…and clearly it is us!
The markets of today, whether they be Tech, Consumer Goods or Financial Services are filled with aggressive, nimble providers, all beaming with the “Next Great Thing”. In this web enabled, internet charged market of today, ideas quickly come, prototypes are built, solutions announced, interest generated.
All to be quickly followed by the sounds of Crickets Chirping.
Task forces, study groups and teams of analysts will all be deployed to source the problem that has taken a business plan based upon a market of awesome potential with an abundance of desperate need, and made it something as verbose as a Mime Convention in Church.
Features will be studied, visual appeal reviewed, frantic strategic pivots planned as all try to understand how the linear brilliance of business plan projections are no where close to matching the reality of the day. Certain the product and strategy are flawless, the inevitable turn to the competition will be started.
Web pages will be spied upon, key words and social blah blah analyzed as all team members search for the competitive edge that is mysteriously illusive. But soon, after exhaustive days and sleepless nights, with reams of data driven analysis, the stark truth begins to emerge. The disruptive competitive force to reality of not meeting projections is not another vendor, it is not even a global macro economic force being secretively executed by some mysterious diabolical Think Tank.
The truth is, the competition is APATHY.
In short, initiatives tend to fail NOT because:
- Global Spending is Undergoing Downward Pressure
- Competitors are Nimble and able to Pivot faster Overhang
- Geopolitical Influences across Time Zones in an Election Year
They fail because we forget to ask the most basic of questions:
“Why is this better than what we are doing today?”
In todays electronically enabled, interconnected world, Entrepreneurial Success remains dependent on answering one foundational customer centric challenge – the ability to articulate why taking action will bring value – professionally & personally to the Suspect, Prospect, Customer. In simple terms, we often have lost the most basic of business mantras “…How does this help make my day easier and better…”?
So when all is said and done, isn’t it funny that the key to success is often the most basic question of all.
Answer that question and watch those business plan projections come to life.