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The Value of Making a Difference
By Marsha Lindquist
In the business environment today, competitors are continually coming into your market and, yes, some are leaving every moment. But with over hundreds or thousands of players, you have to distinguish yourself – make a difference. That’s your competitive advantage. You must make your competitive advantage obvious so your customers can easily see and feel the difference. Sometimes it happens when other people talk about you or when you demonstrate your distinguishing practices. When others talk about you, it speak volumes about the value you bring. Showing or delivering results over and above your competition means you have created superior value for your customers – and probably greater profits.
It seems that, as organizations seek to differentiate themselves from one another, there are more things about them that are similar. We constantly struggle to find the competitive edge but in reality, we are frequently copying one another in our effort to show how different we are. One of the last mainstays of competitive advantage in business today is our relationship with our customers, our own people and our investors or partners. How we interface with these groups in meeting their expectations will have a direct impact on our competitive advantage.
I’ve given much thought these days to a set of ideals for what we need to do to make a difference today in the way we run our organizations – it’s Extraordinary Creative Management Ways and it has its genesis in my background. One of many roles I’ve served in my career is as a CFO. In an accounting role, we adhered to Generally Accepted Accounting Practices - GAAP. It’s a collection of rules, procedures and conventions that define accepted accounting practices including broad guidelines and detailed procedures. So, if we take that thought of Generally Accepted Accounting Practices, break it down, and apply it to the inspired management of business today in Marsha’s way of thinking, what would the concept be? Well, it wouldn’t be as hum-drum as Generally Accepted Accounting Practices. It would be exciting.
Generally: It means “commonly known to all businesses and practiced by them on a regular basis”. We see evidence that different businesses do things differently and some succeed while others fail. Some break the rules and do things that are generally not acceptable. The rule breakers operate outside what’s generally acceptable. General means ordinary. Ordinary organizations don’t deliver much value; they deliver the usual, the expected, and the plain. Value doesn’t happen in an environment of generally acceptable. Value happens in an extraordinary atmosphere.
Acceptable. It means good, adequate, bearable. We see organizations get by on satisfactory performance. Some even do well – for a time. But then they join the living dead. Just acceptable isn’t exceptional, remarkable or outstanding. Those organizations that deliver exceptional in all aspects of their business (and yes, you are in business even if you are a non-profit organization) will be the ones that people come back to again and again for their solutions because they’re exceptional-it’s a no brainer! You’ve made it easy because you’ve risen above the crowd. You are phenomenal and you are rare indeed.
Practices: The words habits, procedures, and convention come to mind. When I use those words, all I can think about is rules and regulations. Hmmm. While this may give businesses some comfort by knowing how to operate in a prescribed manner, as they are predictable and give a sense of order, does this convey the type of organization you want to be associated with, particularly if your focus is on delivering value? Rather than practices, let’s think of what people in the organization may be looking for as a license. A creativity license. Let’s foster the environment for their creativity to flourish.
It’s critical to differentiate yourself. You can do it by distinguishing yourself in what you deliver or how you deliver it. You can increase the human connection and rely less on automation where humanness is critical. Getting and giving vital information to your customers is paramount. They want you to have a real understanding of their needs and wants, rather than the same canned response every customer gets. Using your resources and abilities to create a competitive advantage will eventually result in superior value creation. It means going beyond Generally Accepted Practices. Go beyond a single focus of the bottom line right now and concentrate on the long term. Go far outside the envelope you operate in now. Make the organic changes that will set you apart.
About the Author
Marsha Lindquist, a business strategist for over 15 years, draws on her proven “down in the trenches” experience, creativity, and participative manner to provide real solutions to businesses to assist them in building and growing their businesses. She is an energetic presenter and is also the Chief Executive Officer of The Management Link, Inc. As well as being the author of “Why Are You Still Working Your A** Off?”, she has written and published several professional journal articles on business strategy and negotiations. She can be reached by E-mail at marsha@marshalindquist.com
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