Success in any endeavor begins with a workable strategic plan. Without a plan your organization’s growth, profitability, and very existence rests upon tactical opportunism. And that plan should begin and end with the people you serve — your clients and customers.
A sound strategy for acquiring and retaining clients and/or customers enables you to purposefully focus resources on activities that differentiate your brand, create value, and make methodical progress towards consistent and sustained growth. Organizations that implement such a disciplined approach to cultivating and harvesting client relationships exhibit qualities and characteristics that are easy to identify but extremely difficult to duplicate.
The purpose of business is to create
and keep a customer.
— Peter Drucker
Over the years we have isolated 8 common attributes shared by highly successful organizations. Inculcate and manifest these attributes within your organization and the resulting growth trajectory will truly inspire you toward even greater accomplishments than the exceedingly handsome profits you will earn.
Measured
The measured organization is deliberate, intentional, and appropriately restrained. Its leaders count the cost of doing business and mindfully plan and define objectives relative to investment, both capital and human. Measured organizations are focused and have no illusions or delusions with respect to identity, purpose and strategy. It clearly understands the market, the financial opportunities it affords, and the cost of building a sustainable, profitable, and value-driven organization.
Inspiring
The inspired business energizes everything it touches. Growth and value are its natural by-products. Its processes and methods are client and/or customer-centric. Every breath and fiber of the organization is focused on serving others — clients, customers, strategic partners, team members, vendors — as a means of achieving greatness. Shared Values are at the heart of everything this organization does. Flawless execution is its hallmark.
Nimble
The nimble organization instinctively perceives, defines, and understands market dynamics. It is equal parts proactive and reactive and is fueled by a single-minded focus on consistently amazing those it serves. The nimble company is a thinking company. Its structure and operating mindset are devised by effectively melding futuristic ideas with imminent needs. Its selling story is coherent, simple, and cleverly contrived, communicating value in precise and easily understood terms.
Data-driven
Data-driven organizations intuitively transform raw data — no matter how large or small — into valuable information and insights that produce superior results. It knows the difference between what is important and what isn’t and aligns its technologies with business need and client demand. Information is freely shared across the organization. Exceptional listening skills, collaboration, and insatiable curiosity are evidences of a data-driven culture.
Methodical
Process-driven, results-oriented, and relentless in pursuit of established goals and objectives, the methodical organization lives and breathes continuous improvement. Such organizations prioritize initiatives based on those promising the greatest return. The methodical company has a plan and sticks to it in the same way a golfer or tennis professional visualizes a shot and then executes it with unwavering confidence. Everything is thought through in minute detail with the greatest of urgency.
Engaged:
The engaged organization is collaborative from stem to stern. Engaged firms take an interactive and synergistic approach where information and insights are exchanged on demand. According to business leaders, lack of engagement with customers, clients, strategic partners, and team members is the primary cause of failed attempts at innovation, inability to transform processes when the market demands it, unsatisfactory team performance, lack of agility, and a shortage of usable data.
Loving
Love is not a gooey sentiment or fleeting emotion. Love is an intentional will and desire that places the welfare and needs of others above our own. The loving organization recognizes what is best for the client/customer is best for them. Its products and services sell themselves because they are engineered with the end-user in mind at every stage of the product management and client relationship lifecycles. It doesn’t boast about its accomplishments but achieves the unachievable with grace and humility. Team members respect and value internal and external relationships.
Disruptive
The disruptive business is always looking for better ways of doing things. It eschews rigid business practices and organizational politics. Company leaders recognize and accept that transformation and change begins with their own habits, behaviors, and biases. The disruptive organization accurately and thoughtfully assesses risk and reward. It implements client-centered strategies and tactics that are difficult and expensive for competitors to duplicate. It understands “S” curve dynamics and plans accordingly and is never surprised by tomorrow.
If you can possess all of these attributes in some degree your brand will be a force to be reckoned with. Of course, the challenge is developing and managing processes and systems that keep these powerful dynamics in balance. Keep them properly aligned and your organization will grow and prosper at a pace and scale you never dared to imagine.
About MindMeld: Our vision is that your business will grow, prosper, and make a positive and lasting impact on the world. We accomplish this by helping you discover and communicate the inherent value of your products and services and capitalize on that value in lasting, meaningful ways. To learn more please contact me at doug.knuth@mindmeldmarketing.com.
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© copyright 2015, Doug Knuth, MindMeld Marketing, Inc. all rights reserved.