Grow Your Business

In traditional times I used to joke about Ready, Shoot, Aim managers who were not getting all the facts before they started to make decisions. In the new economy, at the pace of business today, that is how we do things and it can have great results or disastrous consequences, but is there any other way?

If a company waits until they get a product perfect before launching it, the product will never get launched and the company will miss the window of opportunity. Actually, this isn’t a new story. The first telephones, televisions and light bulbs have been upgraded and improved since their inception. The difference is those inventions took decades to improve. Today we are improving technology and product creation by the nanosecond.

The capability of mobile phones, the quality of web sites, and the ability to sell by the Internet has dramatically changed in the last 20 years, and changes are only happening at a quicker pace.

If Apple had waited to get the iPod perfect, we still wouldn’t have seen one because the technology keeps improving. Arguably, having a less than perfect product only inspires customers to buy the upgrades and latest versions of the “incomplete” products they already love.

Conversely, the stories of Toyota recalls that damage corporate reputations can also happen when innovations are not properly designed and tested and rushed too quickly into the market place.

So what does a business owner do?

Ready

Bringing innovation to the marketplace is the only way to compete in the new economy. The world is A.D.D. and innovation rules, no matter how good and reliable your products once were. If it’s not new it gets lost in these rapid changing times. Be in creation mode at all times, continuously looking for the next best thing you can develop. Being ready means no resting.

Shoot

You have to come to market every year with something new because the competition is. 10 years ago AOL was the most visited website on the Internet, and now it is obsolete. Amazon began as a virtual bookstore, now they are a virtual mall and debuting cutting edge technology like the Kindle series.

Sure Microsoft laid an egg with Vista, and they heard the customer complaints and followed it with an upgrade of a working design by bring to market Windows 7. The fact is they kept shooting even when they missed the target with a product.

Aim

In the new economy you put the product in the air and then you refine it to hit your target as you upgrade. What used to be done in testing labs is now done in real time in the market place. Yes there are consequences with products such as Rolaids which were removed from shelves and the well known Toyota recalls, but this is how the game is played today.

Do you have the stomach for it? Are you ready to innovate daily and do product testing in real time? The new economy rewards the gamblers and innovators who are less concerned with targets to shoot at and more focused on shooting and hoping to hit a target.