Paradigm shifting: the key to new growth?
I have recently had an interaction with a client on what exactly constitutes their target market and their competition. This led to a very interesting discussion about how one defines their target market and its ensuing business strategy.
To stand still is to move backwards
Imagine a situation in which your business has achieved a high market share position above which it is difficult to discuss or even envisage market share growth in a way that new market share comes at increased relative profit. You might argue that it will bring absolute profit growth, however in terms of profit per share point gained it is highly unlikely that the market share increase will be more profitable than the ones held before.
The above assumes of course a complete portfolio of brands or services. In case you are missing a premium brand in your portfolio you will be gaining market share points at a much more profitable level than the market share held before, but if you are in that position it is difficult to argue that you have fulfilled all the requirements to be the major player in the market by far.
The aftermath of such a situation usually as that, as a business, we leave ourselves open to disruption. We all know the examples: VHS and DVD lenders were disrupted by streaming services, flash drives were disrupted by cloud storage solutions, and the list goes on. The example is very nicely illustrated by Clayton M. Christensen in his book “The Innovators Dilemma”
The power of redrawing your box
During my time at one of my previous employers we had a very interesting leadership workshop with the Innovation Institute. We discussed the fact that we are all asked to think outside of the box, which is inherently impossible, and that the task of the leader is NOT to think outside of the box, but to think ABOUT the box.
Let that thought sit with you for a second.
If you think about the above carefully it makes absolutely perfect sense and is quite an eye-opening statement.
The paradigm shift - the start of new growth
Once you have redrawn the box and shifted your vantage point of your business, defined the role your business can play, and more importantly when you start to see the business from the eyes of your ultimate user really, you will begin to unlock paths of new growth.
When the box is redefined it opens up the avenues for you to become the disruptor, not only in your current target market, but in adjacent markets who haven’t considered you as a competitor and whom you are about to upset.
Paradigm shifting is a difficult exercise, it falls victim of the “we’ve always done it this way” or the “this is how it is done” attitudes, and it transforms into major change management initiatives for your business that bring many hurdles from leadership onboarding all the way to operational hurdles that need to addressed. However, when done well, it brings high growth potential with it.
If you would like to discuss YOUR box and how to redefine your paradigm, drop us a line.