According to the ancient wisdom of the Plains Indians: “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount” and the ineffective strategies that we frequently utilize to try to revive a dead horse.
How do you know if you are riding a dead horse? To help you answer this question, take this quick quiz based on the Ten P’s of Business Strategy.
- Processes – Are your internal and external processes so non-existent, inefficient or restrictive that you make it difficult for your staff to provide effective internal and external customer service?
- Products – Are you relying on under-performing products or services that do not react favorably to advertising and promotions efforts and may have come to the end of their natural life cycle?
- Prices – Are you relying on pricing and discounting alone as your main point of competitiveness and differentiation, rather than building value for the customer by other means?
- Policies – Are your staff disempowered because your internal policies do not allow them the authority and responsibility to resolve customer issues or complaints immediately?
- Personnel – Do you have under-performing staff who just don’t ‘get it’ and therefore cause you on-going frustration because you don’t know how to give them the meaning they require?
- Plans – Do you develop business plans without spending time to develop strategies specifically related to on-going innovation?
- Promotions – Do you constantly restrict your marketing effort to advertising and promotions without having a measurable return for your investment?
- Positioning – Have market circumstances and / or your service offerings changed over time to render your current positioning strategy (how you want to be perceived by your customers) obsolete?
- Priorities – Are there issues having a negative impact on your business but you have so much on your plate that you don’t have time to address them?
- Potential – Can you see the potential for improvement but you are too busy working in the business to take time out to work on the business?
If the answer is yes to one or more of these questions, then you may have a dead horse on your hands. Maybe it is time to re-think your strategies and how you can achieve future success. Don’t you think it is time to try something different?
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