“Hehe. Hehe. Dududududududududududududu.”
movie theme music jaw
The most frequently cited movie on the golf course during the summer is Caddy Cabin (“Miss Noonan!”). However, if you happen to be at the beach, lake, or even a community pool, you’ll undoubtedly hear someone humming the theme song. jaw. If you’ve seen this classic movie, fear will creep in every time you hear the haunting music.
When your competitors think of your organization, do they hear themes from: jaw? Do they turn restlessly in bed at night, thinking about what you might do to bring their customers, or do they sleep like a lamb, knowing you won’t do much? In your market, are you a shark or a lamb?
Recent research published in journal of zoology Some new insights have emerged about why sharks are such successful and feared predators. Embedding these three characteristics into your business approach can create a strategic attack that is sure to leave at least some competitors in its wake.
1. Discipline. In the past, sharks were thought to be opportunistic killers that preyed on prey whenever possible. New research shows that sharks are disciplined hunters that stalk their victims (seals, not little Jimmys) from a fixed base of operations about 100 yards away. The base is close enough to see their prey, but not close enough for them to see and scare away their victims.
In poor to mediocre organizations, this disciplinary characteristic is often absent. For leaders who don’t invest the time to build guardrails around strategic direction, chasing shiny goals has become the norm. Running gear company Brooks has stepped out from the competition and forged a disciplined path to growth that requires tough trade-offs.
When Jim Weber took over as CEO, the company was struggling to find its footing. His belief that the Brooks brand could not only survive but thrive by focusing on performance running required his determination to pare back 50 percent of its product line and 40 percent of its retail partnerships. Short-term revenue declines and losses in large national accounts are not for the faint of heart. However, shifting the company’s lane toward experience-driven product design helped Brooks surpass Asics and become the leader in professional running.
Create a disciplined strategic attack:
1. Which type of customer do you provide the most value to?
2. What are your strategic criteria for evaluating business opportunities?
3. Will this new potential opportunity help you realize your vision?
Managers describe their approach to business as “opportunistic,” which is often synonymous with “we have no strategy,” so any problems that arise are fair game. Great organizations have the discipline to strategize and focus on their areas of expertise. Jim Weber, CEO of Brooks, said: “On my first day at Brooks, I knew that to survive, we had to focus. As CEO, my job is to clear the path for my team. If I can’t express it clearly Focus, and I risk not being noticed. Brands are like sharks: if they don’t move, they die.
2. Study. Research shows that older sharks tend to be more effective and efficient than younger ones. This suggests the shark has learned from previous kills. How do we learn from successes and failures? A Harvard Business School study shows that 60-90% of business learning is eventually disseminated to competitors. If we don’t continually learn from experience and generate new insights, staying ahead of the competition will be as challenging as swimming against the tide.
Innovation comes from insight: a kind of learning that brings new value. While we often use insights at the beginning to create new initiatives or projects, insights can also be discovered at the end. Consciously investing time individually and collectively at the end of a program can create a virtuous cycle of learning. Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief design officer, agrees: “I always think by the end of a project you’ve accomplished a lot. It’s the object, the actual product itself, and then there’s all the stuff you’ve learned. The stuff you’ve learned As tangible as the product itself, but more valuable because it’s your future.
Build a learning strategy attack:
1. Where do leaders document their key learnings or insights?
2. How often do leaders share their experiences with colleagues inside and outside their functional areas?
3. What tools do you use to proactively generate new knowledge about markets, customers, competitors, and our organization?
The ability and willingness to learn new business methods can help us avoid the spiral of underperformance. As Charles Darwin said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor even the most intelligent, but the most sensitive to change.”
3. Surprise. The final key to the Sharks’ success is surprise. When the light is low, sharks tend to attack prey such as seals by rising from below and remaining undetected until they take their first bite. When was the last time you surprised your customers and competitors?
Prolific engineer and inventor James Dyson continues to surprise the market by solving people’s puzzles. Before it revolutionized vacuum cleaners with cyclone technology and clear bagless canisters, Dyson solved a problem felt by many of its British neighbors working in their yards: wheelbarrow tires stuck in the mud. Instead of using a “wheelbarrow”, he introduced a ball cart in England, using balls instead of wheels to solve the problem of wheels getting stuck in the mud. It surprised customers, who quickly snapped up 45,000 units, but also upset rivals, as Dyson captured 50% of the wheelbarrow market within a year.
The profitability of delivering surprise is rooted in understanding your customers’ important pain points and then leveraging your expertise to solve them. Ironically, insights on how to wow your customers rarely come directly from their mouths. In the case of Dyson’s revolutionary vacuum cleaner, preliminary market research shows that customers say they wouldn’t buy a cordless vacuum cleaner without a bag. Fortunately, Dyson ignored the research and produced it. “You can’t ask your customers to tell you what to do next,” he said. “They don’t know. That’s our job.”
Create unexpected strategic attacks:
1. What customer pain points in the market have not yet been adequately addressed?
2. What types of campaigns or products would you be surprised to see launched by your competitors?
3. Can your current activities and products be replaced, combined, adapted, modified, expanded or reversed to surprise your market?
Albert Einstein described insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Should your business wear a straitjacket? Do you use the same strategies and tactics year after year and expect new dramatic growth? Introducing an element of surprise into different aspects of your business will force your competitors to react to you instead of you reacting to them. Instead of being a seal swimming backward, be a shark moving forward.
A study of 750 bankrupt companies found that 50% were caused by poor strategy. In today’s economy, years of complacency and competitive convergence can quickly lead to a wrenching bankruptcy carnage. Organizations that continue to spend extravagantly, lack business discipline, lack new knowledge and continue business as usual will be nothing more than the friends of superior competitors. listen. Hear that? Uh, uh.
