If you’re trying to figure out how to return to the business strategy you’ve used for years or even decades once we start to see an economic recovery in the so-called “next normal,” stop living in the past. [related]
“Right now, you have a clean slate,” says AV industry consultant Tom Stimson in the eighth week of his “The Show WILL Go On” webinar series for live events professionals. “It doesn’t matter what your strategy was in the past.”
The focus moving forward as you craft your business strategy, says Stimson, should be on realizing a defined set of customers, ensuring you have the right tools to help them achieve their goals and setting clear goals for your business that keep you focused on a direction and a target.
“If you think clearly, you can leverage your skills and staff differently to meet your changing customers’ needs,” says Stimson. “This is the time to separate from tactical anchors, sunk costs, traditions and habits and generate new ideas.”
Business leaders should be thinking about what they want the company to become, says Stimson, and not focused on what it’s been in the past. That involves writing down words that capture what they hope to achieve with the company and connecting those master words with descriptor words.
From there, build word triplets from the descriptor words of concepts that are strongly related to give you business ideas that you can follow along your new strategic direction.
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“One good idea is worth considering 100 bad ideas,” says Stimson. “You have to get away from the things that have been holding you back and embrace a new way of thinking. Right now is the time to innovate.
“If you want to innovate, talk to your customers. They’ll be the ones who’ll tell you what’s going to be valuable. That should dictate your strategy,” he says.
To understand your company’s vision and strategy, think about why you’re in business, who your customers are and what your values are, says Stimson. From there, you can understand how to create a higher perception of value in what you do, he says, even though many in the industry do similar things.
You should also leverage your strategic advantage, whether that’s via cost, differentiation or focus, says Stimson.
