Take the Offensive
Alexander almost always fought against enemies with superior forces. He could not take a defensive position and wait for the enemy to surround and overlap his smaller army. To control the battlefield, he had to always think in terms of attack, of going on the offensive and taking the battle to the enemy.
In business, the strategy of the offensive requires that you continually bring out newer, better, faster, cheaper, and easier-to-use products and services. You introduce new technologies and new methods of marketing and selling. You continually change your pricing strategies and your cost structures. You form joint ventures and strategic alliances with other companies and organizations that can give you entry into different markets and enable you to outcompete your competitors.
Business Model Innovation
One of the most exciting areas of business thought today revolves around business model innovation. Many companies are still trying to survive and thrive using a business model that may have been appropriate a few years ago but that no longer works.
What is your business model today, and is it the appropriate model for your business in the current environment?
There is a simple way that you can test whether your business model is appropriate for today. It is leading to continuous, consistent, and predictable growth in sales and profitability. If your business is continuing to grow in a healthy way, your business model is probably appropriate. If your business is not growing in a healthy and consistent way, it may be time to question your business model.
A Better Way: Free Product
Instead of investing your ego in the way things are being done now, always be open to the possibility that there could be a better way. A useful exercise is to think about doing things exactly the opposite of what you are doing today. This opens your mind to a whole range of possibilities that you might not have seen before.
In his book Free: The Future of a Radical Price, author Chris Anderson points out that sometimes the very best way to sell more of your product at higher prices is to give all or part of it away at no charge to attract customers and to demonstrate the attractiveness of your offerings.
Give It Away?
Gary Vaynerchuk’s 2014 book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook shows how companies, especially Internet-based companies, can develop business and develop rapidly by offering three free products in a row before offering a product for sale.
For people and companies used to charging from the first customer decision, the idea of offering free products or services to build credibility and confidence in a highly competitive market may seem a bit radical. Nonetheless, more and more companies are generating millions and millions of dollars in sales by using the “give to get” model.
Take the Lead on Quality
In a 2013 Inc. magazine study of the 500 fastest-growing small and medium-size businesses in America, the researchers concluded that the best place to invest money to grow your business is back into improving the quality of your product or service in some way. This would have more predictable and consistent effects on increased sales and profitability than anything else that you could do.
The fact is that quality is an offensive marketing strategy. Quality is a profit strategy. The quality leaders in every field are also the most profitable companies in every field. Today, the highest-grossing retail store in the world per square foot is Tiffany & Co. The second is Apple. Both are the recognized quality leaders in their industries. Where do you rank?
Reinvent Yourself
In his book The Road to Reinvention, author Josh Linkner shows how companies can grab the offensive by constantly reinventing themselves. This is not just having a fallback plan—it’s taking the initiative and changing your company before your competitors have even managed to get you in their sights. Linkner gives eight principles to follow if you want to successfully reinvent your company:
1. Let go of the past. What’s done is done. You may take some lessons from the past, but then let it go.
2. Encourage courage. Don’t punish your employees or managers when they want to try something different. Reward them!
3. Embrace failure. People will never try something new if they are afraid of failing. It’s through failures that you learn the lessons that build the success of the future.
4. Do the opposite. I already mentioned this strategy before, and Linkner agrees. Be contrarian. Do the unexpected. You’ll be surprised at what happens.
5. Imagine the possibilities. Close your eyes. Forget about the roadblocks and barriers—put them out of your mind. What do you see?
6. Put yourself out of business. A lot of companies are afraid to cannibalize their products. They think that if we offer this new product, customers will stop buying our old product! This is a trap, because if you can make a new product to replace your old one, so can your competition. Cannibalize your products . . . or someone else will.
7. Reject limits. There will always be naysayers. Nobody has done anything of significance without somebody saying it can’t be done. Decide that the limits don’t apply to you.
8. Aim beyond. Look forward; look beyond what’s happening now to what will be happening in the future. Anticipate trends.
After the Fire
Think of your business as a bundle of resources and capabilities. Those resources and capabilities can be used to create and sell many products and services—and not necessarily the ones you are selling today!
Imagine that you arrived at work one morning and your company had burned down overnight. Luckily, none of your staff members were in the building, but everything else is gone.
You now must start the business almost from scratch. This leaves you with a number of questions to answer:
Which products and services do you want to start making and selling, and which products, knowing what you know now, would you decide not to produce?
Which customers do you want to try to reach, and which customers, knowing what you know now, would you decide not to try to win back?
Which employees would you take with you to the new business, and which employees would you decline to keep?
Now that you are in this starting-from-scratch mind-set, don’t wait for the fire. Make the move and surprise your competitors with a reinvented company.