Strategic plans fail way too often — for lots of reasons. Maybe you should consider a more practical operational plan instead.
Many profit-leading companies have been able to make a profitable adaptation to the industry’s changes. It hasn’t been easy for many of them, but profitable companies seem to have a knack for remaining profitable.
The CEOs that have made the transition don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Even in these challenging times, the top-performers make it look easy. But there are fewer of them.
The CEOs who have adapted successfully don’t have any great flashes of genius. They’re doing many things quite differently than they did a few years ago, but they’re achieving superior results in the same way, by being relentlessly committed to doing all the big and small things that are required.
So the good news and bad news are the same: There’s no cosmic secret for success. All you’ve got to do is focus on what really matters — and stay focused.
Sadly, staying focused is a real challenge, because so many CEOs are too busy being Prisoners of Other People’s Priorities (P.O.O.P.P.!). Many of those CEOs have found it helpful to take a step back and engage in some fresh thinking. Maybe it’s time for you to give it a try. It won’t hurt. We promise.
Making big changes in any business can feel very risky, but after 2020 you’ve probably recognized that there’s a much greater risk in doing nothing.
It’s proven very tricky for printers to make the transition from a traditional business model to one that’s better-adapted to today’s markets and beyond.
It’s exciting to build an entirely new business model, and it’s easy to overlook the burdens of bringing in enough work to cover every day’s costs. That’s why managing the process of profitable change isn’t a simple matter of choosing between being heroic or timid.
The crux of every printer’s challenge lies in finding new kinds of sales and developing new ways of doing it — all while coping with the economics of your existing business. After all, your costs don’t change simply because you’ve decided it’s time to do things differently.
While you’re looking for new kinds of sales, you’ve got to extract whatever profits you can from your existing business — fighting for more of the same kinds of sales, while improving the efficiency and responsiveness of your operation at the same time.
It’s always challenging to find time to focus on the big issues that never seem to go away. Maybe you’ve become a Prisoner Of Other People’s Priorities (P.O.O.P.P.) maybe you’re not getting the help you need from your managers, or maybe it’s just time to take a new look at the choices you’re facing.
Why not give yourself the gift of fresh thinking? Once you’ve done it, you’ll ask yourself why you waited so long!
Not so long ago, you could earn acceptable profits by doing more or less the same things. You didn’t have to pursue lofty new visions. You could succeed by doing the same things as most other companies — just doing them better.
Many CEOs could generate solid profits by paying attention to nuts-and-bolts issues and being relentless in pursuing better results — especially in sales. They weren’t visionaries. They were getting superior results by doing lots of little things a little bit (or a lot) better.
Almost all printers must make wholesale changes in their business models — as they confront the realities of a reshaped world. You have to begin doing very different things in a very different manner — particularly in the sales and marketing areas, where the Covid crisis has created new challenges in connecting with customers and prospects.
You’ve got lots of choices, but continuing to do the same isn’t among them. Let’s face it: doing things the same old way hasn’t worked well for years. From here on, it’s not going to work at all!
Maybe it’s the right time for some fresh thinking. Why not take a new look at your opportunities and your challenges? You’ll like the way it feels. And you’ll like the results even better.