Your integration firm could be the next Southwest Airlines, a company that’s winning in the marketplace and doing it in an unconventional way.
And Kevin Freiberg will tell you how you can get there if you’re at the NSCA Business and Leadership Conference. Freiberg and his wife Jackie wrote “Nuts,” a best-seller on Southwest Airlines and now do 10 to 12 speeches together every year and a total of 75 to 80 presentations annually.
“We’re not just looking for winners,” says Freiberg. “We’re looking for innovators. The integration business is becoming more commoditized. If you’re competing solely on price, you’re in a race to the bottom. How do you stand out in a sea of sameness?
“You have to figure out how to change the game. Somebody’s going to change and disrupt the space. Why can’t it be you? The challenge becomes are we getting to know these people we serve? Integrators are going to have to get better at the relationship game. Just because you knew your customer six months ago, that doesn’t mean you know them now,” he says.
Too many integrators are “order takers,” says Freiberg.
“You have to be able to communicate strategy at a layman’s level,” he says. “This isn’t a quick-fix deal but the alternative is to stay in that race to the bottom.”
Freiberg believes his presentation at BLC could be the boost many of the 360 attendees need.
“My sense is this is still an exciting, sexy industry, but a lot of companies are stuck in the status quo. We live to challenge people and this is an industry that’s ripe to be shaken out,” he says. “You need to find the courage to disrupt or you become disrupted. It’s scary, and it’s not easy to do, but it’s necessary.”
Here’s a look at some of what Kevin Freiberg will discuss at the 2016 NSCA Business and Leadership Conference:
