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Porter proposed his Five Forces framework for analyzing the competitive environment which I think makes even more sense today. Every existing business, as well as every startup, needs to reassess their product or service in the context of these five forces: Intensity of competitive rivalry. Way back in 1979, Michael E.
With business teams now getting back together in the workplace after primarily working remotely during the pandemic , it’s an ideal time to implement change and make sure your team is feeling a renewed sense of satisfaction, high engagement, and maximum productivity. Let that be part of their job satisfaction.
The real solution is better productivity and less procrastination, to put you back in control of your business. Jan Yager, a recognized expert on the subject of time management, addressed this issue in the classic edition of her book, “ Work Less, Do More: The 14-Day Productivity Makeover.” Rest makes you more productive.
Today you need that budget for market fluxuations, pandemics, and product updates. Higher worker engagement and satisfaction. Thus they feel more fulfilled, more productive, and more in control of their lives. Full-time employees require considerable overhead for facilities, training, severance, and benefits for performance.
Another example is Facebook , maintaining motivation with food, stock options, collaborative office space, an on-site laundry, and a competitive atmosphere that fosters personal growth and learning with great benefits. Investors have long agreed that you invest in the team, more than the product. Start today. Marty Zwilling.
This is the confirmation that your product or service fills a real need in the marketplace. Similarly, it will be very satisfying to see the productivity increases from your leadership and mentoring. Watch that patent provide a real barrier to competitive entry. Note the growth of your team and your own leadership.
In this context, even “satisfied” is only a “meets-minimum,” and does not put you ahead of your competition. With pervasive access to social media, customers no longer differentiate poor product repair and replacement from a poor shopping experience or customer usage satisfaction. This results in more profits and growth for you.
The real solution is better productivity and less procrastination, to put you back in control of your business. Jan Yager, a recognized expert on the subject of time management, just released a new edition of her most popular book, “ Work Less, Do More: The 14-Day Productivity Makeover.” Rest makes you more productive.
Porter proposed his Five Forces framework for analyzing the competitive environment which I think makes even more sense today. Every existing business, as well as every startup, needs to reassess their product or service in the context of these five forces: Intensity of competitive rivalry. Way back in 1979, Michael E.
Train them fully, give them authority, make them accountable, and tie their pay to customer satisfaction. It must be understandable, written down, and verifiable, with regular measurements and metrics to make it real, benchmarked against the competition. Know your customers intimately. Make your service deliver process “happy.”
Porter proposed his Five Forces framework for analyzing the competitive environment which I think makes even more sense today. Every existing business, as well as every startup, needs to reassess their product or service in the context of these five forces: Intensity of competitive rivalry. Way back in 1979, Michael E.
Getting any product to market is an act composed of a series of compromises in quality, product perfection, feature-functionality, and cost effectiveness. When there are multiple parallel developments of components to fit into the whole product, the slowest component determines the speed of completion for the final product.
The critical success factors for a product business are well known, starting with selling every unit with a gross margin of 50 percent or more, building a patent and other intellectual property, and continuous product improvement. Low cost and low margin products can be winners, if the volume is high enough.
This is the confirmation that your product or service fills a real need in the marketplace. Similarly, it will be very satisfying to see the productivity increases from your leadership and mentoring. Watch that patent provide a real barrier to competitive entry. Note the growth of your team and your own leadership.
Ironically, as a startup investor and mentor, I have seen too many failures caused by just the opposite – too much money spent too soon, taking time to get product perfection, and assuming customers will wait. Startups funded by rich uncles rarely think about productivity. Rethink or reframe the challenge. Marty Zwilling.
People-centric leaders realize that the right motivated and accountable people are their real competitive advantage. Your team, properly selected, trained, and engaged, can focus on tomorrow’s requirements, learn from mistakes, and implement the constant improvements required to stay competitive.
The most memorable businesses, like Starbucks and Apple, no longer sell products, they sell ‘experiences’ with a product at the center. The challenge is to transform and hardwire your entire team to think in these terms, rather than the default focus on distinct towers of product quality, closing the sale, or fixing a complaint.
Personal satisfaction also ranked close behind, with 70 percent of respondents claiming it was a key advantage to running their own business. This indicates that lifestyle and satisfaction factors are often more important than financial ones. Beat the competition and discover yourself. High level of excitement.
Another example is Facebook , maintaining motivation with food, stock options, collaborative office space, an on-site laundry, and a competitive atmosphere that fosters personal growth and learning with great benefits. Investors have long agreed that you invest in the team, more than the product. Start today. Marty Zwilling.
We spent time out in the marketplace talking with customers, looking at their solutions, comparing ourselves with our competition and then squirreling ourselves away in our offices designing our next set of features. They communicated this to product management who looked at all of the internal requirements we had generated (e.g.
Explain that they may be called, and use the opportunity to check their satisfaction with your company and your product. Validation of product. This will cover the technology, the current state of development, and customer satisfaction. If the product is in customer hands, expect some customers to be interviewed.
In reality, too many choices actually dilutes customer interest in your existing market, and makes your job of production, marketing, and support much more complex. New entrepreneurs, especially technical ones, are excited by early adopters, and tend to focus on their feedback, which will always suggest more product features and options.
Entrepreneurs must enjoy the hard work of solving problems, and quickly get past the idea stage, with focus on a specific product or service, including timeframes and financials. Successful entrepreneurs have to be people oriented, to solicit experts with various skills, including marketing, production, operations, and finance.
Many startups and mature businesses have not yet accepted the fact that customer satisfaction and loyalty in this “always connected” age are about more than product and service quality. But to engender loyalty, you have to be delivering a good experience and keeping satisfaction high. Marketing-driven customer acquisition.
Today, companies need every edge they can get to strive in our current competitive marketplace. Improved productivity and efficiency leading to cost reductions, easier to use services leading to increased customer satisfaction and retention, a new needed product or service that is not available anywhere else.
But very quickly, it is becoming obvious to startups that the value and satisfaction exceeds the costs. Startups can use social responsibility as a competitive advantage. That’s a real competitive edge that you can use in your marketing and positioning. Socially responsible products typically sell at a premium price.
This is the confirmation that your product or service fills a real need in the marketplace. Similarly, it will be very satisfying to see the productivity increases from your leadership and mentoring. Watch that patent provide a real barrier to competitive entry. Note the growth of your team and your own leadership.
Many startups and mature businesses have not yet adapted to the fact that customer satisfaction in this “always connected” age is more than product and service quality. But to engender loyalty, you have to be delivering a good experience and keep satisfaction high. Customer upsell, selling more to existing customers.
Trying to do everything is a sure way to maximize stress, lower job satisfaction, and minimize productivity. If you are a genius at invention, for example, then that is the role you should seek to keep you motivated and productive. In my experience, competition is the biggest challenge here.
Train them fully, give them authority, make them accountable, and tie their pay to customer satisfaction. It must be understandable, written down, and verifiable, with regular measurements and metrics to make it real, benchmarked against the competition. Know your customers intimately. Make your service deliver process “happy.”
Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Solution development and delivery.
Related reasons, like personal satisfaction also ranked close behind, with 70% of respondents claiming it was a key advantage to running their own business. This indicates that lifestyle and satisfaction factors are often more important than financial ones. Beat the competition. High level of excitement. The cycle never stops.
Unfortunately, these goals are often mutually exclusive, and focusing on the wrong ones won’t bring you that business success and satisfaction you crave. For example, Richard Branson relishes the satisfaction of initiating innovative startups, and rewarding strong team members with the opportunity to run a joint spinoff.
Image via Wikipedia The challenge for all of us in business is to improve competitiveness by improving employee productivity and reducing costs. According to Gartner , one of the biggest drags on productivity is employee engagement, still hovering around 30 percent, and costing our businesses over $450 billion per year.
Incidentally, if you never thought of yourself as being an A-Player employee, you probably will struggle even more in the competitive entrepreneur world. Employees can be much more productive if they fully understand strategic issues and focus correspondingly. Understand the need for an investment well before results.
Use this opportunity to validate their satisfaction and support for your company and your solution. Here investors are looking for feature problems or quality issues on the current product. A hard look will be taken at the technology maturity, the current development progress, and customer satisfaction with early product shipments.
Ironically, as a startup investor and mentor, I have seen too many failures caused by just the opposite – too much money spent too soon, taking time to get product perfection, and assuming customers will wait. Startups funded by rich uncles rarely think about productivity. Rethink or reframe the challenge. Marty Zwilling
Personal satisfaction also ranked close behind, with 70% of respondents claiming it was a key advantage to running their own business. This indicates that lifestyle and satisfaction factors are often more important than financial ones. Entrepreneurs love the continuous challenges of a startup, and the satisfaction of solving them.
This indicates that lifestyle and satisfaction factors are usually more important than financial ones. Entrepreneurs love the continuous challenges of a startup, and the satisfaction of tackling them. A good entrepreneur feels the incentive to offer a new service/product that no one else has offered before. Beat the competition.
Today, customers are looking for real relationships, a memorable shopping experience, and satisfaction of a higher purpose. Of course, these new customer-facing strategies shouldn’t preclude you from focusing behind the scenes on reducing costs and broadening your product line to supersede competitors.
This indicates that lifestyle and satisfaction factors are usually more important than financial ones. Entrepreneurs love the continuous challenges of a startup, and the satisfaction of tackling them. A good entrepreneur feels the incentive to offer a new service/product that no one else has offered before. Beat the competition.
Entrepreneurs need to document a process of responding to a market need, sizing opportunity, assigning a specific business model, and planning for marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction. Typically some production and delivery is outsourced, requiring formal contracts and documentation. Solution development and delivery.
Show that others are an inspiration, not competition. Everyone sees your energy applied more productively, and has the urge to help. Therefore, the sooner that you adopt the strategies outlined here, the better will be your odds of really changing the world, and having fun and satisfaction while doing it.
One of the key sections of any business plan is the analysis of the competition. Investors take that to mean either 1) there is no market for your product, or 2) you don’t understand the concept of business and competition. You are never the only alternative, hopefully just the best, in price, utility, and satisfaction.
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