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IT'S GOOD TO BE PARANOID

Guest post by: Harvey Schiller

Article Overview: n the past, paranoia was viewed negatively; however, today paranoia reflects the reality of business today.

IT'S GOOD TO BE PARANOID

What is the most important characteristic of a successful enterprise? Paranoia. That feeling that someone is sneaking up on you.

A fundamental aspect of succeeding in this intensely competitive world is to constantly maintain awareness to changes of all types and that possibilities exists of new competitors and new threats. One of the fundamental drivers of this is of course, technology. If a new technology holds promise, assume that entrepreneurs or competitors will develop it to a point where it is a credible serious threat. Technology is changing the rules and obliterating traditional supply chains, pricing models and customer loyalty.

But it is not only technology. Competitors are reinventing themselves and creating new ways of doing business. Companies are moving from selling a specialty expertise, one product within a specialty to a generalist, multiple products within a specialty to convergence, products outside of the specialty. They are providing integrated action across people and business practices, supported by technology.

This requires businesses to be paranoid about competitors and keep up with the changing needs of customers. What’s really scary is that it is not enough to only be concerned about current competitors, but with convergence of technologies and innovative application, previously unidentified, new competitors can emerge. For example, once photocopiers went digital, and then added networking, they posed a new serious threat to personal printers and fax machines. Dominant players in one market can be beaten by players from other markets.

Fuel your paranoia with three critical questions:

1. What is our strategy as opposed to those of existing competitors?

Too often we become too embroiled in our situation, our own strategy and do not make the effort or take the time to understand our competitors and their strategy. Not only does this allow us to protect our flanks, but may provide insight into our competitors’ vulnerabilities.

2. Is there anything happening in the external world that could lead a new unidentified competitor to enter our business arena in a new and different way?

Whenever we undertake a “strategic management session” with clients and work on SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, it is the opportunities and threats that are most poorly assessed. Why? There is not yet a deep appreciation in organizations as to the fact that the emerging opportunities and the corresponding threats can radically and dramatically impact the company and transform an industry.

3. Could any recent developments make my business obsolete? Too many companies get blindsided.

They just don’t see the change coming and that their business model is not sustainable. Companies must constantly earn their markets and customers so they must harness their paranoia to continuously add value in the face of new developments and build loyalty with customers.

In the past, paranoia was viewed negatively; however, today paranoia reflects the reality of business today.

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Article Tags: convergence, paranoia, strategy, technology, transformation
Referred by: http://www.marshallnorthcott.com



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