4 Key Questions Every Business Owner Should Be Able to Answer
Business strategy in essence is really very simple – and if any business owner is going to Maximize Business Potential – they should be able to answer the questions – Why? What? How? Did we?
- – Why are we in business?
- – What do we do to create customer value?
- – How do we deliver our value promise?
- – Did we delight our customers?
1. Why are we in business?
What is our business purpose (or mission)? Will that purpose be sufficiently compelling to drive our people to perform and are our business values and culture sufficiently clear? Your purpose needs to make it feel like “a job worth doing”.
A clear purpose and values will sustain the efforts of our people when the going gets tough. Clear values give everybody a consistent “moral compass”, whilst a clear purpose means that big business decisions can be made in their proper context - “is this decision helping us achieve our purpose … or not”?
2. What do we do to create customer value?
Why do our customers choose us? Is our customer value promise clear?
Do our customers really value the “drill” they buy from us - or do they actually not care about the “drill” itself and really value the “hole in the wall” that we are helping them to make? Do we really understand this essential difference?
3. How do we deliver our value promise?
Have we got consistent processes in place to make sure to make sure that we always do what we promised we would do for our customers?
Do we leave that consistent service “to chance” or do we have a customer service process that drives the type of behavior that we want?
4. Did we delight our customers?
Does our customer service framework include consistent and measured processes to ensure that we have lived up to our value promise?
Are your customers delighted - and how do you know for sure?
All 4 Business Owner Questions need to be answered clearly if you are going to Maximize Business Potential.