Standing Out in a Crowd

Turning the tables on your competition, By Ann Latham In an effort to do the right thing, many companies struggle to develop the perfect mission and vision statements. This often involves lengthy debate about what a mission is, what a vision is, and how either differs from a strategy. The end result often looks something like this: • We will be the leading supplier of high quality gizmos worldwide; • We will be friendly and helpful beyond belief; • We will hire great people and show we value them through a culture of appreciation and competitive salaries; • We will reduce costs by working smarter, not harder. Unfortunately, this result is usually too vague to provide focus and it doesn't help you stand out in a crowd. How to be a standout To thrive and survive, any business must provide value for which customers are willing to pay. The only way to provide value is through products, services and relationships with customers. Deciding what you will provide and to whom is the core of any strategy. These choices must be in keeping with your company values, and they must allow you to focus your company's resources effectively and efficiently. The competetive company Most companies are, at best, Competitive, which makes them highly susceptible to price pressures. The only way to successfully compete on price is to improve operations and lower delivery costs, which can move a company into the Superior or Breakthrough column. Wal-Mart made operational breakthroughs in supply chain management that allowed them to compete successfully on price. But many Competitive companies rely on their relationships to create an edge. They emphasize personal relationships; they make doing business easy and convenient; and they earn a reputation for delivering as promised. But a Competitive company's survival depends on bending over backwards to attract and retain customers until it creates an exciting innovation. Superior - and Breakthrough The world abounds with examples of escalating product features in an effort to offer Superior products more cycles on a washing machine, more pixels on a camera, and more tunes on an iPod. Southwest Airlines provides a great example of creating an advantage by doing less well. They jumped to the right column on the chart (see page 19) by offering quick, inexpensive flights with friendly, fun service. They did not try to offer more of everything. They made choices: quick, inexpensive, and friendly. Those choices were clear to the entire company and provided the focus needed to drive subsequent decisions: no reserved seats, no meals, simple fare structures, no routing through hubs, and a different attitude by the onboard staff, to name but a few. Southwest created an advantage by doing less better, and they jumped to the right of the chart. The first cell phone is another example of a Breakthrough product, as are FedEx's first overnight delivery and the first online banking. In conclusion, when assessing the competitiveness of your offerings, identify keep the target market. If someone were to open the first dry cleaning business in some remote, un-served part of Wyoming, it would be a Breakthrough service. It wouldn't even have to be a very good dry cleaning service. Standing out is an endless and critical journey that deserves frank discussion, tough decisions, and tools that increase clarity and focus. This table can be a company's first step for determining where it stands, getting clear about its competitive edge, communicating that position to its employees, aligning resources, and opening discussions of opportunities to innovate and enhance its competitive position. Ann Latham is President of Uncommon Clarity, Inc., a firm that helps executives and business owners improve the strategies and systems that provide a winning focus, productive people, reliable processes, and happy customers. For more information, please visit www.uncommonclarity.com or call 413-527-3737.