Leadership not management is now the key to driving out more production, outstanding creative work and new ideas. So why are we small businesses having so many problems? Well we’re selling more intellect and less material. The emphasis today is on managing the human imagination not production lines. Our peoples expectations have changed but ours haven’t and our customer’s expectations have changed but perhaps ours have not! Trust, respect and loyalty are missing and we only have ourselves to blame.

There are some key concerns….many small businesses have done just the opposite of what they should have done – order and conformity rather than free thinking and risk taking. Many small businesses could not have frustrated their people any more if they had tried to and as small business owners/managers we are so reluctant to let go. It all leads to limited growth and mediocre performance in many cases.

So, small businesses will need to be able to manage change better in the future. They will have to be less organised and less controlled by a single brain. Founders, managing directors beware! Growth will be limited not by production or developing the latest product but by your ability to recruit and retain the best people in the business.

The widespread trend towards interconnectedness will accelerate continuously leading us towards being more nimble, innovative and continuously self modifying. Small, autonomous, flexible businesses will be the ideal structure in the future and your people will have a share equity in those same businesses.

We’re going to have to share responsibility, demand accountability and drive towards common goals. Our jobs as Directors will be less about control and more about disrupting the status quo.

We are exposed to an average of 3500 brands a day. Brand orientated businesses are twice as likely to succeed. 80% of businesses with a strong brand focus have operating profits almost twice as high as the sector average. We’re shifting from profit generation to value creation for all stakeholders and we’re now operating in a world that’s no longer based on the manufacture and trading of tangible products but the creation and delivery of intangible services.

Some of the worlds strongest brands today were not even a twinkle in their creators eyes twelve years ago; ipod, eBay, Google, Innocent Drinks, Big Brother, Harry Potter. We are entering a new culture of mobile usage, organic, downloadable entertainment, male grooming and social networks.

It means instead of messaging people how good we are, we need to involve them. Instead of promising we need to deliver, interactive replaces passive, look and feel is history, it’s actually about experience. And finally, instead of having an audience as customers you have a community of customers!

What on earth is going on? Your most significant question at the moment; is your business strategy designed for a static world or for a changing one? And is it changing in a fundamental way?

Somehow we need to get a grip and work out how to make the intangibles tangible!

If you don’t want to do yesterday’s exercise try this one……in the next 10 days (okay it may take little more time to organise,) round up some of your colleagues and visit two ‘real’ businesses you admire. Hold an open minded discussion with them on what they do well, what they want to improve on, what their challenges are. How do they deal with some of the particular problems you have? What are their aspirations for the future?

Believe me you’ll learn a hell of a lot……

A little exercise……Sit down with two or three colleagues (preferably motivated ones) and launch informally into a discussion around:

WHO ARE WE?

WHAT DO WE STAND FOR?

HOW DO WE STAND OUT FROM OUR COMPETITORS?

WHAT EXPERIENCE DO WE WANT OUR CUSTOMERS TO HAVE?

Honest answers only please! With those same two or three colleagues map out what a great (the business your’e in) would look like? What should it feel like when customers engage with you? Make a list of what you need to do, then go ask some of your clients the same thing…….

I read Chris Anderson’s book a while ago and have just re read it. Its an interesting look at the future trends using the media and entertainment industries as an example. I’d recommend the book to anyone who has an interest in how business could work, actually is working now and in the future. You can see a preview of his thoughts in a video on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yku0GTrcuw and have an option to download the full video when you are there.

Enjoy.

Blimey, further proof that marketing is radically changing. Just this week Google announced its latest advertising revenue figures that are set to overtake ITV’s, here in the UK, possibly within the next year - (www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology). Interesting times! Times that are giving opportunities for small businesses to engage with customers like never before. For me there are two types of opportunity, those that are missed and those that are taken! So why are small businesses still struggling to execute profitable marketing strategies?

I think there are a few harsh realities out there that we still haven’t got to grips with. As controversial as that might be here’s a few to get you started and stimulate debate:

We don’t think about marketing enough. I’ll explain. We go head long into a plan that usually takes the form of traditional marketing without planning or researching it thoroughly. Advertising, networking (the actually meeting people face to face variety) and direct mail are the most common. We spend lots of money and then wonder why it didn’t work. Plans that clearly state a return on investment for marketing activity are a must.

We develop marketing approaches that look like a weak universal appeal rather than niche focus and clearly communicating our offer! Even if our products are boring, it’s our job to make them exciting!

Lots of small businesses seem to think that they must sell price as the differentiating factor in their product/service offering. In fact, it’s about how you behave as a brand that’s now important. Brand is about trust (and so is the internet), the new business world is more about open and trusting relationships with customers and staff, which in itself means more transparency. Imagine that!

Marketing isn’t about telling people how good you are. The customers a lot more informed and sophisticated than that. We’ve gone beyond just communicating with customers and moved to having conversations with them. That’s about developing a dynamic relationship and above all getting them involved with what you are doing and developing.

Small businesses haven’t run out of ideas, they just struggle with executing them and don’t differentiate themselves enough! We all look too similar; the products are the same and we sell ‘quality’ too much. Creative marketing campaigns are too rare. Your market place will be typically crowded so it’s more important you stand out.

Traditional marketing has been dead for about 15 years. Some of us are slowly turning our back on the traditional advertising solution, however, many of us can’t see the wood for the trees or is it we’ve just lost sight of what’s in front of us? Those of us who run small businesses don’t have much choice nowadays. As a client of mine said recently “You have to grow really big or go niche.” Drifting along isn’t an option.

As Seth Godin www.sethgodin.co.uk (I like this guy a lot) says “Alternative approaches aren’t a novelty – they are all we’ve got left.”

The key question is what in your product/service portfolio is clearly different, unusual even curious in your market place? Do you provide it and if your answer isn’t convincing enough to you, you might have a problem.