Booming in a down economy

3 July 2009

Thanks Andy for the link to David Greer’s article on 11 strategies that will make your company boom.

There are plenty of articles saying the same stuff about surviving a recession, but I really liked some of David’s practical advice.  If it takes a recession to kick-start us into doing these things, then we just have to remember to keep it up when times are better.  Some quotes from David:

On leadership
In crisis situations, leaders often feel the world on their shoulders, especially if you are the entrepreneur or business owner. All those employees. All those customers. You can’t support the whole world. Do you usually go to the gym three times a week? Go five times a week in the crisis. If you don’t have peak physical performance, you can’t have peak work performance. Do you go to yoga once a week?  Go more, both for the physical and mental aspects. Look after yourself, so that you can be there for your families, your friends, your employees, and your customers.

On strategy
The changes in the market have been so large and so fast that pretty much every plan needs to be thrown out the window. It’s time to start with a clean piece of paper and rethink the whole strategic plan for the business. It’s time to reevaluate your positioning, competitors, services, products, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
On customers
Provide outstanding customer service. Treasure and value your customers and let them know you value them. Ask for testimonials and referrals. Word of mouth from your existing customers can be one of the most effective ways to generate leads.
Talk to your customers and ask them where they see the most value in your
products and services.  Create a customer focus group of your key customers and run webinars with them to get feedback on your product positioning, your quality of service, and future product roadmap direction.
On innovation
Inspire creativity in both product development and in customer interactions. Would a customer be willing to pay for a developer or engineer to work on site as a consultant for a week or month? Being at a customer’s for a length of time is one of the best ways to increase understanding of customer needs.

On strategy
The changes in the market have been so large and so fast that pretty much every plan needs to be thrown out the window. It’s time to start with a clean piece of paper and rethink the whole strategic plan for the business. It’s time to reevaluate your positioning, competitors, services, products, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

On customers
Provide outstanding customer service. Treasure and value your customers and let them know you value them. Ask for testimonials and referrals. Word of mouth from your existing customers can be one of the most effective ways to generate leads. Talk to your customers and ask them where they see the most value in your products and services.  Create a customer focus group of your key customers and run webinars with them to get feedback on your product positioning, your quality of service, and future product roadmap direction.

On innovation
Inspire creativity in both product development and in customer interactions. Would a customer be willing to pay for a developer or engineer to work on site as a consultant for a week or month? Being at a customer’s for a length of time is one of the best ways to increase understanding of customer needs.

1 Comment | Business, Strategy | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Orbits, not projects

26 February 2008

Grant Margison from Information Leadership spoke at a Microsoft Architect session this month in Wellington and made a really good point.

Building software is not about projects that end with deployment, but is about getting new features into orbit.

In other words, the goal is not to deploy, but to add value for users.

This is what ‘release early, release often’ is about. Its not until a feature is deployed and in use that the lifecycle of usage -> improved usability -> improved usefulness -> higher usage -> … begins.

Leave a Comment » | Software, Strategy | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

Is your strategy working?

28 October 2007

In my post ‘What is strategy?‘, I finished with the question, ‘Is your strategy actually working?’

How do you know if your strategy is working? How do you know whether to persist or change tack? The answer lies in being able to measure your results and you could argue that its not really a strategy, unless you can measure it.

Some questions to ask about your strategy:

  • What does success look like?
  • How will you measure it?
  • How long should it take?
  • Do you have the resources to get there?

When it comes to measuring stuff, Steve McConnell has a great tip:

“Count if at all possible. Compute when you can’t count. Use judgment alone only as a last resort.”

1 Comment | Strategy | Permalink
Posted by Andrew

What is strategy?

27 September 2007

In his book Winning, Jack Welsh describes strategy brilliantly:

“What is strategy but resource allocation? When you strip away all the noise, that’s what it comes down to. Strategy means making clear-cut choices about how to compete. You cannot be everything to everybody, no matter what the size of your business or how deep its pockets.”

This makes it so simple and makes a few other things obvious:

  • It isn’t a strategy if you don’t have the resources to accomplish it – it’s a goal (or maybe you’re just dreaming)
  • There will always be an opportunity cost to a strategy
  • You will always use your resources/time/money – strategy is just being deliberate about it

And raises a few questions:

  • Do you have a strategy, or are you just reactive?
  • If you analyse how you allocate your resources, does it sync with your strategy?
  • Is your strategy actually working (ie achieving your goals)?

3 Comments | Business, Strategy | Permalink
Posted by Andrew