What is your plan? I don’t mean just your plan for the next three months, or even the year. But what is your plan to ensure the future growth of your business? Are you just going to continue doing what you’ve always done, or are you planning for increased disruption and competition?

New players, creative competitors, new ideas, new products, new services, new technology. Everything is changing in every single industry, and everyone is out to get everyone else. So you may want to consider your options moving forward. The choice is of course entirely yours, but remember that decisions to manage change and transformation, usually takes 12-36 months to implement. So perhaps it’s time to truly sit down and create a strategy that will take your business not only to the next level, but that provides incremental revenue growth both in the short-term and long-term perspective.

You know your industry, you understand your customers, and you probably have a fairly good grasp of how to connect with them and how to drive core business growth. But take a moment to look at how technology will change your business moving forward. If your not already in the middle of a tech revolution, it is merely a question of time before it arrives in your industry. Which consequences will that have for your customers? For your industry? For your company? For you? Look at how you can be ahead of the curve, rather than lagging behind. But it’s not just about technology. The structural and cultural changes we see in society will continue to create change and challenges in all industries. Understanding people’s challenges and frustrations, makes it possible to solve or counteract these issues, and develop your business model, product or service offering.

Developing a robust strategy requires a thorough fact-finding process, a healthy dose of creativity and a willingness to follow through with action and resources – there’s no point in making plans for the bookshelf. The strategy needs to be visionary, yet practical. It has to take you all the way through to ideas that can be implemented and that will deliver that transformation you are looking for – and of course the revenue. One of the most effective ways to develop the strategy, is by starting off with a workshop. Getting people together from different departments and areas of responsibility allows you to see different perspectives, and for people to build on each other’s thoughts and ideas. It has  to be a collaborative effort, or else it will fail.

Getting some help to facilitate and drive this process can be very useful, and can secure business development concepts that may not come though an internal process alone. At Acoustic, we help drive these change processes, with a clear anchoring in your current business and industry. Feel free to get in touch, if you’d like to discuss how you can grow your business by levering on technology and cultural shifts. You can reach us at info@acoustic.group

Erik Ingvoldstad is the Founder & CEO of Acoustic.
Follow Erik on Twitter @ingvoldSTAR, follow Acoustic at @AcousticGroupSG
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[Main photo by Helena Bezecna, under CC]