How to Transform Your Business
You want to revolutionize your business.
Say you bring in an outside "transformation" expert.
Having only a superficial view of your business, what does the outside consultant tell you?
- "Eliminate Products A, B, C, D, E!"
- "Replace them with Products V, W, X, Y, Z!"
Five months later, with a major drop in revenue, you're back to doing what worked well for you -- but still achieving those mediocre results.
Transformation programs usually fail because of this misconception:
- Revolutionary transformations rarely happen.
- Instead, what looks like revolutionary change on the outside is simply a case of piling up small wins on top of each other, everyday/week/month/quarter/year/yadda.
How Do You Pile Up Small Wins?
Play the "Defeat the Champion" game (a.k.a. A/B Testing).
Think of boxing and the WBA championship title belt; organizers consistently line up folks to see who can defeat the champion.
For instance:
- Winner of Title Match fights next top contender.
- Winner of that Title Match plays next top contender.
- Repeat ^2.
That is, you have a consistent stream of fights to try to defeat the champion.
Likewise, with your business:
- Determine what you want to improve (e.g., Sales Team).
- Determine your current champion (e.g., Salesperson Jenny).
- Play the "Defeat the Champion" Game (e.g., Jenny vs. X, to see who can sell more).
You can play the game with almost every aspect of your business in determining:
- the best products to sell
- the best sales procedures
- the best clients to target
- the best operational techniques
- the best packaging designs
- the best ways to recruit
- etc., etc., etc.
That will give you a clearer perspective on how to divvy your resources, and keep your business ticking.
The moral:
- Don't eliminate things that already work (i.e., things that are profitable).
- Instead, try to produce things that work better (i.e., things that are more profitable).
- Hedge resources accordingly.
Move your business sustainably forward.
Defeat Champion.
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Posted on February 12