Is Your Business a Bug’s Arse?
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Has everyone heard that joke about the last thing that goes through a bug’s brain when it hits your windshield? The answer is simple, its his arse. The question is, does that metaphor apply to your business?
What I mean by using that joke as a metaphor is to ask whether your business is aware of the world around it? What is happening in your business environment (internally and externally)? Who are your competitors? Who works for them? What share of the market do they have? Why do customers choose their business and not your business? Who works for you? Why? And why do your customers choose your business over the competition? Simple questions every business needs to have at the end of their fingertips. You need to know what your competitors are doing so that you can effectively operate your own business.
Your business needs to ask these questions about competitors, customers, political and economic forces, cultural influences, legal issues and everything else applicable to the existence of the business. Even if you’re not pushing into overseas markets they’re sure pushing into yours. So you need a strategic ongoing gameplan that takes into account what that menacing metaphorical windscreen is doing in relation to your business. Maybe the windscreen was the first McDonald’s in Australia, maybe it was better service or simply happier customers – and whammo the bug’s head went out of business (via it’s arse).
