How to Stay Relevant in the Marketplace
There are new trends, products, business practices and programs constantly emerging in the business world. Staying relevant takes work and the willingness to constantly evolve just like the business climate around you. To remain sustainable and relevant in this changing market place, it’s important you have a strategy for not only growing your business in the short, mid and long term, but that you use it as a yardstick for measuring performance and determining progress.
While a 12-months plan is ideal, it’s vital to take into account that the business environment today is one in which we can hardly predict what new trends will disrupt the industry you play in. As a result, you have foresight by keeping tabs with different changes and forecasting what’s likely to happen and prepare for it. Though this foresight requires forecasting, your business must continue to cater to today’s needs and stay grounded in its values.
To be able to properly strategize you need to understand and recognize the importance of staying relevant. Staying relevant is important because it is the deciding factor in if your business records growth and progress or staying in a single position till it becomes obsolete. Pay attention to the atmosphere of your industry as we have earlier mentioned, and know what areas will be the most likely to change.
That way you’ll be able to identify the changes that may occur and diagnose how they will impact your business.
As a business you also have to keep learning and take opportunities that arise where you can enrich your knowledge, being as educated and knowledgeable about all there is to know about the industry your business is in, nothing you encounter will throw you off course. “Focusing too much on the competition can lead to inappropriate shifts. It’s the customer that really counts” – Adamson & Steckel; in all your strategizing, don’t lose the focus on your customers.
