Page 137 - SKU-000506274_TEXT.indd

n Where do we have a clear competitive edge in servicing those
wants?

n How can we best communicate our advantage to those specific
customers?

n How will we avoid picking up dross that are more hassle to serve
than they are worth?

n How can we shed our nuisance customers so that they become a
burden to competition?

n Do we have strategic allies that can support us in this initiative?

If you or your advertising agency have this information the risk has
been properly minimized.

Questions for discussion
1. What is our attitude to risk?
2. Are we content to be followers or do we choose to be innovators?
3. How does our decision on the above influence our approach to

leadership?

Choice 2
Carefully assess your own competitive strengths and weaknesses and
develop a series of comprehensive marketing and sales campaigns to pick
off weaker competitors one by one, pitting your known strengths against
their identified weaknesses, strengthening the company with worthwhile
extra revenues and profits until it is ready to take on the giants.

Commentary
If you add to this only a clear strategy to identify and shed those customers
who are more trouble than they are worth, you are showing real charis-
matic leadership. In spite of claims by Tom Peters and the like that the
business cycle now spins too quickly for considered action, research shows
that successful leaders, whether charismatic or pragmatic, respond by col-
lecting data more quickly and thinking faster rather than by “flying by the
seat of the pants”. Volatile conditions require more rather than less
thought, but as with great military leaders the great leaders of business
and commerce are shown by research to have the ability to think and act
quickly and effectively. Leaders are made, not born, and they are made
great by constant learning and applying what they learn. Back in the
1970s, Tannenbaum and Schmidt completed research that showed that
the expectation that others had of leaders was that they would be simulta-
neously “flexible” and “consistent”. What they meant by that was that
leaders should be fast on their feet, free of the constraints of past success
and consistently right in their actions. These capabilities flourish with
education and practice. Hopefully this short instrument has provided a few
guidelines to effective action in complex situations.

106 Key management questions