5 things you need to change an industry
Today, I will be engaged in a workshop with a client who has a small business on the leading edge of a large, conservative, price driven industry, with established supply chains and relationships, that is about to get a kick in the guts.
We have to map out how a bootstrapped small business can be a catalyst for that kick, and ultimately benefit strategically and financially from the changes they will drive.
Not an easy task, with a considerable number of unknowns.
This session is an exercise in identifying the key business processes required, and starting the process of building them out, while keeping the wolf from the door. It is also an opportunity to consider the modest number of macro factors from which will emerge the drivers of the growth we are planning for.
Strategy.
In order to make good choices at this early stage, we need to be able to see the whole game, at least our version of what it will be. This is making some bets on what the future of this industry might look like, figuring how we might change it, and assembling the resources to make it happen.
Timing.
Timing of the commercialisation of innovations is a critical and under considered factor in every industry that undergoes change. It is often not the first into the game that ends up the winner, but it is always the one who is best able to recognise the inflexion points as they occur, and shape them to their benefit. Apple did not introduce the first MP3 player, but changed the world when they lunched theirs. Tesla is not the first electric car, to find that you need to go back well over 100 years, to Thomas Parker’s vehicles, amongst several.
Value chain influence.
Every business operates in an eco-system of some sort, where there are others upon whom they rely for components, communication, services, and all sorts of items that together make up the differentiated product offering being created. When you are a small business, without financial or technical resources of any great depth, just a vision of the future and a huge dose of passion, the challenge is to exercise influence over your value chain, way out of proportion to the financial and organisational muscle you can assemble.
Deliberate Design.
In this homogeneous world, looking great is essential, but being great is way more than looking great. It is the attention to the detail, certainty and transparency of processes, and emotional engagement that can be generated that really counts. This means that deliberate design of everything you do is a necessity. Deliberate design also involves the characteristic of stability, and creativity evolves out of stability, because you are able to hypothesise, experiment, and quickly adopt what works, while discarding what does not.
Audacity and belief.
Actually believing you can change the direction and nature of an established industry, with little more than the shirt on your back is audacious. It is not just thinking big, it is being prepared to do the work, and take the risks to make it happen.
It is going to be fun!!
The header photo is of one of Parkers vehicles outside his home in Wolverhampton, about 1895. Parker is in the middle.