Monthly Archives: December 2010

Do less, do well…but what about growth?

Focus on your core. You cannot be everything for everyone, but you can be the top choice for something for a lot of people. Everyone loves to be a super market. A super market for high-tech, consumer products, financial services, manufacturing and what not. Investors love super markets (till everything is going well). Top professionals are attracted to these super markets because you can do whatever you want within these companies. But every once in a while comes a nimble focused company doing just one thing with great perfection and passion and taking over the niche.

It’s human nature to focus on growth. Investors invest in you if you have growth potential. Most of us get up every morning with the ever existing aspiration to take that next step. So the important question is how to grow in a way that you still maintain that focus to be the best in whatever you do? A good way to approach this is by expanding the boundaries. Broaden the horizon and definition of your niche. If you are an expert in the petroleum industry, you can grow by defining energy business as your niche. If your company excel in selling books online, you can define e-commerce as your business. This will make it easier for your company to succeed because the structure of your expansion makes sure you are focused on the right mission and working towards that broader goal and your customers will be able to identify your brand with what will be your broader niche.

Solve the obscure problems

There are many problems out there that are not that apparent. Many times it happens that the consumers, the people for whom you are creating your product (or service), do not sense the problem. They don’t feel the need of that something which you think might make their lives so much better. There are numerous examples that come to mind. Take Lotus 1-2-3 for example. No one ever asked for a spreadsheet software. No one thought that they will be using one. Some smart engineers created it, some software savvy marketers associated a marketing need for it and today no information worker can live without a spreadsheet software.

The most important thing to consider here is how to make people realize that they should use this product. When you are creating product with a vision in mind to solve a not so apparent problem, the best way to go about marketing it is with the help of mavens. Find a set of early adopters who share the vision with you. Involve these people in product development. Talk to them. Listen to them. Make them feel a part of the grand mission. Give them the product at attractive deals. They will help you market the product further. They will make other realize that the problem your product is solving does exist and how the product is solving that and help you cross the chasm.