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Grow or Die - Innovate or Perish. It’s a Law of Nature and a Business That Ignores It Is Ultimately Destined to Fold

This Should Prompt Three Questions: Why, Where and How?

Why Must You Innovate?
There are three main reasons you must innovate your business:

Customers and Prospects Demand It. This one is obvious. Customers vote with their money and given a choice will buy from the best source where they get the best value.

Competition Necessitates It. This one seems obvious and yet it’s not always so obvious, because there are three kinds of competition: the apparent, the logical and the insidious.

Direct Competitors. This is the apparent category; the folks that you compete against and that want your customers and prospects. 90% of all direct competitors are not much of a problem, assuming you don’t mess up too badly. However, 10% of your direct competitors are a potent threat. The problem is you don’t always know which competitors are in the 10% you need to take seriously. Things change. Products change, vendors change, staff changes, management changes, motivations change, ownership changes, new relationships form and new tools are developed. Here are two firsthand examples:
- We regularly sell sleepy, predictable companies to aggressive, well capitalized new owners that proceed to introduce practices of innovation and marketing to an unsuspecting market sector. They sweep up business and leave arrogant, complacent direct competitors in the dust scratching their heads saying, “What happened?
  
  (Remember the old saying, “There are three kinds of people: those that make things happen, those that wonder what happened and those that don’t even know anything happened.”)
- When we consult with a client, the competitive dynamic can be affected rapidly based on our involvement and the powerful tools we bring to bear. If you implement our system to turbo-charge your innovation and marketing capabilities your competitors will unexpectedly face a new and truly formidable challenge. And they won’t see it coming. By the time they notice, responding and catching up will be tough. It’s better to be the lead dog, don’t you think?
Indirect Competitors. These are logical, but not always easy to see. Indirect competitors are all the various demands and uses of money tugging at your customers and prospects and the alternative ways they have to solve their problems…besides spending money with you and on the approach you offer.
Technology. This is the insidious and most dangerous form of competition. Technology changes the world at a blinding rate. Think about the products, services, businesses and industries that have been severely impacted or that no longer exist because of an advance in technology. Innovate or perish.

Your Organization Will Thrive on Innovation. Innovation is energizing, focusing and fun. People love new things and thrive on learning, growth and new challenges. If you have people in your company that are not learning, growing and challenged, they are “dead” or dying. If parts of your physical body are dead or dying, the whole organism is affected. If people in parts of your company are stagnant, change resistant and low energy, whose fault is it? We say its management’s fault. You must innovate in all areas of your business so that it will endure and prosper.

Where Do You Innovate?
The short answer is “everywhere,” because the best companies have a culture of innovation. You can feel it in every contact, whether it be with the janitor or with the president. Creating and fostering this culture of innovation is your job as the leader. There are four main areas in your business that require regular innovation:

Your Products. What you deliver to your customers, whether that be services or tangible products.

Your Services. The way you deliver your products.

Your Relationships. Both internal and external.

Your Marketing. How you communicate with and sell to your prospects and customers.

There are many subsets of these four categories. We have a number of tools to help you with the process, such as the Innovation Matrix™ and the Decision Making Module™ and we find it takes from 6 to 24 months to address innovation in the various areas of a business.

Innovation and Technology
Some people shy away from a discussion of innovation because they automatically assume innovation involves high technology. Not so. Technology may or may not be involved in the various aspects of innovating your business. Innovation is about making your company better for the benefit of your customers and enhancing the value they receive from doing business with you. Innovation is about improving your business practices so that you set the standard in your industry. Often, simple low tech innovation can set you apart from all your competitors. Test this: In what simple, low-tech way might you be able to innovate in regard to your relationships with your vendors so they support you fully in your efforts to support your customers?

How Do You Innovate?
Innovation requires five things:

Decision. You must decide to create, foster, require, and nurture a culture of innovation in your company.

Attitude. Innovating is either a hassle and a burden, or it’s totally fascinating and fun, depending on your attitude. You get to choose.

Action. You must start innovating somewhere, immediately.

Support. Innovation requires the enthusiastic support and participation of your employees, vendors and customers. Like any significant change, developing a culture of innovation requires prudence and political savvy.

Good Help. Innovation does not happen in isolation or by accident. It happens best in conversation, alliance and collaboration with others skilled at producing innovation. Private Equities and Y2Marketing can help in certain areas and we also have a rich network of professionals in a wide range of specialties who can expand your capabilities far beyond the internal resources of your company. Leverage these relationships to maximize your return from innovation.

Innovating is a challenge. However, it’s a challenge that will invigorate and transform your company. It’s a process that results in your customers and prospects reaching one simple conclusion: “I would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you, regardless of price.”

Private Equities President, Michael Sipe, is a Principal Master Consulting Agent with Y2Marketing, the nation’s largest and fastest growing marketing consulting firm (Inc. #28 in 2003). Through this affiliation, we offer a variety of workshops, products and consulting services to help clients develop innovative business practices and implement powerful marketing strategies to dominate a market. For more information on these services, click Business Development Consulting Services.

For more information on Y2Marketing visit www.y2marketing.com.

If you’d like to learn more about marketing and innovating your business:

We have produced a CD program called “Monopolize Your Marketplace” filled with strategies on innovating and marketing your business. To receive a FREE copy, just call or send us an email with your complete contact information and request the MYM CDs.
If you would like to receive our FREE weekly email newsletter, just send us an email with your complete contact information and request a free subscription to the Private Equities Newsletter, or click here.
If you’d like a FREE copy of the Innovator’s Checklist™ which expands on the four categories of your business outlined above (Product, Service, Relationship and Marketing) just call or send us an email with your complete contact information and request the Innovator’s Checklist™.
To request an initial, no-obligation, 45 minute consultation with one of our staff for FREE, call or send us an email with your complete contact information.

Phone: 408-295-4299

Email: Inquiry@Private-Equities.com

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