It's a battle we fight all day every day. Replacing the important with the urgent, putting out fires, keeping all the parts of the machine moving, etc. Whatever you want to call it just know that it is a dangerous game to play - especially in today's environment. During the last 3-4 years it has been easy to keep your head down and just "work hard" until "things" get better. The problem is while you're waiting for a sunny day the world (and the market you do business in) is being changed every day by people brave enough to plan for the future.
If you are a leader or an aspiring one of your organization and you aren't spending at least 20% of your time focusing on what's next for your organization then you and the person they hire to take your place are in a lot of trouble over the next few years. If that sounds harsh, good! Last week I talked about living and working to make a difference. This week I'm encouraging you to actually do something about it!
It depends on what type of industry you work in but I recently read a study in the Harvard Business Review that suggests that many companies only invest around 10% of their resources on "game changing" products, services or initiatives. The other 90% is spent on what's called core and adjacent projects. In other words, almost every minute of every day is spent singularly focused on what is right in front of us with no thought about what the future needs let alone demands of our customers might be.
While these numbers may not shock you, if you have the same reaction I did when I saw the next set of data then consider this your wake up call. For those companies that are considered high performance and are busy investing in all three types of projects their total distribution of returns looks like this: Core 10%, Adjacent 20%, Game Changing 70%.
In case these numbers are a little confusing for you let me give you a quick summary. Are you spending 90% of your time chasing 30% returns or 10% of your time chasing 70% returns? If you operate in a mature market that is looking and feeling more and more like a commodity market where the only difference in competitors is price then this should shake you out of your slumber. The world is getting smaller every day and today's pricing efficiencies are tomorrow's fat. If you want to spend the rest of your career figuring out how to cut more fat so you can sell on price not value then good luck to you. If the status quo suits you then God's speed. In reply I would offer the Italian author Machiavelli's quote: I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
I would much rather work in an environment where we are working to redefine the market and create ideas, projects and products that customers will gladly pay (more) for. It's a lot more work and more effort than keeping the status quo. It's also a lot more fun and also a good way to attract really great people to work with, associate with and do business with.
We all need to open our eyes and our ears. We need to use all of our senses and God-given abilities to determine what's next. I suggest you start by getting out of the trees and getting a much clearer picture of what your forest looks like. It's the most important thing you can do. Your future depends on it.
Although I agree on al of your writings and look forwrd to them weekly.I must comment on this particular one in one are of the Blog.
ReplyDeletethat is when you mentioned pricing and pating attention to what we give our customers albeit not to be directed by price alone .We must always Rememebrer to give the customer a perceived value of what we offerin all areas of product , especially pricing .
keep me coming'