Business research on accountants conducted by CGMA on has listed the top ten drivers of value to businesses. Interestingly the first nine of these only included intangibles and only the tenth referred to plant or equipment quality. More than three fourths of the seven hundred plus respondents put customer satisfaction as the top driver. Quality of business processes came second. Next was customer relationship. Quality of people and brand reputation were voted next. After this were strategic decision making and strategy execution. Patented products got a mention on eight rank. Completing this list was supplier relationships.

Conventional marketing teams gather in rooms to discuss various strategies such as content marketing, SEO or inbound marketing. However, thought leaders do not discuss these matters on assignment basis but are instead forever immersed in that world. Some marketers make the mistake of creating content that is too sophisticated but dull. This approach works in some cases, but usually backfires. Thought leadership will study the entire work cycle and analyze it against the corporate strategy set at the very beginning. Integrity at work will get even more important in the future and thought leaders will need to ensure that the entire company structure is built in that model in order to deliver the goods.

The industrial age was one where capital was most essential to all business processes. Now it is consumer who is the centre of all operations. Companies must nowadays focus less on products but more on what customers really need. Extracting business intelligence has become easier due to the internet. Product promotions thus require excessive level of aggression using all means such as discounts, sweepstakes and prizes. Even the television is over used and often abused as a media leaving only the top players to effectively dominate this media.

As per business intelligence provided by McKinsey, the digital divide in the USA is getting stronger than ever before. In fact the American economy is only functioning at about 18% of potential. This is due to the fact that while everyone is using digital technology, some of the leaders have raced far ahead. Technology based companies are doing particularly well. Sectors such as healthcare, government, hospitality, construction and local services are the usual laggards by comparison. The ones which have adopted digital technologies well have increased their profit margins by a factor of two or three times.

There exist reasons why business disruptions must be made at organizations one is working in rather than waiting for competitors to strike first. Foreseeing the market and acting always gives first mover advantage. Firms which negotiated through tough times during the recessions survived due to their creativity. Business innovation must be approached with a discipline and as a survival tool rather than something to merely go ahead in the market. While the main creative team works on substantial gains, another team must keep an eye open for incremental improvements. The CEO’s support must be garnered as otherwise innovations cannot be actually implemented. Technology must be used increasingly to gain strategic advantage over rivals. However results must be tracked using business analytics, else firm will not be able to measure campaign successes.  

There may be several reasons for businesses to fail. Poor or lack of leadership could be one. A struggling brand image may be another. Improper business intelligence on customer needs is a very common failing these days. In spite of failure being fairly common, business plans rarely conceive of the same. They usually include components such as executive summary, marketing strategy, competitive analysis, operations, financial data and management team. A failure plan must also be incorporated. This must include factors such as loss of sales, catastrophic disaster, Inadequate or untimely financing, product obsolescence or even loss of key employee.

Business research conducted by Forbes publication has identified three marketing innovation labs which have set the benchmark. The first one is Absolut Labs that has been instrumental in eliciting shifts in consumer behaviour away from traditional cable TV towards Apple TV, Netflix and Hulu. Then there is Sephora Innovation Lab. Its head has worked with the likes of Beauty Board and Color IQ in the past and thus has focused the efforts to create top class client experience. Sonos Studio completes this list. It has offices in Los Angeles, New York, London and Amsterdam. Their major focus is towards music and content.

McKinsey has identified reasons for organizations to fail at execution of corporate strategy. The first one of them is mistrust within the firm and a resulting lack of timely useful information sharing. There is sometimes low receptivity at incorporating business innovations. This lack of creativity is linked with another failing which is that operations become too mechanistic. Another reason is that employees often indulge in more talk and less action followed by action that is not coordinated with strategies. Lastly, a sense of complacency afflicts certain organizations.

Studies have clearly indicated that organizations with engaged employees performed exponentially better than those that aren’t. Digitization offers organizations the opportunity to bridge the gap. Employees must be explained the digital strategy as part of the overall business framework. Subject matter experts must be identified to impart management training to concerned staff members. Employees must also be kept active using innovative measures. Important conversations need to get tracked and connected together to join the dots. Organizational victories need to be celebrated as it boosts goodwill and employee motivation levels.

Much has been made about how companies must clearly define the purpose of their business. Apparently such clear demarcation right from its corporate strategy to daily communication allows employees to greater levels of motivation at work. Yet purpose is something which may not always be defined by the founders and the top hierarchy alone but by professionals within the ranks. Purpose may also be a vague concept where the twisting of language can lead to ambiguity. Employees are more likely to choose value to customers over returns to shareholders. Yet shareholders may also be defined as people who have invested either directly or indirectly for social safety. This alters the viewpoint. Companies may choose to put greater emphasis on customers in its communication, yet the purpose ought to be that which is best for different stakeholders and not determined purely by emotional outpour.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/09/thinking-clearly-about-your-companys-purpose

Unicorns as opposed to established giants, are organizations that have sprung up recently, use private money and are VC (Venture Capital) funded. The Wall Street Journal has published the full list but some of the top unicorns in global business today include Uber, Snapchat, Airbnb, Xiaomi and Flipkart. The growth of such firms has been exponential and this has brought the focus on how big companies can learn from their successes. The first major learning is that unicorns are small in size, allowing quick decision making. They are led by serial entrepreneurs who love developing one business before moving on to the next. They may not be great administrators which is why they leave the day-to-day running to others, but they excel at business innovation. They have raised massive quantities of VC funds. Crucially, they focus on specific solutions and excel in them rather than trying out a bouquet of services.

Source: https://hbr.org/2016/03/what-big-companies-can-learn-from-the-success-of-the-unicorns