Success Begins With Strategic Thinking

Success in any business or profession requires having a clear vision of where you are going, and what your "rules of the road" are. Vision and values is where it all begins. The motivation is having your business or profession "become" something. This is how a business creates long-term sustainable growth, and how a career creates long-term reward and fulfillment.

Strategic thinking means starting from the 100,000 foot level of what your endeavor is to become, and working your way down to the trenches level and identifying individual action steps. One of the most important deliverables of strategic thinking is the business/career plan, and it should answer the question: "what are the priorities and action steps for the next month, quarter, etc?".

Planning out a business/career strategy can be framed into the following steps:

Step 1. Visioning
I am amazed at how often this step is skipped. The result is that many entrepreneurs and professionals will needlessly wander in mediocrity.

An organizational or career vision is a statement of potential, and a statement of direction. A vision statement is a description of what you or your endeavor is to become. Entrepreneurs should ask: "what do I want my company to be known for; and what do we want people to think of when they hear our company name mentioned?". Professionals should ask "What do I want to be known for; how do I want others to remember me?"

Step 2. Strategic Thinking and Planning
The term "strategic thinking" can be defined as the process that determines the future direction of the organization. This is where you give careful thought to what you want and where your passions are. You think about your strengths, and weaknesses, and your opportunities. Where do you have advantage, and how can you exploit that advantage? Very rarely do people actually take the time and energy to do this in a meaningful way. The likelihood for a business plan or career plan to create any success depends on how well and diligently this step is carried out.

Step 3. Documenting the Plan
Writing the business/career plan is the process that actualizes the strategic thinking. During the planning process, your mission is crystallized into specific goal categories. These categories are used to help breakdown goals to identify action steps. In an organization with multiple departments, each will have a mission and business plan which is their contribution to the organization's mission. The progressive achievement of the mission or all of the departmental missions will propel the entire organization toward the realization of its vision.

Step 4. Implementing the Plan
The real key to the success of this process is action. Vision alone does not ensure success. Even the most well conceived plan will not ensure success without action steps and measurement. Without action steps, time frames, and accountability the process is just a mental exercise that does little to create progress, much less success. How many times have you heard of a formal, elaborate business plan sitting on a shelf gathering dust? How about the executive resume that has not been updated for years? Without action, nothing happens, and nothing improves.

Step 5. Review and Continuous Improvement
Be sure that you are measuring your results. Peter Drucker has told us that "you cannot manage what is not measured." Success relies on careful execution and progress needs to be measured and quantified on a regular basis. Success relies on continued learning and improvement of the plan and adjusting the action steps accordingly.

During this step, there will be mistakes and setbacks. But that is not the same as failure! Missteps are an inevitability when innovating and testing new approaches. Challenging the comfort zones and stretching the performance envelope means a little risk, and some lessons learned. History has shown this to be true even for gurus like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Turn these setbacks into a positive experience by focusing on the lessons learned and using them going forward. These lessons are a business advantage if you use them that way. Your success will depend on you staying positive and motivated and focused.

Remember: A successful business or career must have a focus on the long term vision. Dwelling on the present, or the next paycheck, or the next quarterly financial statement will only deliver mediocre or unsustainable results. Growth opportunities are difficult to recognize when you lack clarity on your future vision. Planning your vision is not an option. You can take control of your destiny and the destiny of your business, but you must make a conscious decision to assume that control.

Who is in control of YOUR destiny?

Success Begins With Strategic Thinking

The Top 6 Drivers for Personal Success

These can be called drivers, or they might be better described as values. As you engage your business or career to achieve your vision, you need "rules of the road" to guide your behaviors and priorities throughout the journey.

6. Keep all of your promises:
The promises you make to customers and staff must be sacred. Nothing kills a business or career faster than a broken promise. Integrity is all the more important these days, because the public perception is that there is an enormous lack of it. This integrity-gap perception exists predominantly with corporate executives, politicians and lawmakers, and Wall Street. Anyone that has managed to build their "leadership capital" with those around them will gain followers and customers. There is substantial research indicating that customers are willing to pay more for products they trust.

5. Follow your passion and play hard:
There are numerous surveys that show the majority of the workforce are working in jobs they dislike. This applies to all types of workers, including accountants, lawyers, and engineers. Why would anyone want to work at succeeding at something they are not passionate about? In short, your best and most motivated effort will always be when you are following your passions. This is when you give your best effort without even trying.

4. Know where you're going, and where you're starting from:
Baseball hall-of-famer Yogi Berra once said "If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else." Your business or career has to have a vision in order to have direction. By considering the long view and the entire journey, your steps will be easier to identify and prioritize, and you will make better progress. Spinning your wheels in reactive mode will never get you very far.

3. Be prepared to accept risks and learn from setbacks:
There is an old saying "Without obstacles how would you ever know what you are capable of?" Having an open mind so you can challenge your comfort zones is how people achieve great things in their lives. If you push those comfort zones hard enough, there will be setbacks. It makes sense, because you are in uncharted territory when you leave your comfort zones. Remember that you learn more from setbacks than you do from success. Learn from those disappointments, and put those lessons to good use.

2. Build lasting relationships:
This is especially important for both entrepreneurs and for professionals. Entrepreneurs need to focus on customer relationships to convert those into customer loyalty. But loyal relationships with staff is important as well, because staff is also involved in the development of customer loyalty. Professionals need to create strong relationships with peers, but also subordinates and superiors. Developing credibility in those relationships allows the professional to be far more effective at what they do. That being said, the professionals must also develop relationships with their colleagues outside of their own organization. This is the network that professionals will be tapping into if something should befall their position.

1. Being prepared to articulate your value creates opportunity:
And the number one driver/value for success is: the good old "elevator speech".

No matter who you are, or what you do, you will occasionally and unexpectedly cross paths with that one individual that can catapult your business or career. Will you be ready for that chance meeting in the elevator, or supermarket, or charity ball?

The first few seconds of any meeting is your initial contact and first impression, and if you do not get past this step, you will not get anywhere. And so, this is a critical step. Will you be able to convey your unique value in 15 seconds or less? Will you have a compelling message that will provoke a great dialogue? Everyone needs to have their elevator speech down pat. Your 15 second talk must be very relevant, unique, and persuasive. You must also be able to deliver that speech with comfort and confidence, which means that you should rehearse it until you have it mastered. Remember that if you cannot effectively market yourself, someone else will get the opportunity. So you must be ready.

Are you achieving the success you've always wanted? Are all 6 of these values part of your "rules of the road"? Take an honest look at your results, your behaviors, and your habits.
What will you do to make the right changes?

The Top 6 Drivers for Personal Success

Business Planning for 2011

"Economists say that the great recession, the longest and deepest since World War II, ended 18 months ago and the US economy is growing again. Growth is relative. That doesn’t mean sit and wait for things to improve. Rather retool for the economy that exists today.”
– Rosalind Resnick, Entrepreneur Magazine, December 2010

As you review your company’s strategic plan and forecast for 2011, what can you do to ensure that your company will meet those objectives and goals? Ms. Resnick’s comment is absolutely on target, you can sit around and react to your environment, or you can retool your business objectives and take a proactive approach to success for 2011. Instead of waiting for the economy to improve, take charge of your own economy.

There are a number of strategic areas that may be worth focusing more time and effort on in your business as you begin to think about retooling:

• First and foremost, revisit your strategic plan. It’s appropriate to focus on the 2-3 year horizon because you need to identify what you want to grow into. However, it is critical to focus on what your business needs to accomplish in the next 12 months. What are the critical success factors that your business needs to focus on in order to accomplish your forecast? Do your employees know what the 12-month plan looks like and do they know what they need to contribute in order for the plan to be successful? If you cannot answer ‘yes’ to any of these three questions, you are not ready for 2011.

• Second, identify what is really working and set a plan in motion to maximize it. Capitalize on your strengths. What product or service is your top seller, and how do you get customers to buy more of it? How do you grow your customer base for that product or service? Knowing your core business strengths allows your organization to maximize on existing opportunities where your company is already excellent.

• Third, try new and different things. After you have identified the core products and/or services of your business, look for new, out-of-the-box opportunities. Outside and uncontrollable distractions often cause us to pull the reins in and focus on what we have always done. Use these changing times to your benefit. Challenge yourself and your employees to look at every process, product line, service, and customer for new opportunities. You will be surprised what your team may find and suggest. At first blush an idea might seem outrageous, but outrageous could mean the difference between status quo and a new level of success.

The last thought to consider is leveraging your uniqueness. The business marketplace is becoming a sea of similarity. Your brand should communicate the value you bring to your customer from the eyes of the customer. Your brand is not really about what you think you do. The brand you should be leveraging is what value your customers say you bring to the table. Find out what your customers really think and start spreading that unique message.

If you did not like the results you generated in 2010, you have two choices. You can continue on your current path and hope for different results, or you can set your goals, maximize your strengths, honestly look for new opportunities, and incessantly market your brand with a voice that is meaningful to your customer.
Hope is never a successful strategy, but focused action is. Forget the talk on economy and focus on your economy. There has never been a better time to take advantage of the competition than now.

Business Planning for 2011

Year-End Reflections

As we turn our sights toward 2010, it’s time to reflect on how your progress is going and how are you going to achieve your objectives. A number of significant events have taken place in our global environment that may be forcing you to look at your life and business much differently than you did a year ago. Take some time to reflect on the following questions and honestly evaluate where you are, where you are going, and how you plan to get there.

Did you achieve your 2010 objectives?

If you have not achieved your 2010 goals, what is standing in the way?

Are your marketing activities generating the necessary results?

Are you working with enough clients to achieve your goals?

Do you enjoy working with the clients you have?

What are your goals and key objectives for 2011?

Are you looking to expand into any new markets? Why or why not?

Careers and business are not just about numbers, activities, strategic plans, objectives, and revenue. All of these things are important and in many cases critical to build a sustainable living, but they are only one-half of the equation. The other half of the equation is you. Your personal ability to grow requires honest reflection. Look at yourself and your experiences this year with as much objectivity as you can. Reflect on you and your contribution to the success of your business.

What did I learn – new skills, knowledge, insights, etc? (List them all.)

How have my newly acquired skills, knowledge, and insights contributed to the success of my business?

What did I accomplish? (List all your wins and achievements.)

How did those wins or accomplishments impact the success of my business?What would I have done differently and why? (Be specific and honest with yourself.)

What were the most significant events of the year thus far? (List the top three.)

What did I do right?

What do I feel particularly good about?

What was my greatest contribution?

What were the fun things I did?

What were the not so fun things I did?

What were my biggest challenges, roadblocks, or difficulties? (Be specific.)

How am I different this year than last?

What will I do differently for 2011? (Be specific.)

For what am I particularly grateful?

Feel free to add additional questions that may provide meaning for you.

As you can see, it is very difficult to ignore the power of the I’s and the my’s in those questions. You are a critical component to the success of your business and an honest, objective evaluation of where you are could be the difference between success and failure. Your ability to achieve your desired goals and build a sustainable business begins and ends with you. There will always be outside forces generating obstacles or pushing and pulling your business in different directions. The most powerful asset you have is you. Make a commitment to honestly evaluate your contribution as a business asset and make the commitment to reinvest in yourself and grow. The success of your business depends on it!

Year-End Reflections

The Distraction Zone

It hits most of us in the afternoon hours when we’re starting to crash and doze. It’s the time zone between the afternoon hours of 2pm and 4pm (no it’s not exactly a time zone) where we lose focus and can be distracted by anything. We zone out. We sit at our desk with a large cup of coffee in a feeble attempt at being productive and try to zero in on the tasks at hand:

What should I do first?

What is the priority, really?

Do, I really want to start with “that” project?

Should I wait until this afternoon to start making phone calls?

Should I rework my web page/marketing material?

How about if I give _______ a call and see how they are doing?

Sitting in the distraction zone without having a real plan with clear priorities is a success killer. You are already challenged by a not-so-alert mental state, and without pre-planned and focused priorities it will be impossible to accomplish anything.

Focus is what is necessary to accomplish goals and objectives that will lead to success as you define it. Focus provides a clear image, a clear path of direction. This is especially true while we sit in the distraction zone.

How do you achieve focus? Start with the end in mind. Decide where you want to go and what you want to accomplish. You need to ascertain what the “big picture” is in order to determine and execute the necessary action steps. What is the vision for your company or department? What do you want to be known for and why? As a result of accomplishing your vision, what will change for you personally? The answer to these questions will provide the motivation for success.

Establish a Plan. After you have established your desired vision, you need a plan … a plan that not only includes the vision, but a plan that lays out the mission (how you plan to accomplish the vision in a two to five year time frame). An assessment of your challenges and potential obstacles needs to be conducted. Based on your direction and combined assessments, you can then create and proceed with sufficient and necessary critical goal categories that will bring the plan to life.

Implement the Plan. The critical goal categories are the broad goals established in your plan to begin the action planning process. Next, specific and detailed goals, which must meet the SMART criteria, need to be created. They will provide the daily, monthly, and quarterly plans as well as the needed performance metrics. These action steps must be identified with time lines, and the time commitments need to be immediately entered into your planning system. Having an unorganized time management system will inevitably lead to unforeseen challenges and disappointing results.

Continuous Goals Review. It’s important to know what measurements are critical to the success of your plan and monitor them closely. Seek out assistance through a coaching or mentoring relationship where someone helps keep your feet to the fire. Creating the personal, professional or business success you are looking for means avoiding procrastination. It requires persistence and unyielding focus on the critical measurements.

Make a difference today! We cannot control tomorrow … we can only plan for it, and yesterday is a cancelled check. The only thing we can control is today! Make a decision to focus your action steps first thing every day and make the commitment to yourself (no matter what) that you will accomplish want needs to be accomplished. Long-term success comes from the dedication to do the right activity well and do it every day!

The Distraction Zone

Key to Success: Persistence

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
- Calvin Coolidge

Persistence. Determination. Will. Perseverance.

Attitude.

These are key difference makers between individuals and teams that succeed, and those that do not succeed. A persistent mental attitude is powerful. Military commanders work to develop this sort of mentality into their recruits throughout basic training, because they understand its potency on the field of battle. That same potency also benefits every successful person and organization.

In Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, the corporate leaders that took their companies to exceptional levels of success were analyzed to identify the characteristics these leaders all shared. Jim Collins referred to this group as “Level 5 Leaders”, and there were two traits shared by all of them. One of these was a very strong will and persistence.

As a country, the U.S. gained a sense of persistence after the 9/11 tragedy. As a world leader we knew it was necessary, though it did not change the intensity of the horror, the sadness, or the trauma the events caused.

Martin Luther King, like many historical heroes, was persistent in order to share the power of his vision—no matter what amount of ignorance or violence stood in his way.

The NASA program exists today because its members have been persistent through many setbacks. The Kennedy administration had a vision and a goal to put a man on the moon. Many thought that vision was grandiose and unachievable. But in 1969, the vision became a reality. Later, NASA would see its most tragic setbacks with the losses of the space shuttle Challenger and the space shuttle Endeavor.

Captain Chesley Sullenberger was piloting US Airways flight 1549 when immediately after taking off from New York’s Laguardia Airport, a flock of geese left his airliner without engine power. His persistence kept Captain Sullenberger focused on his emergency procedures, and he successfully landed his powerless aircraft into the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 passengers and crew.

These are all examples of exceptional people who were persistent and achieved amazing results in extreme situations. However, I would submit to you that their persistence is required in everyday life and business. I believe that every person involved in the above examples always demonstrated persistence. However, we saw their real capability because they were faced with adverse, challenging, life, or vision threatening situations.

We are all currently faced with unprecedented changes, many of which many are out of our direct control. Recovery and regaining success in life and business will come because of our conscious decision to be persistent.

Make the commitment now to do what is necessary to make your personal life and your professional life successful. Look at each of your challenges as an opportunity for success. Use your talent, experience, and education to your advantage. Develop a plan that leverages your background and experience. Review your every plan and your mix of activities and make sure they are the right activities. Reach out for assistance as often as needed.

Make the commitment to be persistent… it’s the difference between success and mediocrity.

Key to Success: Persistence

Accomplishing Goals 101

“All things are created twice. There is a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you have thought everything through, Then you put it into brick and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind.”
– Stephen R. Covey The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People


I am constantly amazed at how we as a society approach goals. We all know how important they are, but too few of us really create them, let alone follow through and accomplish them. Think of how New Year’s resolutions have almost become a joke for us. It is almost always assumed that most of those goals will go unheeded.

Part of the problem is that the vast majority of us have never been formally trained on how to effectively plan and achieve our goals. It is not taught to students in school, and most certainly not taught to the workforce. In fact, most individuals are probably unaware that there are systematic approaches available to create achievable goals. A good goals creation process includes a framework that helps develop a clear vision of the end results, and the effective mechanics of accomplishing that goal. Effective mechanics includes identifying obstacles and action steps.

Developing Blue Prints
Goal accomplishment begins by establishing a relationship between where you are now and where you want to go. Begin this process with a personal and professional inventory or assessment that will help you identify your current dreams and aspirations. Define what do you want to accomplish, achieve, own, do, and be? Be careful not to let your practical mind limit your dreams and ideas. Grant yourself permission to think big and out of the box.

In addition to allowing yourself to desire and dream, take a moment to assess where you are mentally, socially, physically, financially, in regards to your family as well as with your ethics. We usually have a tendency to evaluate, focus, and measure effectiveness only in our professional and business lives. The common measurement is financial success. However, what we are all really after is balance. We do want financial success, but we also want the time to enjoy the benefits of that financial success. We want time with our friends and our family, and we don’t want to trade health for wealth.

Through the dreaming process we determine what we want to achieve, what
we want to do, and what we want to be. Next an evaluation or assessment process provides a clearer picture of our strengths and areas that we may choose to improve. The next step is to prioritize based on your dreams, evaluations, and assessments those specific items or goals that are most important to you now and that you want to take action on. This is the final step to providing the blueprint for your success.

As Covey indicates creating the brick and mortar is the second phase. Blueprints alone will not generate success. An architect can create a perfect blueprint, but without the appropriate building supplies and a contractor to do something with the supplies, the perfect house will never be built. The same fundamentals apply to goal accomplishment.

Bricks and Mortar
First, all goals need to be written down. Many people have goals but readily admit that they have not committed them to writing. Writing forces you to clarify your thinking and serves as a reminder of your objectives. Written goals will keep you on course in the midst of interruptions and distractions. Using a RAC Goal Planning Sheet© is an excellent mechanism to commit goals to writing and create a working document that will provide the focus necessary for success.

Working through the Goal Planning worksheet provokes the thought necessary to identify the obstacles, brainstorm all of the possible solutions, and then identify the required action steps needed to accomplish the goal. The components of the Goal Planning sheet are the bricks of your success. What provides the mortar to hold the bricks in place? All goals must have an overall target date with time specific action steps.

All the identified action steps need to be transferred to your personal planning system, which will provide a constant reminder of your plans and objectives. As you arrange your actions steps and timetable, remember that the goals are personal and you are in control. If for some reason you miss a designated date, examine the situation and find out why. There is always the possibility of unforeseen circumstances. You have the ability and authority to change a timeline. It is your blueprint.

However, those time sensitive dates will hold you accountable to yourself and others, which allows you to accomplish more sooner. Be careful to make sure that you are moving dates based on valid reasons and choices. Do not let fear, procrastination, and frustration (common, everyday occurrences) get in the way. The potential rewards of accomplishing your goal or the possible consequences of not accomplishing a goal should always be in the forefront of your mind to help you make the appropriate time sensitive decisions.

You are the architect of your life—personally and professionally. If you are dissatisfied with your results, take the initiative to change them. Take charge of your life and create the results that you’ve always dreamed of.

Accomplishing Goals 101

Leaders Take Charge of Change

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” ~ Maya Angelou

The times are unprecedented and uncertainty is everywhere. From high gas prices at the pump to high level politics in Washington DC, everything is vastly different from just a couple of years ago. The resulting negativity is also unprecedented, and coming from everywhere and everyone.

Talk to the average citizen and the feedback will not be rosy. But we make things worse for ourselves because of how we are used to “giving in” to status quo. We escalate our own frustrations by defaulting to the position that all of the circumstances are beyond our control and/or influence. Some of the circumstances are indeed unchangeable. Our armed forces are trained to adapt to their environment in order to survive. Civilians need to do the same, whether they are business owners, CEOs, or just an average citizen. Failure to adapt is often the root cause of both business failures as well as personal failures.

Maya Angelou’s words resound with a realistic common sense. When circumstances are dictated by forces outside of your circle of influence, adapting might mean an attitude adjustment. Frustrations, anger, resentment, and all the other negative emotions will only serve to slow down finding an alternate approach or solution. Leaders will adapt their attitudes and hence will facilitate adapting their approach so they can maximize their results.

Leaders exhibit a positive attitude that leads to positive behavior. They do not let anything stand in their way—circumstances within their control or circumstances beyond their control. Attitude is a state of mind and if you are focusing your life on negative aspects, you will experience negative results. Leaders focus their attitude on the positive and will naturally lead to positive action, and positive action will lead to far better outcomes. Rather than focusing on what cannot be accomplished, leaders will focus on what can be accomplished.

Your attitude plays a role in everything that you do from your interaction with the global community, to your business, and to the people that surround you daily—your peers, clients, family, and community members. Leaders recognize the role attitude plays and this key to their achieving success. Do you want to be known as the highly successful person who exhibits an impeccable attitude of positive behavior or the neighbor, dad, wife, husband, mother, or business owner that exhibits a dark and dismal attitude? With whom would you want to interact? With whom would you want to do business? The answers are fairly obvious as most people prefer to be associated with positive and optimistic individuals.

Here are ten questions that if answered honestly will demonstrate whether your actions reflect an attitude of a leader and highly successful individual, or if your actions represent the doom and gloom of a pessimist. Take a moment and address each statement with one of the following answers.

No, I do not do this.
     or
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, or
     or
Yes, I do this consistently.


(Remember, honesty keeps you from fooling yourself!)
1. I take full responsibility for how my day turns out.

2. I am confident that I can succeed at whatever I do as long as I simply take the right actions.

3. I spend time visualizing tremendously rewarding success instead of picturing failure.

4. I maintain a positive expectation of every action I take.

5. I look for the best in every situation and the opportunity in every problem.

6. I focus more of my time on seeking solutions rather than staying absorbed in the problem.

7. I see myself as someone who is capable, enthusiastic, and committed.

8. I speak in a positive, powerful, and uplifting manner.

9. I persist with passion until I succeed at whatever I do.

10. I embrace change, and love to learn and grow from new ideas and experiences.

If you answered yes to every one of the ten statements, congratulations, you have the leadership qualities of a highly successful person. However, if you had to answer just one question with sometimes or no then you have room to grow, work, and develop. Just about everyone will have room to grow and develop. This should not come as a shock to anyone, as keeping a positive frame of mind is now more of a constant challenge than ever.

Change is here to stay. The things that are changing around us today will be fixed, repaired, modified, and replaced by other changes in the future. The only thing that is guaranteed is change will continue to accelerate and come at us faster and faster. However, the key to successfully navigating change is determining the focus of your attitude!

The choice is yours, so choose whether you focus on what can’t be accomplished, or what can be accomplished.

Leaders Take Charge of Change

A Customer Driven Organization

The economy is down, and challenges are up. Business owners are desperate for business success. The key to success is creating a customer-centric business.

A customer-driven business is one that has recognized that the typical organizational structure with the CEO at the top must be turned upside down to put the focus on the customer. The vision of the organization includes the customer, and the focus is no longer just on customer satisfaction. Today’s focus is on exceeding customer expectations.

Becoming a customer driven business means everyone’s collective efforts being focused on the vision of the organization and the mission at hand. Exceeding customer expectations is no small feat. Leadership must ensure that this value is consistently communicated, which helps foster a team culture that is solidly entrenched in achievement, continuous improvement, and customer focus. An organization can only survive if customers are satisfied. But the organization will thrive if customers are captivated by a memorable customer experience.

Create customer loyalty by going the extra mile for your clients. Look not to satisfy them, but to exceed their expectations. Do more than they expect and you will delight them. Word of mouth referrals are still the most powerful form of advertising. Delighted customers tell others who, when delighted, will tell others and so on and so on.

Consistency is very important toward creating customer loyalty. Many businesses are very accommodating with a new customer, but tend to get lazy as times goes on. They focus on getting new business (which costs five times as much as keeping a customer) instead of revitalizing and improving existing business. As a result, they fail to maintain their service standards with existing customers. Research also shows that 70% of the customers that take their business elsewhere do so because of poor or rude service.

Nothing is more important to an on-going business relationship than honesty and integrity. Live up to and exceed those customer expectations!

A Customer Driven Organization

Set Aside the Profit Motive?

“The world is upside down”. I have spoken these very words a million times since the bottom has fallen out of the economy. But perhaps we have always been a little upside down, and only now really seeing the results.

I would submit that a significant part of our issue is really the profit motive (blasphemy). Businesses that are least likely to survive these challenging times are most often those that focus more on the profit motive, rather than focusing on delivering a competitive product or service that provides value.

Business owners often ask themselves “How can we make more money?’. But the companies that will sustain success in this economy will set aside the profit motive and ask:

“How can we build a base of loyal customers?”

“How can we efficiently improve the quality of our product or service?”

“How can we deliver it better or faster?”

“How can we improve our product or service so that everyone will want to buy it despite the down economy?”


The successful companies will think outside the box to answer these questions, and make changes to maintain competitive advantage and perceived value. Most importantly, they will not spend dramatic amounts of money to accomplish this. The answers are usually associated with modest changes in their business and operating processes, or customer service procedures. But it does require vision and leadership. To quote one of my favorite leadership authors, Warren Bennis, “The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon.”


Companies that set aside the profit motive and instead focus on customers and delivering value are those that maintain their customer base, and their profits. Focus on the customers first, and the profits will come. Consider companies like McDonald’s, or Apple, or Wal-Mart (there are others) who have exceptional customer loyalty, and have remained profitable in this economy. Customer loyalty is a key to sustained success, and these days, maintaining that loyalty is more important than ever before. Just ask the American auto industry.Some findings on customer loyalty...

• 68% of consumers change their place of business for little or no reason.
• It costs between five and seven times more to find a new customer than to retain one.
• A 5% reduction in lost customers can increase profits by up to 75%.
• Only 3% of businesses have a 'lost customer' reactivation program.
• Existing customers are not as price sensitive as new ones, they require less sales time, administration and advertising.
• A first-time customer has a 30% chance of becoming a long-term profitable customer. If they buy three times relatively quickly, their chance of becoming long-term more than doubles to 67%.

Source: Loyalty-Magic.com

Set Aside the Profit Motive?