Situation: The Vice President of Sales for a young snack food company runs into the Founder’s office and says “I just had lunch with an importer who has done a ton of business in Asia. We were talking about how well our main product would do there and he said the only thing we would have to do is translate the label! What is really great is that he said he would be willing to buy a container so we would not be on the hook if it didn’t sell. If we sold a container of product, that would really make up for our being behind plan in our main US business this quarter.”
The Founder contemplates this idea. “I don’t know…. I am concerned about throwing a package change at Jim in marketing who is already overloaded with our new local marketing campaign. That campaign is focused on our core midwest consumers so that we can stop the high level of discounting we are doing to move product in that region. I agree our product would kill it in the international markets, our largest shareholder mentions it every time I see him. A full container would be the largest single order in company history and boy we could use that volume.”
What should they do?
FOCUS
One of the biggest challenges for most companies, particularly small to medium size ones, is managing the myriad of opportunities for growth that arise. Unfortunately, more often than not companies launch that new product, open that new region, hire that new executive, close that acquisition in the euphoric spirit of growth but sacrifice essential focus on the core competencies of the company or team, or the benefits its key products provide to its core consumers / clients. Maintaining focus is difficult for companies of all sizes, but small to medium size companies tend to lose focus due to abundance of opportunity and passion where larger companies often lose focus as they strive to bring growth back into the business. (I will focus on smaller companies in this post.)
One of the main reasons small to medium size companies have difficulty maintaining focus is that they are constantly bombarded with new ways to grow: new products, new markets, new territories, new customers, new technologies, new market trends, etc. Typically these companies have unique or innovative products and services that attract opportunity. They gain increased awareness in the industry, the media begins to notice them, vendors or customers pass along new ideas, friends and family enthusiastically forward ways to help out and the phone starts to ring. Additionally, one of the strengths of a smaller organization (ie. that decisions can be made quickly and the company can be nimble when attacking opportunities) can be a weakness in that new directions can get set without thorough analysis. Combine all of that with the intense passion and spirit that are required to make a young company successful, and the temptation to follow and act on every lead, market and product idea is great.
While this passion, hunt for opportunity and desire to find new ways to fill society’s needs are the essential engine of progress and innovation, the manager of a young company needs to balance that with a steely eyed focus on the mission of the company, the core market and consumers, and the key product benefits. Without that focus the direction of the company can shift frequently, the team can get demotivated, the organization can become highly inefficient, the customer can get confused and leave, and the cash balance can dwindle quickly. Here is just a sample of the repercussions:
- You will dilute your already scarce resources – money, people, time.
- The company will launch new products or enter new markets without sufficient research into the full implications to the business model, financials, organization, brand and long term strategy.
- Customers will become confused as to what the company truly stands for and what its products / services truly deliver. They will migrate away from you. This is death for a “brand”.
- The team will feel like the company direction shifts constantly, the place will feel unstable, even passionate employees will lose their desire to go the extra mile (because the work they did last month is not helping this month’s strategy.) The best people will leave.
- Corporate culture will be virtually impossible to build and maintain.
- Revenue growth and profitability will suffer as money spent on prior initiatives is lost as new initiatives become priority.
How do you not lose sight of organizational focus?
- Know the company’s core mission and soul. Why does it exist in the first place?
- Understand exactly the core customer need you are filling. Get granular with this. You may think your product or service has a dozen uses. That may be, but you need to focus your energies on the key one that sits at the core customer need.
- Know your customer and market cold. This is related to the prior bullet, but in addition to understanding the need, you need to understand the key customer and market you serve intimately and you need to target them with unwavering focus.
-Understand your true competitive differentiation - why your product / service fills the customer need better than the other alternatives in the market.
- Concentrate on doing these core things really really well in one market first. If you do this, you will get well known in your key market, build a core customer group of fanatics, and have a solid base upon which to expand. This means you don’t launch in Asia if you have not yet “owned” your key customers and markets.
- Communicate the core competencies and strategy with abandon. Communicate to everyone all the time. To your staff, your investors, your customers, your clients, the media. Do it all the time, in staff meetings, company meetings, sales calls, on company fliers, on the walls in the office, in marketing material. Be consistent. This defines you and helps you build a brand rather than just sell a service or product.
When considering new avenues of growth (products, markets, etc.) stay focused and be an incredibly good listener. Trust your team and let unfiltered debate take place. If you and the team are focused on your core competencies, then the company will make the right decisions about new growth opportunities and all members of the team will know that their tireless efforts are a part of a grand and well defined strategy.
