Provide a guarantee, or find ways to reduce the customer’s sense of risk.
Offer payment options to make it easier for your customers to buy.
Find out the facts first.
Try to establish why your prospect is considering hiring you, what value he or she sees in your services, what problems they’re trying to resolve and what questions or doubts they have about your service.
This is where you learn about what they are looking for as well as:
Their budget (important)
Their time scale
What’s important to them
What they don’t want
How they will know when they’ve found what they’re looking for?
Their current perspective on your product or services.
Analyse their needs.
Now you’ve asked the questions, it’s time to quickly identify their needs. For example, they may want to save time, want a return on investment and to find some clarity about the subject of your service. But they’re not too concerned with how many free bonuses they might get. So when you come to present your services to them, you know what to prioritise.
Present the product to them.
This is where you get to highlight how your service fulfils all of their needs. You can also brush over some of the additional features that they may also enjoy.
Tailoring your pitch this way, helps your customer to run through their mental checklist with you confirming that your product ticks the boxes for them (and hopefully goes beyond their expectations).
Confirm that what you’re presenting is what they want.
Seeking your prospect’s confirmation that they want what you have brings you two opportunities.
First, it gently locks the prospect into committing that your service is what they want (which stops them from back-tracking when the price is presented).
Second, it gives you the opportunity to hear and address any further objections they may have – BEFORE you present the price.
The close.
Now you have answered all of your prospects’ concerns and they’ve confirmed that they want what you have, that’s when you move into the closing phase. You should not mention the price of your product until you’ve reached this stage and you have the agreements and confirmations in place. It’s in this phase where you’ll discuss the price.
Conclusion
If your prospect still tells you you’re too expensive at this point, it’s time to help them dig a little deeper.
There are usually only a few genuine reasons why people don’t want to pay your price. By asking them the right questions, you can help them sort through their thinking and reasoning, work through their fear and reservations, and help them come to the right decision.
This is the time to fix the leaks in your revenue, such as bank charges and many more…
For entrepreneurs, this is a good time to check in with the status of your business and see how sound the foundation of your own financial house is. Are you on target with your business goals? How do economic conditions impact your business? How profitable is your business? A business that is never evaluated will never be elevated. The best approach is not just to set short-term goals, but to think beyond profits to asses your long-term impact, as well as the strategies that will take you there.
Focus on Differentiation in a Messy, Noisy Market
Chaos creates noise, and may make it more challenging to reach your customers. While many entrepreneurs are spending time duplicating the efforts of others in an attempt to reach quick profitability, undifferentiated, substitutable products are the first to go when budgets tighten. Use the downturn to look at competition, and seeing where the market chaos is leaving weaknesses you can capitalize on. Also, create customer profiles of the market you intend to serve, anticipate their needs, and continue building the things that will set you apart.
Fix the Leaks Before Adding More Water
A down market can be a challenging environment for creating more revenues, but it’s a great time to understand and reduce your expenses. This is your chance to fix the leaks in your business before the revenues start rushing back in. Most companies leak money in several places, like bank charges, while it may be extreme for your business, it’s almost a guarantee that there’s room for improvement.
Another example of wasted revenues: subscriptions. Consider the tools you’re using for your business and understand where you’re being excessive and wasteful. More urgently, what types of subscriptions are you part of that you’re currently not even using? If you’re paying for goods that aren’t seeing use, you’re throwing money overboard.
See the New Opportunities and Challenges of the Downturn
While the new economy presents many opportunities, it also presents a number of challenges for entrepreneurs. Hiring downsized talent, getting a cheaper rate on office space, negotiating with your suppliers, and avenues for partnering with struggling businesses that can offer you a lot of value and benefit from your stability are all opportunities part of a down market. At the same time, the downturn may wipe out your key client, bankrupt a key supplier or service provider, or create unexpected expenses. Keep especially aware during this time.
Conclusion
Many entrepreneurs fail in business because they don’t know how to bridge the gaps – that is, staying competitive in any business cycle. The economy has not been the same since 2008, and many of the strategies of the past will not work in this new economy. As always, keep consuming books, engage business consultants, mentorship, market research and above all, conversations with your customers. Relevance is revenue and it is vital to your success in the new economy.
Demographics explain who makes up your audience and help you to segment your customers by individual characteristics and needs…
Have you ever seen an ad aimed at an audience that clearly didn’t include you? If so, you’ve witnessed the power of demographics in marketing. Demographic data can help brands to narrow the scope of their marketing efforts so that their time and money aren’t spent pursuing people who are unlikely to become customers. After all, not everybody will be interested in that website ad for a dating website.
business owner or marketing expert can harness the power of demographic segmentation in marketing. Below, learn all about demographics and how to use them in marketing segmentation.
What is an example of a demographic?
Here are some examples of demographic data and variables for consumers:
Age group
Gender
Race
Ethnicity
Location
Marital status
Education level
Occupation
Employment status
Income level
For businesses, demographic data and variables (also known as firmographic data when collected for businesses) may include the following:
Company size
Industry
Products or services provided
All of these demographics reflect basic qualities that can be used to determine the market segment to which your target audience, whether businesses or people, best belongs. In other words, demographic segmentation allows you to divide a larger target market into smaller subgroups that may be more receptive to certain products or marketing strategies.
What is demographic segmentation?
Demographic segmentation is the division of a target market into smaller groups of people who share demographic characteristics. For instance, a luxury jewelry company looking to target customers in the Northeast may divide this massive target audience by location (state or city) or income level (a lower-income consumer may not be able to afford the company’s products). Demographic marketing, which is one of the four market segmentation types, can streamline your business’s promotional efforts and help direct your work toward a narrower, but likely more receptive, customer base.
The five main segments for demographics
Although there are many examples of demographics, there are five main segments for demographic targeting: age group, gender, income level, education and occupation. While all of the major demographics have merits when it comes to your marketing strategy, a demographic segmentation strategy that prioritizes the five main segments may prove more fruitful, since these demographics tend to most strongly inform consumer behavior, interests and needs.
Additional types of market segmentation
In addition to demographic marketing, there are four other types of market segmentation:
Psychographic segmentation. Whereas demographic marketing is based on objective qualities, a psychographic segmentation strategy relies on subjective traits. These traits may include personality, values, interests, lifestyle, beliefs, priorities, motivations and attitudes. For example, a payroll software company using psychographic market segmentation may promote its products to business owners who prioritize staying tax compliant as efficiently as possible.
Geographic segmentation. Location can be part of a demographic marketing strategy, but in geographic segmentation, location is the entire focus. Use a geographic segmentation strategy to divide your customer base by country, city, ZIP code, climate, urban or rural setting, or proximity to a certain location. An example of geographic market segmentation would be an electric scooter company aiming its products at people who live in crowded cities.
Behavioral segmentation. A behavioral segmentation strategy focuses on consumer behavior. It requires marketing research into consumer purchasing habits, spending behavior and brand interactions. Any company that targets customers who have bought similar products from either that company or competitors is using behavioral segmentation as its marketing segmentation approach.
Firmographic segmentation. Whereas demographic segmentation applies to people, firmographic segmentation applies to businesses. Firmographic segmentation involves dividing target companies by factors such as industry, location, size and revenue. For example, a water delivery service with limited supply may use firmographic segmentation to market itself to smaller businesses that may not demand as much water.
Market segmentation. Marketing strategies often involve market segmentation, since this approach details the makeup of the target audience. Market segmentation can be especially useful for social media marketing, because narrowing the audience of a social media campaign can boost engagement rates while lowering marketing costs. Market segmentation also overlaps with market research. As you narrow your target audience, you will naturally come to learn these customers’ behaviors, interests and needs.
Why are demographics important in marketing?
Demographic targeting is important for determining the group of people who best fit your vision of the ideal customer. Demographics can – and should – inform your marketing strategy from the bottom up, as pushing a product to an unreceptive audience can be a wasteful use of time and money.
Demographics are crucial for the following aspects of your company:
Business plan. When determining how your business will earn revenue, you need to be sure that your most likely customers are aware of your products and services. Therefore, the very foundation of your business plan should be to figure out the target market for your products and services, and demographics can help you determine that.
Market research. When you are gathering data about your customers’ wants and needs, demographics can be of paramount importance. Dividing market research tasks by demographic can allow you to identify the consumer subgroups that are the likeliest to buy your products or use your services. You may even discover that the groups you had initially expected to be most responsive to your company are uninterested, while the groups expected to be uninterested are highly responsive.
Image building. Messaging, branding and image are vital for brand success, and demographics can help you finalize each of these marketing tools. By knowing the age, social class, gender and other crucial demographics of your current consumers and target audience, you can develop your company’s logo, imagery and general presence to best appeal to your customer base.
Media use. If your demographic research determines that your customer base skews older, using social media to reach them may backfire, as social media audiences tend to be younger. Likewise, placing ads on a men’s magazine website may backfire if you learn that your audience is mostly women, and pitching coverage in a local newspaper may be ineffective if your demographic research does not identify that particular region as a hotspot for your company.
How do companies use demographics in marketing?
Here are some of the ways companies use demographics in marketing:
Social media marketing. Most social media platforms’ key demographics are readily available. Your company can use these demographics to inform your social media strategy. Look at where your customers’ demographics overlap with those of social media. For instance, if your customers are primarily women and you see that Pinterest’s user base is overwhelmingly female, you may find Pinterest campaigns especially useful.
Ad spends. Knowing your customers’ demographics can inform your ad spend strategy. Age group is a particularly powerful demographic for ad spending, especially for products that target young adults who spend often or older adults with greater spending power. According to one survey, during an eight-month period in 2018, digital advertising efforts geared at people 65 or older increased by 25% and ad spending for data on consumers ages 25 to 34 increased by 23%.
Marketing campaign images. Visuals and images, whether digital ads on websites or large ads seen at public transit stops, can be crucial to your marketing plan. However, if these visuals are not relevant to the groups you are targeting, the images will be far less effective. Use demographics to help you decide whether your images should appeal to women or men, older or younger customers, people in urban or rural areas, and more.
Ad and marketing image placement. Speaking of public transit ads, why would you place ads for a product with a mostly rural consumer base in subway stations or on the sides of buses? That’s why so many public transit ads are for movies or apps: People living in urban areas tend to use these products and services more than rural residents do.
Where to find demographics
When you’re learning about the ways demographics are used for marketing, you may be wondering, where are businesses that successfully market to demographic segments getting their demographic data, and how can your business do the same?
These are the primary methods of demographic collection in the digital era:
Customer accounts or orders. If a customer has created an account with your business or placed an order for shipping to their home, then you already know one of their major demographic variables: their location. These accounts can often give you even more demographic info. For example, if you own a clothing company for which customers register accounts online and save favorites to their accounts, you may be able to at least guess your customer’s gender.
Browser cookies. In recent years, browser cookies have become controversial among the online security community; you’ve likely had to agree to the terms in a notification on a website informing you that cookies were being collected. That’s because cookies collect and store your personal data, which makes them great sources of demographic data. If you install cookies on your website, you may be able to easily access demographic information.
Digital apps and online platforms. You can use third-party demographic marketing services to collect demographic information on your target audience from digital apps and online platforms. Data collected via these services can paint a detailed picture of the demographics your marketing efforts should target.
Conclusion
The ease of obtaining demographic data is a huge factor in the popularity of demographic marketing and segmentation. Just make sure you have a plan in place before turning your data into marketing campaigns and, hopefully, results.
This is for business owners who want to know why they should conduct a market analysis and how to do it…
Understanding your customer base is one of the first key steps to success in business. Without knowing who your customers are, what they want and how they want to get it from you, your business could struggle to come up with an effective marketing strategy. This is where a market analysis comes in. A market analysis can be a time-intensive process, but it is straightforward and easy to do on your own in seven steps.
What is a market analysis?
A market analysis is a thorough assessment of a market within a specific industry. With this analysis, you will study the dynamics of your market, such as volume and value, potential customer segments, buying patterns, competition, and other important factors. A thorough marketing analysis should answer the following questions:
Who are my potential customers?
What are my customers’ buying habits?
How large is my target market?
How much are customers willing to pay for my product?
Who are my main competitors?
What are my competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?
What are the benefits of running a marketing analysis?
You can use a marketing analysis at several stages of your business, and it can even be beneficial to conduct one every year to keep up to date with any major changes in the market.
A detailed market analysis will usually be part of your business plan, since it gives you a greater understanding of your audience and competition, helping you build a more targeted marketing strategy.
These are some other major benefits of conducting a market analysis:
Risk reduction: Knowing your market can reduce risks in your business, since you’ll have an understanding of major market trends, the main players in your industry, and what it takes to be successful, all of which will inform your business decisions. To help you further protect your business, you can also conduct a SWOT analysis, which identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for a business.
Targeted products or services: You are in a much better position to serve your customers when you have a firm grasp on what they are looking for from you. When you know who your customers are, you can use that information to tailor your business’s offerings to your customers’ needs.
Emerging trends: Staying ahead in business is often about being the first to spot a new opportunity or trend, and using a marketing analysis to stay on top of industry trends is a great way to position yourself to take advantage of this information.
Revenue projections: A market forecast is a key component of most marketing analyses, as it projects the future numbers, characteristics and trends in your target market. This gives you an idea of the profits you can expect, allowing you to adjust your business plan and budget accordingly.
Evaluation benchmarks: It can be difficult to gauge your business’s success outside of pure numbers. A market analysis provides benchmarks against which you can judge your company and how well you are doing compared to others in your industry.
Context for past mistakes: Marketing analytics can explain your business’s past mistakes or industry anomalies. For example, in-depth analytics can explain what impacted the sale of a specific product, or why a certain metric performed the way it did. This can help you avoid making those mistakes again or experiencing similar anomalies, because you’ll be able to analyze and describe what went wrong and why.
Marketing optimization: This is where an annual marketing analysis comes in handy – regular analysis can inform your ongoing marketing efforts and show you which aspects of your marketing need work, and which are performing well in comparison to the other companies in your industry.
How to conduct a market analysis?
While conducting a marketing analysis is not a complicated process, it does take a lot of dedicated research, so be prepared to devote significant time to the process.
These are the seven steps of conducting a market analysis:
Determine your purpose. There are many reasons you may be conducting a market analysis, such as to gauge your competition or understand a new market. Whatever your reason, it’s important to determine it right away to keep you on track throughout the process. Start by deciding whether your purpose is internal – like improving your cash flow or business operations – or external, like seeking a business loan. Your purpose will dictate the type and amount of research you will do.
Research the state of the industry. It’s vital to include a detailed outline of the current state of your industry. Include where the industry seems to be heading, using metrics such as size, trends and projected growth, with plenty of data to support your findings. You can also conduct a comparative market analysis to help you find your competitive advantage within your specific market.
Identify your target customer. Not everyone in the world will be your customer, and it would be a waste of your time trying to get everyone interested in your product. Instead, decide who is most likely to want your product using a target market analysis and focus your efforts there. You want to understand your market size, who your customers are, where they come from, and what might influence their buying decisions, looking at factors like these:
Age
Gender
Location
Occupation
Education
Needs
Interests
During your research, you might consider creating a customer profile or persona that reflects your ideal customer to serve as a model for your marketing efforts.
Understand your competition. To be successful, you need a good understanding of your competitors, including their market saturation, what they do differently from you, and their strengths, weaknesses and advantages in the market. Start by listing all your main competitors, then go through that list and conduct a SWOT analysis of each competitor. What does that business have that you don’t? What would lead a customer to choose that business over yours? Put yourself in the customer’s shoes.
Then, rank your list of competitors from most to least threatening, and decide on a timeline to conduct regular SWOT analyses on your most threatening competitors.
Gather additional data. With marketing analyses, information is your friend – you can never have too much data. It is important that the data you use is credible and factual, so be cautious of where you get your numbers. These are some reputable business data resources:
State and local commerce sites
Trade journals
Your own SWOT analyses
Market surveys or questionnaires
Analyze your data. After you collect all the information you can and verify that it is accurate, you need to analyze the data to make it useful to you. Organize your research into sections that make sense to you, but try to include ones for your purpose, target market and competition.
These are the main elements your research should include:
An overview of your industry’s size and growth rate
Your business’s projected market share percentage
An industry outlook
Customer buying trends
Your forecasted growth
How much customers are willing to pay for your product or service
Put your analysis to work. Once you’ve done the work to create a market analysis, it’s time to actually make it work for you. Internally, look for where you can use your research and findings to improve your business. Have you seen other businesses doing things that you’d like to implement in your own organization? Are there ways to make your marketing strategies more effective?
If you conducted your analysis for external purposes, organize your research and data into an easily readable and digestible document to make it easier to share with lenders.
Be sure to retain all of your information and research for your next analysis, and consider making a calendar reminder each year so that you stay on top of your market.
Asking the right questions today will allow leaders to be better prepared for and even gain insights from uncertainty…
If you are like most leaders, you were unprepared for the novel coronavirus and the disruptive impact it has had on lives, livelihoods, and business. You may have taken part in crisis management training, and you probably had scenario-planning exercises in place in your organization. Even so, we bet you were surprised, if not blindsided, by the pandemic, how fast the crisis unfolded, and what your leadership team needed to do as a result.
In today’s world of accelerated change, companies frequently will find themselves in situations in which they don’t know what is going to happen next. With so much uncertainty and few straightforward answers, it is easier to focus on near-term actions and “getting things done.” Preparing for an unknowable future is another matter entirely, but it’s just as important — it can show you new opportunities and prepare you for potential disruption, which are both outcomes that can lead to greater success. But this kind of preparation requires a different mind-set than the one that reacts to events; it needs a new set of practices that allow you to explore topics that are not yet important to your business.
Traditional approaches are all ultimately about control: Prepare for a crisis so you can control the message. Run potential scenarios so you can control the decisions at key junctures and mitigate risk. Hire experts so you can control knowledge and execution. But preparing for an unknowable future, as opposed to trying to control the outcome of that future, is different.
Preparation of this sort comes from scanning for the signals that already exist, embracing unknowns, and being curious about new ideas. Leaders need to hold the tension between two extremes: control on the one hand, and exploration on the other. A future-oriented mind-set is one that accepts this paradox.
Exploratory Learning
To prepare effectively, you need to practice what we call exploratory learning: Gather information not knowing how it will be used or what insights you will gain. The most valuable untapped skill is the ability to learn — genuine curiosity paired with openness. With your team, pick a trend, theme, or current important topic, one that is not yet impacting your business. Maybe you think it will — maybe you aren’t sure. Then, explore and solicit opinions from a broad range of viewpoints; try to see opposing sides and define the axes of the problem. Get curious, but do not move to action or reach a firm conclusion. Simply engage your team in exploring what is out there.
For example, consider the current pandemic. Whatever plans you made or scenarios you outlined were probably inadequate for the way events unfolded. Imagine if you had explored more thoroughly what it would mean to have everyone on the team being virtual, testing the limits of what we know about virtual work, or if you had looked at your whole supply chain as being vulnerable to disruption. People have been discussing what makes virtual teams effective for decades, but you may never have thought your company would operate that way. Imagine if your team had talked about what would happen if travel were disrupted (for whatever reason).
Your topic for future exploration could be as broad as a pandemic or as narrow as a particular ingredient or component in a product you make in the future. Ask yourself these guiding questions to strengthen your inquiry:
Does anyone or any institution know all there is to know about our topic?
Who has an informed view, and what do they have to say?
What are the competing views on the implications or the indicators?
What other trends might impact this?
Who else is thinking about this, and why?
Take any direction. Cast a wide net, and engage different points of view. The point is to learn, to think, and to know more about what others are seeing. Afterward, ask yourself and your team about implications for your business:
Are there small experiments we should try now?
Are there insights to retain?
Are there signals to monitor?
The discipline to ask questions, explore, share insights, and allow one thing to lead to the next is how you keep your thinking sharp. Then, do it again and again. This sort of exploration means that you will gain perspectives. Try some small experiments before having to put new practices in place becomes a matter of urgency.
If, for example, ahead of the pandemic, you and your team had delved into research on stress and how best to manage it, would that have helped? Although it is unlikely that you would have predicted the current pandemic, you would have been more prepared for what has happened simply by exploring trends that have emerged over time.
Conclusion
The future is comprised of the small signals that are all around us right now. If we build the capacity for curiosity, those signals will help show us where to turn when the time arises. Exploration is the key to being ready when we cannot know what we need to be ready for.
The act of overseeing different activities and tasks within an organization to ensure consistent delivery of products and services…
What is Quality Management?
Quality management is the act of overseeing different activities and tasks within an organization to ensure that products and services offered, as well as the means used to provide them, are consistent. It helps to achieve and maintain a desired level of quality within the organization. Quality management consists of four key components, which include the following:
Quality Planning – The process of identifying the quality standards relevant to the project and deciding how to meet them.
Quality Improvement – The purposeful change of a process to improve the confidence or reliability of the outcome.
Quality Control – The continuing effort to uphold a process’s integrity and reliability in achieving an outcome.
Quality Assurance – The systematic or planned actions necessary to offer sufficient reliability so that a particular service or product will meet the specified requirements.
The aim of quality management is to ensure that all the organization’s stakeholders work together to improve the company’s processes, products, services, and culture to achieve the long-term success that stems from customer satisfaction.
The process of quality management involves a collection of guidelines that are developed by a team to ensure that the products and services that they produce are of the right standards or fit for a specified purpose.
The process starts when the organization sets quality targets to be met and which are agreed upon with the customer.
The organization then defines how the targets will be measured. It takes the actions that are required to measure quality. It then identifies any quality issues that arise and initiates improvements.
The final step involves reporting the overall level of the quality achieved.
The process ensures that the products and services produced by the team match the customers’ expectations.
Quality Improvement Methods
Quality improvement methods comprise three components: product improvement, process improvement, and people-based improvement. There are numerous methods of quality management and techniques that can be utilized. One of the effective method is ISO. The implementation of ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management System).
Principles of Quality Management
There are several principles of quality management that the International Standard for Quality Management adopts. These principles are used by top management to guide an organization’s processes towards improved performance. They include:
Customer Focus The primary focus of any organization should be to meet and exceed the customers’ expectations and needs. When an organization can understand the customers’ current and future needs and cater to them, that results in customer loyalty, which in turn increases revenue. The business is also able to identify new customer opportunities and satisfy them. When business processes are more efficient, quality is higher and more customers can be satisfied.
Leadership Good leadership results in an organization’s success. Great leadership establishes unity and purpose among the workforce and shareholders. Creating a thriving company culture provides an internal environment that allows employees to fully realize their potential and get actively involved in achieving company objectives. Leaders should involve the employees in setting clear organizational goals and objectives. This motivates employees, who may significantly improve their productivity and loyalty.
Engagement of People Staff involvement is another fundamental principle. The management engages staff in creating and delivering value whether they are full-time, part-time, outsourced, or in-house. An organization should encourage the employees to constantly improve their skills and maintain consistency. This principle also involves empowering the employees, involving them in decision making and recognizing their achievements. When people are valued, they work to their best potential because it boosts their confidence and motivation. When employees are wholly involved, it makes them feel empowered and accountable for their actions.
Process Approach The performance of an organization is crucial according to the process approach principle. The approach principle emphasizes achieving efficiency and effectiveness in the organizational processes. The approach entails an understanding that good processes result in improved consistency, quicker activities, reduced costs, waste removal, and continuous improvement. An organization is enhanced when leaders can manage and control the inputs and the outputs of an organization, as well as the processes used to produce the outputs.
Continuous Improvement Every organization should come up with an objective to be actively involved in continuous improvement. Businesses that improve continually experience improved performance, organizational flexibility, and increased ability to embrace new opportunities. Businesses should be able to create new processes continually and adapt to new market situations.
Evidence-based Decision Making Businesses should adopt a factual approach to decision-making. Businesses that make decisions based on verified and analyzed data have an improved understanding of the marketplace. They are able to perform tasks that produce desired results and justify their past decisions. Factual decision making is vital to help understand the cause-and-effect relationships of different things and explain potential unintended results and consequences.
Relationship Management Relationship management is about creating mutually beneficial relations with suppliers and retailers. Different interested parties can impact a company’s performance. The organization should manage the supply chain process well and promote the relationship between the organization and its suppliers to optimize their impact on the company’s performance. When an organization manages its relationship with interested parties well, it is more likely to achieve sustained business collaboration and success.
Benefits of Quality Management
It helps an organization achieve greater consistency in tasks and activities that are involved in the production of products and services.
It increases efficiency in processes, reduces wastage, and improves the use of time and other resources.
It helps improve customer satisfaction.
It enables businesses to market their business effectively and exploit new markets.
It makes it easier for businesses to integrate new employees, and thus helps businesses manage growth more seamlessly.
It enables a business to continuously improve their products, processes, and systems.
Conclusion
Implementation of quality management system in businesses is vital to ensure consistency in its processes, as well as in its products and services. In business, customer satisfaction is key. As a customer’s main concern is the quality of the products or services they purchase, the supplier’s main goal should always be to ensure that what they produce is of consistent and fine quality. Contact us today for implementation of your quality management system.
The importance of design thinking for business strategy…
What is Design Thinking?
Leaving the technicalities of the process aside, design thinking abilities for business strategy is simply a problem-solving approach to challenges which may seem impossible to crack.
For business owners much like any other professional, problems arise without prior warning. Challenges sometimes may drown business owners to the pit, from where finding a way back seems humanly impossible. In such situations, enhanced design thinking abilities for business strategies can be handy.
To put it more comprehensively, problems are like bugs in the life of business owners. In the beginning, we pick and throw them away without any hesitation, but as they multiply and grow bigger, they are like parasites that eat us and kill our enthusiasm. During such situations business owners realizes the importance of design thinking for business strategy and that acts as a perspective change, where a hurdle is looked at as simply a problem which can be solved much like a maze puzzle i.e., by understanding the problem, innovatively arriving at solutions taking more and more actions to observe what fits best using the design thinking abilities.
Principles of Design Thinking
Empathise
The first principle of Design Thinking is empathy. Empathy demands immersive thinking – putting oneself in the shoes of the people facing a particular problem. Empathy is like a 20 feet tall diving board. The first step to climbing the ladder is to comprehensively delve into all aspects that affect the subject of study. To put it simply, in order to empathise with a cake, one needs to understand all qualities of the cake, when it was made, where it is placed, what is it made of and such other seemingly irrelevant information. Thus, by immersing yourself completely it is possible to define your problem in the most detailed manner possible.
Ideate
Once you begin thinking like the panic monster was sitting on your head, you will need to ideate and think innovatively to piss that monster off. Because it’s your own life on the line here and nobody else’s, this is why you will need to give it your best shot. You will then not make a choice out of already existing solutions to your current problem, but instead will CREATE solutions that never existed before. It does not stop there, because one solution may or may not always work. If you look at a challenge like it was a maze puzzle you will need to take three to four different routes to arrive at your end goal. Be mad and let that energy flow like it was the last problem you were ever solving!
Prototype
Learning by building is a mantra in Design Thinking for Business Strategy. Planning and execution may theoretically seem to be two sides of a coin, but when it comes to practical application, the Jenga tower may come crashing down if you blindly follow the manual book. Once you prototype your idea it’ll help mitigate practical glitches that may arise in the process of building.
Test
By testing your idea under extreme conditions, you will never stop improvising and you will learn about the importance of design thinking in business. Design thinking for business strategy is extremely crucial. In fact, it’ll motivate you and make you feel like a scientist who observes and reworks on ideas, is unafraid of failure and is curious enough to begin again!
Conclusion
Design Thinking has been used by major personalities and innovators in the past. It was perhaps easier then because firm constructs about particular subjects were not set as they are today. Design does not exist in isolation to other subjects like math or science; whereas in reality, understanding one subject lends to the understanding of another. Design thinking in business strategy can be used in everyday life, be it an acquisition or an investment venture, any small or big problem can be solved by looking at it through the lenses of Design Thinking.
As economists debate whether COVID-19 is a “black swan” event, business owners should be proactive in preserving cash flow and preparing for future uncertainty. We still don’t know the scale of the impact of COVID-19 on the global economy. However, business owners should be stepping back to stabilize, rise to their current challenges or use them as opportunities to pivot in new directions to survive. In the long-term, businesses that prioritize a resilience strategy addressing the opportunity and risk in potential future crises–whether economic, health or climate-related–are positioned to succeed.
Assess and Optimise Your Cash Flow
In the face of a global pandemic and impending recession, businesses now should be stepping back to stabilise their cash flow. Since a global crisis like COVID-19 can affect every aspect of your business, responding requires a holistic outlook. Rather than just protecting your current business model, focus on the bigger picture by adopting a growth mind-set. Agility, unity, and an eye for opportunity are what your executive leadership team needs in order to adapt to new demands.
First, run a financial stress test. Assess the financial impact you face from the crisis, such as additional unexpected costs or losses, review your value chain and the tax position of your business. With a clear view of the impact, examine any disruptions in your supply chain or at any part of your cash flow. Define obstacles currently thwarting cash flow and develop a strategic response to optimise cash availability. Seize any opportunities to pivot to more stable or lucrative directions that ensure continuous cash flow. For example, retail businesses that quickly shifted all their efforts to ecommerce sales fared better during the coronavirus pandemic.
Embrace flexible working
Businesses who moved quickly to adopting remote working were able to weather the lockdowns better than those requiring employees to commute and work in an office. Having a virtual workforce prevents productivity loss in a lockdown scenario, and remote workers are shown to be more productive than in-house staff. One strategy for making your workforce adaptive is to shift your employees to working remotely. As global survey of business leaders identified, business leaders are exploring more flexible working arrangements, creating avenues that enable their staff to work from home when necessary.
Optimize Your Supply Chain for Agility
COVID-19 has demonstrated how easily the global supply chain can become disrupted. As companies continue to adjust after recent lockdowns around the world, they should optimize their supply chains not just for their bottom line but also for adaptively. Let’s look at some of the major strategies companies are adopting:
Building Redundancy – Another strategy is to build redundancy in your supply chain. Supply chain optimization previously involved slimming down the supply chain, with larger and fewer factories, warehouses and distribution centres. Increasingly, however, companies are multiplying these centres and putting them in more local areas, making the supply chain as a whole less vulnerable. Breaking up the supply chain and adding redundancy also makes it more agile because there are more actors and locations that can be mobilized when a change of direction is needed or when part of the supply chain is compensated.
Increasing Agility – A resilient supply chain is ready for change at any minute. Businesses must decide what potential disruptions to be ready for and how to best respond to them. For futures you can predict, such as seasonal fluctuations, it’s easy to rely on data analytics. Unknown futures, however, require learning from the past and thinking ahead with the big picture in mind. Executives should meet to agree on the major potential scenarios that could threaten their supply chain, and the hypothetical impact each would have on their bottom line. They can then identify current deficiencies that would bottleneck their supply chain if any of these potential futures became real. Finally, businesses must develop and implement resilience strategies to shore up these deficiencies and increase supply chain agility.
Creating Flexible Responses to Demand Changes – COVID-19 showed us that customer demand for certain products can unexpectedly skyrocket in the event of a global crisis. Car manufacturers are now manufacturing masks because of the global shift in consumer needs. Agile companies can effectively increase their supply chain velocity when it’s necessary. Develop strategies for increasing your supply chain’s capacity to meet demand, whether it requires investing in automation technology or creating a framework for tapping local couriers.
Conclusion
Uncertain business environment requires continuously monitoring threats to your cash flow, embracing new workforce models, as well as planning ahead with a resilience strategy. In any global crisis, a handful of businesses seem to blossom despite the majority being set back. Global events and their repercussions present new opportunities that only the most well-informed leaders seize. Executive teams who are prepared to make quick decisions and react in unity can better mobilize each team in the company to respond strategically.
The need for speed is essential in post COVID-19 era, here are ways companies can get faster…
The first three actions aim to rethink ways of working. Many leaders have had to do this during the pandemic and are keen to keep those that have worked well:
1.Speed up and delegate making. The pandemic has shown that it is possible to make decisions faster without breaking the business. What this means in practice is fewer meetings and fewer decision makers in each meeting. Some organizations are taking to heart the “nine on a video conference” principle. Others are keeping larger 30- to 40-person meetings (so the people that need to implement the decisions are present) but cutting the number of people with a vote. There is also less detailed preparation for each meeting, with one- to two-page documents or spreadsheets replacing lengthy PowerPoint decks.
Organizations are also increasing the cadence of decisions, taking on the mantra that “quarterly is the new annual.” Holding just-in-time, fit-for purpose planning and resource allocation on a quarterly instead of annual basis is not only faster but also makes the organization more flexible.
Finally, non-mission-critical decisions can be delegated, so that top leaders focus on fewer, more important decisions: think “assign to the line” rather than “go to the top.” That means tolerating mistakes that don’t put the business at risk; a slow decision can often be worse than an imperfect one. The principle is simple: organizations that want to move faster must motivate their employees to be willing to act.
2.Step up execution excellence. Just because the times are fraught does not mean that leaders need to tighten control and micromanage execution. Rather the opposite. Because conditions are so difficult, frontline employees need to take on more responsibility for execution, action, and collaboration.
But this isn’t always easy and requires that organizations focus on building execution muscle throughout the workforce. Leaders must assign responsibility to the line, and drive “closed-loop accountability.” That is, everyone working on a team must be clear about what needs to get done by whom, when, and why. Employees must also be equipped with the right skills and mind-sets to solve problems, instead of waiting to be told what to do. And there must be disciplined follow-up to make sure actions were taken and the desired results achieved.
CEOs who are serious about execution excellence are investing in helping their workforces up their execution game—through targeted programs, realigning incentives, and directing rewards and recognition to teams that execute with speed and excellence. Building execution excellence does not have to come at the expense of innovation. Quite the contrary: it can help discover powerful ideas and innovation from the frontline teams that are closest to the customer. And it can drive excitement and loyalty among the employee base.
Consider the example of a company that is undergoing an enterprise-wide transformation of its business. Every meeting begins with a statement of objectives and ends with a list of actions to take, including those who are responsible for each. Outcomes and milestones are tracked, and employees are rewarded for achieving their goals. Leaders communicate the purpose of these actions (the why behind the what, and the how) and build conviction in their employees to do the right thing. Employees, in turn, are motivated by a sense of personal ownership and pride. By knowing who exactly is doing what when, at all times, the pace of execution can be accelerated. Such an approach both speeds up and improves execution.
3.Cultivate extraordinary partnerships. Working with partners is routine. But the speed of action only goes so far if other players in the ecosystem fail to move just as fast. During the pandemic, we have seen companies work with partners in new ways to achieve extraordinary impact.
Partners are increasingly important in dealing with the pace of change, complexity, and disruptions that are becoming the norm. The rate of technological and business model innovation alone makes it nearly impossible for any single organization to do everything itself. Furthermore, the connected world is breaking down the traditional boundaries between buyers and suppliers, manufacturers and distributors, and employers and employees.
For partnerships to be successful, the relationship must be built on deep trust, for example by adopting a more open-source approach to innovation and embedding the partner into everything from strategy setting to routine operations. Trust allows the parties to integrate their systems and processes, enabling them to find solutions, make decisions quickly, and execute efficiently.
The next three actions aim to reimagine structure to go beyond the traditional “boxes and lines” and toward the development of the kinds of teams that work together to deliver value:
4.Flatten the structure. A speedy organization has more people taking action and fewer people feeding the beast of bureaucracy—briefing each other, reporting, seeking approvals, sitting in unproductive meetings (and then huddling up in the meeting after the meeting to have the real conversation). Rigid hierarchies must give way to leaner, flatter structures that allow the system to respond quickly to emerging challenges and opportunities. There are fewer middle managers and span-breakers and more doers and deciders. Creating this new organism requires reimagining structure not as a hierarchy of bosses, per the traditional organization chart, but rather as a dynamic network of teams. As one CEO told us, “We can finally turn the page on the traditional matrix and reinvent how we organize and how work gets done.”
Real-time collaboration and co-location become more important, and have even extended to the virtual world. For example, putting engineering and product-development specialists on the same team can speed up innovation and boost output. The role of the corporate centre must also be rethought. In many cases, central functions could become capability platforms deploying skills, tools, and talent where they are needed most, while also acting as a catalyst for learning and best-practice sharing. Centres of excellence could be established, with the goal of bringing leading-edge capabilities—such as analytics and artificial intelligence, digitization and process automation, and Industry 4.0—to a broad range of performance units and thus delivering measurable value.
5.Unleash nimble, empowered teams. The pandemic has seen the large-scale deployment of fast, agile teams—small, focused cross-functional teams working together toward a common set of objectives that are tracked and measured. Leaders have made this work by charging each team with a specific mission: an outcome that matters for customers or employees, empowering each team to find its own approach, and then getting out of the way. Having one fast, agile team is helpful, but having many of them across an enterprise, and enabling them with the right structures, processes, and culture, makes it possible for the entire system to move faster.
Companies that had launched agile transformations in pre-COVID-19 performed better and moved faster in post-COVID-19 than those that had not. Agile organizations had an edge because they already had processes and structures available to them, such as cross-functional teams, quarterly business reviews, empowered frontline teams, and clear data on outputs and outcomes, that proved critical to adapting to the COVID-19 crisis. They adjusted faster, and with less employee turmoil. The same was true within companies: those business units that had gone agile before the pandemic performed better than those that had not on customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and operational performance.
6.Make hybrid work. The next normal will see significantly more people working in a hybrid way— sometimes in person with colleagues on-site, sometimes working remotely. This model can unlock significant value, including more satisfied employees and lower real-estate costs. There are other benefits to a hybrid working model, including access to a broader range of talent, greater flexibility, and improved productivity.
To achieve these gains, employers need to ensure that the basics are in place to digitally enable remote working and collaboration, while taking care to create working norms that foster social cohesion. They should precisely define the optimal approach for each role and employee segment. That requires understanding when on-site work is better compared with remote interaction or independent work. Perhaps more important, hybrid organizations must adopt new ways of working that help build a strong culture, cohesion, and trust even when many employees are working remotely.
The next three actions aim to reshape talent in order to get tomorrow’s leadership team operational today and to build the workforce capabilities of the future.
7.Field tomorrow’s leaders today. One of the unexpected consequences of the pandemic is that CEOs have seen into a window that shows who their future leaders are. They have seen who can make decisions and execute rapidly; who is able to take on new challenges and lead in the face of uncertainty; and who has the grit to persevere. In many cases leaders have found emerging talent two-to-three layers down, people who rose to the occasion and helped lead crisis-response and plan-ahead strategies. In other cases, they have found that some leaders have become too comfortable with the slower-moving bureaucracy of the past. As one CEO said, “We have learned more about our people in the last 12 weeks than through our traditional HR processes from the last 12 months.” Not only have CEOs gained insight into who the future leaders are, but they have also seen the value of rapidly deploying top talent to the most important work. Organizations that do both things—find future leaders and redeploy talent skilfully—will be able to move faster.
8.Learn how to learn. Learning and adaptability has been on the CEO agenda for some time, but even more so during the pandemic. In the last few months, some of the best leadership teams have been on a steep learning curve: learning how to lead in a time of crisis, learning to manage rapidly forming agile teams, making decisions at a much faster pace, and learning to adapt. Forward-thinking companies are now accelerating their capability-building efforts by developing leadership and critical thinking skills at different levels of the organization, increasing their employees’ capacity to engage with technology and use advanced analytics, and building functional skills for the future, such as next-generation procurement, Industry 4.0 manufacturing, and digital marketing and sales.
These companies recognize that the pace and scale of learning must keep up with that of innovation and changes in technology. Skills can and do expire. Organizations need people who can continually learn and adapt. In many cases, companies will need to re-skill large portions of the workforce. That will require expanding the learning content available to employees and using technology to deliver what is needed to each person. It also will mean building the organizational and institutional muscle to strengthen the skills related to learning how to learn.
9.Rethink the role of CEOs and leaders. COVID-19 has brought a fundamental change in leadership in many organizations. The leaders that stand out have shifted from directing a command-and-control crisis response to building and unleashing winning teams. Several CEOs described their role in the last few months as energizing, empowering, and “unblocking” their leadership teams. They also overinvest in communicating clearly and regularly to build trust, and constantly link their actions to the purpose of the institution.
To maintain the speed the COVID-19 crisis has unleashed, organizations need more of this kind of leadership. The future requires leaders to act as visionaries instead of commanders—focused on inspiring their organizations with a clear vision of the future, and then empowering others to realize the vision. It will require leaders who build winning teams; they coach their players but let them make the decisions and execute. These leaders will need to bring energy and passion to catalyse innovation, change, and growth. One CEO said, “I measure how I feel every day, because ultimately my job is to give energy and empowerment to the organization.”
Conclusion
The coronavirus pandemic is the challenge of our times. The time for organizations to build for speed is now. This will be a long process and leaders must leap into the arena and recognize that many of their familiar organization constructs will need to be repositioned. Many companies, at least initially, thought of the post pandemic return as an event; they would turn the lights on and go back to work just as they has done before. It is becoming increasingly clear however, that for many, returning to work will be a process that could take a year or more, and that they cannot go back to the way they were.
Instead, companies will want to seize the moment to reimagine and reinvent the future, building new muscle and capabilities to come back strong. Even well-run companies may find that they need to reinvent themselves more than once. Fortune will favour the bold—and the speedy.
