5 Business Basics and Key Questions Innovative Organizations Ask

Innovative organizations successfully exist for decades or longer. They understand their business environment and constantly push forward new ideas and strategies.

These innovative organizations can find the sweet spot of how to run like a machine to produce their desired results. Similar to a machine, your business needs constant fuel to operate. How well you do will depend upon the engine of your machine (your team, tools, etc…) and your ability to constantly adapt to the changing environment that surrounds you and your business.

Find a Strategy that worked well in a Different Industry
When meeting new clients I am sometimes asked if I have worked with a similar client or industry. Having direct industry experience can certainly be helpful at times. However, even though my areas of industry specialties hover around building and construction, real estate, education providers, and healthcare, I find that you can achieve more impact by applying proven strategies across different industries.

In other words, wouldn’t your organization stand out more if you add a proven element to your promotions or strategies that has not already been introduced by your competitors or industry?

Regardless of your industry, basic factors that surround your business are in constant change. Innovative organizations understand their business environments and constantly push forward new ideas and strategies.

5 Constant-Changing Business Basics and Key Questions Innovative Organizations Ask

1. Your Target Audiences
● How have your audiences changed over the years?
● What kind of changes do you expect from them in the coming years?
● What are their expectations?

2. Your Competition
● Who have been your key competitors and who are they today?
● What are the newest products or services they offer?

3. Your Industry
● How has technology, politics, the environment, social and legal changes affected your industry?
● What changes do you predict?

4. Your Pricing Structure
● How has your cost structure been working for you?
● Will it need to change in the coming years and how (and why)?

5. Your Business Model
● Are you achieving the most out of your current model?
● How can you adjust this model to help you achieve more results?

Setting the Groundwork for Innovative Organizations

Answering these questions is a good start to help you add new ideas and strategies to your programs and how you do business. As a professional marketer, I have helped many clients with this stage in the planning process.

This information can help keep you and your management team focused on being forward thinking, and also help find solutions faster to emerging challenges or resources. Once you have the answers, in its best form, it can become a ‘living, breathing tool’. Now, you are ready to update the results as changes occur, as your business environment changes or shifts.

Sandra

Marketing strategist and founder of Infuse Five Infuse Five, based in Ottawa, Canada, helps businesses and associations, across North America, grow. Focus is on innovative marketing and communications strategies. Ottawa marketing customized to fit your specific business needs.

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