In every business, there is a competitive engine which is operating ‘24/7’ whether you recognise it or not. It sets the floor and the ceiling to the success of your business. It is the gateway through which to engage everyone involved in your business. Ignore its operation and you may find yourself competing alone for the success of your business.
Active Knowledge Questions:
- If you had to select one indicator for business performance, what would that be?
- What will it take for you to defeat your competitors?
- What language is spoken in your business, one which uplifts performance or undermines it? And can you actually tell the difference?
Optimising The Competitive Engine In Your Business:
Over this season of December 2019 and January 2020 we are revisiting the elements of the competitive engine that exists in every business and considering how that engine supports a CEO in their role of optimising the performance of their business. Six parts in this series and in each part, we will highlight three articles that focus on a different element of the competitive engine in your business.
Part 1 – Recognising The Engine In Your Business
When we think about performance in business, our minds typically turn to profit. Profit is the catch-all indicator of business performance. But it’s a poor indicator and actually doesn’t help us grow our business nor its profit.
Success does not come by chance; it requires hard work, focus and diligence. Winning is not achieved through luck but by knowing what it will take to overcome all competitors and being able to deliver on that. In your business, in your markets, are you defeating your competitors?
You may not even be aware of it, but your business will have its own unique language. It may be a succinct language that strengthens connections and competitiveness or maybe a language which confuses and undermines performance. This language will exist, and the question becomes one of whether you search it out and craft it, or simply let it run its own course.
The competitive engine provides a framework through which to view and influence the performance of your business. It will identify weaknesses that are undermining performance and causing missteps and failings. It also provides the levers to significantly lift competitive performance by aligning and strengthening all those elements that bring the best everyone has to offer to the forefront.
An entirely new level of performance.
Want to become a part of the Entrepreneurs+ Community and learn how to make your business competitively fit? Join now.
All the best in the success of your business,
Richard Shrapnel
