This week’s theme is: Prepare your business for its long-term success.
There is a flippant saying in Marketing Strategy circles: “You can only get to enjoy the long-term by getting through the short-term first”.
Recently, I expect that you’ve been working hard during disruption to get through each day while developing your new projects which have come to light when you revisited your Marketing Audit and assessed the new world after disruption.
Strategy will always be about the long-term, say a five year horizon for your business. With the metaphorical market gardener in mind, I have chosen to illustrate this week’s topic with a bowl of asparagus. Asparagus offers many benefits to a grower of home produce. I would like you to bear these in mind as you develop your latest innovation:
Asparagus Tips:
- Continuity: Asparagus is a perennial plant which means that once it’s established in your vegetable patch it will return year after year. Its reliable productivity permits the market-gardener to replenish his/her stock of produce to satisfy new customers who visit the market stall. You too must aim to deliver a constant supply of high quality product/service.
- Flexibility: Asparagus can be grown from seed or from dormant one-year-old plants called crowns. Recent events have been an important reminder for businesses to remain agile and to adapt to the prevailing circumstances, such as the need for social-distancing.
- Tolerance: Asparagus is able to thrive in full sunshine and dappled shade, too. It can be a reliable crop, whatever the weather. You want your business to be equally resilient. It takes vigilant control and planning for a business to become as rewarding as asparagus. I encourage you to establish a mechanism in your business which is a feedback loop in order for you to know what’s working well for you and to receive an early warning for the need for adaptation, should your performance go awry. It might be linked to your monthly account