Opportunity

Opportunity, it can be so many things. It can be about being in the right place at the right time, it could be about having the right resources in the right situation or it could be about seeing something which no one else see's.

Business decisions are routinely made without realizing the full breadth of opportunities available. In daily life we make decisions constantly without ever noticing the possibilities for alternative choices. This is for the best of course, otherwise we would never get anything done. However, making decisions of major tactical importance or choosing options in situations that involve the movement of substantial resources require a more robust evaluation of the opportunities.

The first stage to making a better decision is to scan the environment, both within the company and outside of the company, to identify opportunities which might be capitalized upon. This might be a new market or new product, a new distribution system, financing options, political, economic, sociological, technological changes among others.

Once you have identified the opportunities available which you might be able to capitalize on you can turn these into options for strategic action. Perhaps a political change has resulted in new government financing opportunities for your business or technological changes have given you new opportunities to expand distribution channels.

Think about opportunities. Sometime's the right place and the right time is right now.

Mixing up your Marketing

MARCOM is industry slang for Marketing Communications and its all about how you mix up your marketing options to attract customers. There are five traditional elements or options to this mix. Here's the rundown:

Advertising: Paid promotion to a large dispersed audience. Impersonal one way communication. Tends to be expensive but has high exposure. Builds brand image and legitimacy, might help stimulate some short-term sales.

Personal Selling: Built on relationships this is your most powerful tool for building buyer preferences but also the most time consuming and expensive, particularly because it's typically done by a professional in house sales force.

Sales Promos: This includes coupons and contests. It's all about purchase incentives and may help boost sagging sales, though short lived and not very effective for building long-term brand preference.

Public Relations: This includes news stories, events, sponsorships etc. Typically highly credible and the most under-utilized elements of the mix. It's usually inexpensive and has solid impact.

Direct Marketing: This includes phone calls, direct mail and some online marketing. It has four specific characteristics, it's nonpublic, immediate, customized and interactive. It's a good bet for highly-targeted marketing campaigns.

In trying to decide what mix to use think about your total available budget and set your mix from there. Aim for an integrated approach however and make sure you are devoting enough resources to each component.

For help setting your marketing campaign strategy and mix e-mail us at contact@DiamondHeadStrategies.com and check us out online at www.diamondheadstrategies.com

Lean Startup...Lean Everything.

Lean, it comes from the manufacturing industry, and it is all about avoiding waste, both in time and in money. Steve Blank coined the term but it's truly the conglomeration of work from a number of key individuals including Steve Blank and Alexander Osterwalder.

At its core Lean Start-up is about waiting to scale the company until you have verified that you have a viable product that people will actually buy.  The concept revolves around the idea of creating a "minimum viable product" and taking it to the customer for feedback based on the actual product. Through a series of iterations or pivots (taking the product back to the drawing board and tweaking it) you find the product-market fit.

Once the product finds its fit then it's time to scale up and spend money on marketing, staffing and launching.

The attractive thing about this concept is that it not only makes sense but it forces you to innovate.

Perhaps even more intriguing is that this concept can (and should) be applied to many other aspects of business, not just start-up's looking to scale to multi-million dollar sized corporations. Small business owners can use it to test new products and services, to test new website designs, sales tactics, marketing materials, business models and so much more.

We're big believers in the future of Lean and its applicability to Start-up, small business, innovation and business development. So much so that we've just recently launched our Lean Development consulting services and sponsored a Lean Start-up meetup group in St. Louis. Check out our Lean consulting services and our whitepaper and consider joining our Lean Start-up meetup group.

Strategy School: The Strategy Process

Concept: Strategic Planning Process

What is it: A framework for applying strategy tools

Today’s business environment is as challenging and dynamic as ever. Technology is changing the world, and changing business. Primitive methods for planning put businesses at a substantial disadvantage in comparison to those that engage in a more sophisticated strategic planning process which takes into account multiple factors and drives an action oriented strategic vision for the future.

The strategic planning process is a five step process and provides guidance for applying the tools of strategy formulation.

1.       Mission and Objectives: What is the vision? The values? Long term oals? Future opportunities? Using this vision you can then make measurable goals and set your objectives.

2.      Environmental Scan: Internal analysis and External analysis. How is your company doing on the inside and what forces are presenting threats and opportunities to it from the outside?

3.      Strategy Formulation:

a.       Competitive Advantage: What area should you seek to be better than everyone else in?

b.      How can you leverage your strengths to overcome your businesses weaknesses while taking advantage of outside opportunities and avoiding outside threats?

4.    Strategy Implementation: This is where the strategy that you formulated is put into action. New programs, policies, budget planning etc.

5.     Evaluation and Control: You must measure the impact your choices are making on the company and make adjustments where necessary.

That’s the strategic planning process. It’s a powerful tool for companies who want to stretch their vision and grow while fending off competitors.

To learn more about our Strategic Planning Workshop's e-mail us at Contact@DiamondHeadStrategies.com

Tools for LEAN

Lean in the sense of low cash burn, not body composition.

The idea of lean started in manufacturing where managers found that they were wasting resources on things that provided little or no actual value.

As an entrepreneur you are always looking for more cost efficient ways to do things. Here are a few low cost, high impact ways to grow your online presence.

1.   WordPress- An open source way to build a slick site for cheap.

2.   Google Analytics: A free way to track visitors to your website.

3.   Google Website Optimizer: Test different website designs to see which drives the most conversion.

4.   Mailchimp: Free, easy, professional and trackable e-mail campaigns.
For more info on LEAN check out http://www.diamondheadstrategies.com/#!lean
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