Growth tips 30 seconds to business enlightenment.

Successful companies are ruthless in their focus

14-Oct-2010

What are the key ingredients that provide successful growth companies with long-term sustainable advantages?

Research in the book Ruthless Focus shows that the companies who achieve ongoing growth and success say “No” to temptations and distractions - and ruthlessly focus their time, innovation, and resources on a single, simple, overriding core strategy.  

Here is our take on a small selection of the key lessons in the book:

Answer the question "What will we be known for?”

Your brand should stand for 1 concept in your target customers’ minds - a concept that differentiates you from other firms in your industry.  Ideally you want to “own” this concept or “position” in your customers’ minds – so that they automatically think of this concept when they hear your brand name.  The narrower your focus, the stronger your brand will be.

Refine your strategy statement until it's short and understandable by a teenager.

Seth Godin once said, “If you can’t state your position in 8 words or less, you don’t have a position.”  Make your strategic positioning statement blunt and easy to understand.  Everyone in your company should know it and understand it.  If all of your people don’t know it - how do you expect your customers to know?  As Einstein said, “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”

Your strategy should help you make choices every day.

Decide which products and services are “core” to your strategy.  Decide which activities your company will perform in-house that will be “core” to your strategy.  Say “No” to everything else.  Test everything you do, every day, against your strategy. Get rid of anything that doesn't directly move your strategy forward.

Make things as simple as possible. Then make them simpler.

It is too easy to keep adding more complexity. Don’t confuse fat with muscle. Every time you want to add something new, consider what you should simultaneously stop doing. Don’t keep adding new initiatives, processes, products, or services – unless they are making things simpler for your people to understand and implement – or simpler for your customers to understand and use.  Einstein also said, “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”

Comment

Name (optional)

Website (optional)

Email Address (optional)

Please fill in the text in the image in the box below

Comment (optional)