The business has been doing great for many years but lately I’m seeing new competitors beginning to encroach on my customer base.

What can I do to stay ahead?

Ah, the good ol’ “what got you here may not be able to take you there” business syndrome. Chances are you’ve sat back for too long and allowed things to come across your view without reacting to them. It’s good that you now see it because it’s never to late to catch that missed boat.

What boat exactly did you miss? That one can only be answered when we analyze the timeframe and what business activities you’ve focused on during that time, but likely either (1) your competition innovated and you did not, now offering a better product service and experience than yours, (2) your customers’ buying or consumption habits changed but your offer model has not, (3) your brand has gotten tarnished and no longer represents the value it once had with your customers.

While it would be easy to say that each of these can be easily repaired, the truth is, depending on how far behind you’ve fallen and how big is the current gap, there may be some difficult decisions you will have to make to right size your ship. But the good story is that everything is reparable, and with a little bit of business acumen and elbow grease, you can get back to the leader’s position you once enjoyed.

Depending on which area is found to be deficient, any remediation starts with a hard truth assessment of how we got there. Because whatever wasn’t done then, will not have to be the area of focus in an accelerated way.

Let’s assume your competitors have out innovated you. The response is innovation on steroids. A focused process for implementing innovation within a business is engaged. The process utilizes concepts such as an innovation charter, challenge statement development and workshop-type brainstorming. These in turn lead to an accelerated outcome introducing and embedding new innovative concepts into your product or services portfolio, reimagining your customer journey and revenue model.

A similar reimagining process can be applied in the scenario where customers are expecting different products or services than those you’ve historically provided. Depending on the depth of transformation, results can often times be visible within a few weeks or months.

In the last instance of a tarnished brand, here the work requires a concerted and consistent effort involving social media, communications, brand advertising and other well-documented processes to reinforce your new vision and draw your customers back to your brand. It should be obvious that this restorative process needs to follow the previously listed remediation activities as the brand will not last on its own without the supporting business function operating at peak performance.

Innovation is not a scary thing and becomes a natural process for businesses that embrace a well-structured and disciplined approach. When things start falling behind, lack of innovation is very seldom found to be the root cause. We will dive deep into your operating model and help you identify the specific failure points which, when remedied, can get you back on a solid performance footing and not only restore, but indeed accelerate your business.