As the president of your own personal-services company, you are responsible for the seven areas of strategic thinking in the life of your business. The better you think and act in each of these areas, the more valuable you become, the more results you achieve, and the higher will be your earning ability.
1. Specialization. Each business must specialize to be successful. It must stand out in the market and be known by customers as one of the foremost companies in that industry. A business can specialize in a particular product or service, a particular type of customer, or a particular type of market. Microsoft specializes in software. Wal-Mart specializes in people who live from paycheck to paycheck. A convenience store specializes in serving the local market. In the same way, to maximize your earning ability, you must specialize as well. You may perform many functions in the course of your work life, but you must specialize in one or more jobs that are valuable or important to your employer.
2. Differentiation. Each company and each product or service must have a competitive advantage, an area of excellence, if it is going to survive in a competitive market. It must be superior to rival offerings in some clear, unmistakable and important way. Because your sole product is you, you must differentiate yourself as well. You must be absolutely excellent in performing a specific function that is of great value to your employer. You must dedicate yourself to pay any price and work any number of hours to be the best in a particular area that is highly valued and pays well. It is amazing how many people work away at their jobs for years, performing at the average or slightly above average level, when with a little extra work and skill they could be in the top 20 percent in their fields and earning the best money available for people in their fields.
3. Segmentation. In business, you seek out those customers in your niche who most desire your product or service and who most value your competitive advantage. You do not try to sell to everyone. You segment your markets so that you can sell to just those customers who are the most likely to buy your offerings and who will pay the most. As an individual, you must segment as well. Many people transform their lives and their careers by going to work for companies that need the special talents and experience they developed in previous jobs. For example, Meg Whitman, the highly esteemed former president and CEO of eBay, was hired away from another job as eBay began to grow rapidly. Her unique combination of talents, skills, experience, and personality enabled her to transform eBay into one of the largest companies on the Internet, making her a billionaire in the process.
4. Concentration. In business, for a company to succeed, it must concentrate its limited promotional resources for marketing and advertising on just those customers who are the most likely to buy the product or service offered. As an individual, you must concentrate single-mindedly as well on just those areas where excellent performance can bring about extraordinary results for yourself and your personal-services business.
5. Positioning. In business, a company must establish a perception in the minds and hearts of the customers it hopes to attract and keep. If one of your customers were to describe your company to a prospective customer, what words would he or she use? What words would be useful for them to use? You must think about your personal positioning as well. Positioning refers to the words that come to a person’s mind when he or she thinks about you. How would you like to be described by others when you are not there? Your choice of these words, and the way you coordinate your activities to ensure that people think of you with these words, can have an incredible impact on your work life.
6. Branding. In companies, branding refers to the value perception that people in the market have of a product or service. A brand has best been defined as the promises you make and the promises you keep. For example, people think of a Mercedes in terms of quality engineering. People think of FedEx in terms of getting something somewhere absolutely, positively overnight. People think about Apple as high quality and innovative. What is your personal brand? What promises do you make when people hire you and buy your services? What promises do you keep to your employer and your customers?
7. Innovation. For a company to survive in a fast-moving economy, it must be innovating continually and producing faster, better, cheaper products and services that are easier to use—before its competitors can. If you do not innovate continually, your competitors will, and they will soon pass you by. Once you have been passed by your competitors, it is very difficult to catch up. You must be continually improving your service offerings as well. You must be continually seeking out faster, better, cheaper, more convenient ways to offer your services at a higher level of quality, in greater quantities, and at the same or lower prices to a demanding employer or customer market.
You are an Icon!
Adeleke David Adekunle
Effectiveness Expert
AFRICA ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT 