Seeing the Future
How much time do you spend thinking about your company's future? Chances are, not much. Putting out fires and taking care of the day-to-day tasks likely consume most of your time. But to be strategic in your business, you must discover how to spot future opportunities and threats as soon as possible. Yes, you do need to identify the immediate forces at work, but you also want to think about and plan for the future operating environment and industry trends. The value lies in anticipating change before it happens, instead of mindlessly reacting to whatever comes at you next.
What changes should you be thinking about? Answer these questions to get started:
- Who will our customers be five years from now?
- How will we reach these customers?
- Do we regularly improve our product quality and customer satisfaction?
- What's our company's status as a trendsetter within our industry?
- Are we aware of new competitive threats on the horizon?
- Are we focused on catching up to the competition or on innovations in the marketplace?
- Is management flexible enough to alter our business model as necessary?
- How does our approach to forward thinking compare to our competition?
- Are our customers leaving us? Did they tell us why?
Your answers to these broad-reaching questions can tell you ...
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