Tag Archives: entrepreneurship

Why Failing Fast Can Help Your Business to Succeed

Posted on by
4

Failing fast is probably the last thing you would want to do. As human beings, we are terrified of making mistakes and losing the game. 

Fail-fast is a philosophy known to entrepreneurs, especially those who are in the software industry. It is also often associated with widely used product development methods (ever heard of Agile, Waterfall, or Lean?)

To fail-fast is to test all the possible approaches and solutions when developing new products or services with less financial risk. As a result, you can avoid the possibility of a larger failure after investing all your time, energy, and money on one project.

But many people are afraid to pursue the fail-fast concept. This could be due to the “sunk cost bias”. In business and economics, sunk cost refers to “any cost that has been paid and cannot be recovered” regardless of the outcome in the future. 

The sunk cost bias is a person’s tendency to continue investing in a losing proposition because of what it has already cost him.  “People may give in to the sunk cost bias because they value their hard work or they don’t want to be wasteful,” says Professor David Jarmolowicz of the University of Kansas in Lawrence. The goal of fail-fast philosophy is to avoid this mindset. 

Fail-fast is not just a philosophy but also a sound methodology that can drive great transformation to your business. And here’s why. 

Pivoting 

Pivoting is common in the world of start-ups. This occurs when a company decides to make a significant change to their business strategy or model because their product is not meeting the needs and requirements of their target buyers. The change is not always drastic, other times it can be mild such as focusing on a new set of target customers or changing the platform (for instance, from app to software or the other way around). That being said, pivoting is still not an easy move for some entrepreneurs. 

People who can’t accept their mistakes and failures may find it hard to swallow the truth – that their business has failed. Negative emotions and pride can get in the way. And instead of pivoting to Plan B, they become depressed and unable to move on to the next action plan.

According to the CB insights’ Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail, the primary reason start-ups don’t succeed is due to the fact that there is no market for their product! In the competitive world of business, whether you are a start-up or not, time is very valuable. The sooner the company realises their failure, the less time, money and effort wasted. 

Failing faster also prompts After-Action Reviews (AAR), allowing people to determine right away what happened and why. This helps the company to address the problem immediately before they realise it’s too late for the big shift. 

Advanced Methodology

Even though it is already 2019, many companies are still using the traditional approach or the “waterfall” project management method. Waterfall is a linear-sequential life cycle model, which consists of several discrete phases and requires you to complete each stage of the model before proceeding to the next phase. 

The Waterfall model is a simple, straight-forward approach. However, because each stage is terminal and dependent on the previous stage, you cannot proceed to the next stage unless the previous one has been successfully completed. In addition, the time of release for large projects is exceptionally lengthy and making changes during product testing can be a real headache, both in time and money. 

Agile method, on the other hand, is iterative, which means the project is done in pieces or “sprints”. These small steps are an ongoing process, allowing constant communication and feedback between developers, testers and customers. The client and the team know exactly what’s been happening in each iteration; Thus, the method reduces risks in the development process.  

The first principle of Agile Manifesto states:

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Therefore, if the company discovers quickly that their customers are not happy with their product they can use that feedback and make quick changes to address the possible problem.  The earlier errors are detected, the faster they are to fix and the lesser the cost of failures will be.

Lean Start-up

Just like Agile, the Lean Start-up is another method that moves away from the traditional approach. Lean was first introduced by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Eric Ries in 2008. His book The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Business is a perfect source to learn all about the Lean Start-up method and its philosophy. 

But how does Lean differ from traditional methods? Traditionally, entrepreneurs are used to creating multi-year business plans and spending a lot of time and money to build products without ever knowing if those products can really meet the customers’ needs and solve their problems. With Lean Start-up, the goal is to launch a simple version of the product (also known as the minimum viable products or MVPs), market this product, evaluate customers’ feedback and adjust the product based on the customers’ feedback (pivoting). 

“As you consider building your own minimum viable product, let this simple rule suffice: remove any feature, process, or effort that does not contribute directly to the learning you seek.” (excerpt from Lean Start-up book by Eric Ries)

The method of Lean Start-up can help you determine whether to improve your product and identify your customers’ expectations. By testing and getting customer feedback, it can help you save time and money throughout the process of developing your product. Aside from this, it can help you build customer loyalty in the future, which is essential for the success of your business. 

 

If you cannot fail, you cannot learn. — Eric Ries

Fail-fast is not about focusing on failures but to look at failure differently. Treat your failure as a great opportunity to improve your customer satisfaction and build superior innovations. The goal here is not merely to fail but to fail faster so you can also rise and succeed faster. 

Interested to learn more about how Fail-fast philosophy can help your company? Hear it from our Agile experts at Life Intelligence Group. For more information, visit our website: https://www.lifeintelligencegroup.com.

Consumer Value: Know What Your Customers Really Want

Posted on by
Reply

Learning what consumers truly value is a real challenge for every company. As the competition in the market gets tougher, the standards of consumers also get higher. 

Consumer value can be seen from the perspective of the customer and the business. From the customer perspective, this refers to the value of a product or a service that the customer is willing to pay for what they get in return, regardless of the price. From a business perspective, consumer value refers to the consumer’s worth to the company if that person makes a purchase higher than the cost of making the product. 

Understanding the “elements of value” can help companies to address what consumers of modern society want. 

The Elements of Value

What are the “elements of value”?

To better understand why consumers buy and what they really want, researchers from Bain & Company developed two different Value Pyramids – one for the business (B2B) and one for consumers (B2C). 

Let’s focus on the B2C (Business-to-Consumer) Value Pyramid. This type of Value Pyramid identifies the 30 Elements of Value for consumers and is grouped into four categories: functional, emotional, life-changing and social-impact elements. 

  • Functional elements – at the base of the pyramid are the elements that demonstrate what a product can do for the consumer. The functional level consists of 14 elements which include ‘saves time’, ‘makes money’, ‘simplifies’, ‘reduces risks’, ‘efforts’, and costs as well as ‘quality’ and ‘informs’. 
  • Emotional elements – the next level shows the product’s emotional effect on the consumer. On this level are 10 elements which include ‘reduces anxiety’, ‘rewards me’, ‘nostalgia’, ‘wellness, ‘fun/entertainment’ and ‘provides access’. 
  • Life-changing elements – the third level exhibits elements on how a product or service change’s consumer’s life. The level has only five elements and these are ‘provides hope’, ‘self-actualization’, ‘motivation’, ‘heirloom’, and ‘affiliation/belonging’. 
  • Social-impact elements – the top level of the pyramid has one element called self-transcendence, which indicates how a product or service brings value to society.

Infographic source: Harvard Business Review

Researchers indicated that the 30 Elements of Value is an extension to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist who theorised that people have five categories of needs. From the bottom of the pyramid to the top, the needs are: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem and self-actualization. According to Maslow, we can only achieve self-actualization once we meet the needs at the lower level of the pyramid. 

Resembling Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, The Value of Pyramid also requires meeting at least some elements at the lower level in order for a company to be successful in delivering the elements on the top level. As explained by Jamie Cleghorn, one of the co-authors of the research, “The elements of value at the base are the more common objective criteria we’re all familiar with.  It is the higher-level, subjective elements that companies often fail to pay enough attention to.”

The Elements of Value is critical for the company’s business performance and customer satisfaction. When Bain & Company and Research Now (an online sampling company) conducted a survey for over 10,000 U.S. consumers about their perceptions of roughly 50 U.S.-based companies, they found that companies that got a high score on four or more value elements had more loyal customers and better revenue growth than companies with just one high score. 

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Researchers identified the top five elements that consumers value from 10 industries. Here, we pick three industries as a sample:

  • Apparel retail:
  1. Quality
  2. Variety
  3. Avoids hassles
  4. Design/aesthetics
  5. Saves time
  • Consumer Banking:
  1. Quality
  2. Provides access
  3. Heirloom
  4. Avoids hassles
  5. Reduces anxiety
  • Smartphones:
  1. Quality
  2. Reduces effort
  3. Variety
  4. Organizes
  5. Connects

As you can observe, quality is the most important element for consumers. Researchers stated that after quality, the next critical elements depend on the type of industry.

What Can Your Company Do?

To apply the elements of value to your business, here are some smart actions to take:

  • Improve on the elements that form your company’s core value to help you gain competitive advantage and address your customers’ needs better.
  • Thoughtfully add elements to expand your value proposition without overhauling your product or services.
  • Identify which elements are the most important for your industry and how you can build up those relative to your competitors.
  • Understand your customers’ priorities, frustrations, and reasons why they find a service or product inconvenient. 
  • Use elements to boost or open a new company offering. Once you have identified which elements boost your product’s value, prioritise and focus on the elements you have chosen. 

Photo by Felix on rawpixel.com

The elements can help managers creatively add value to their brands, products, and services and thereby gain an edge with consumers—the true arbiters of value.  — Jesús Gil Hernández

To increase customer experience and satisfaction, marketers should focus on creating consumer value. This can lead to the improvement of customer loyalty, price, and market share as well as reduction of errors and efficient products/services. 

At Life Intelligence Group, we use advanced strategies to help your business grow, and one of these is using Agile methodology to boost your consumer value. Interested to learn more? Visit us today at: https://www.lifeintelligencegroup.com/

How to create a ‘buyer frenzy’

Posted on by
Reply

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Call me crazy, but I’ll be real surprised
if you don’t take me up on this:

Myleadsystemcoach.com

Get ready for a buying frenzy!

Are you kidding me… $6 for every lead?

I had a gentleman this morning begging
me to explain what this new funnel is all
about.

He heard about how he could make $6 bucks
for every lead he generated.

Here’s what I told him…

Go watch the video and grab your system
while it’s still online.

Myleadsystemcoach.com

Talk soon,

Why Competition is Good for You and for the Business

Posted on by
Reply

Competition is human nature and is part of our daily lives. It can occur anytime and anywhere – at school, in your workplace, across companies or even within your family.

But is competition beneficial? The answer is yes! Healthy competition has many benefits. It motivates the person to develop their personal and professional skills. Being competitive also pushes companies to think out of the box and create ground-breaking products.

Competition encourages innovation, creativity, goal-setting, and purposeful living. But in what ways? Read on to find out more about the amazing benefits of being competitive in a professional and reasonable way. 

Competition is Good for You

Inspires Goal-setting

In sports, setting goals is a powerful motivator in an athlete’s performance. Goals help players and teams to identify what strategies they need to win the game against their opponents.  If you are aspiring to pass all your examinations, wanting to be an employee of the month or aiming to be one of the most recommended stores in your area, the first thing you need to do is to set personal goals. From here, you can start planning the necessary steps to help you hit your objectives. 

Promotes Continuous Learning

Competition encourages you to never settle for less. When you are good at something and you decided to stop learning, you will no longer find the motivation to continue what you have started.  If you want to hone your skills and be an expert in a certain field such as in writing, public speaking or painting, then find ways to achieve this. You can enroll in workshops, read books, do thorough research online, or talk to experts. Whatever your passion is, never stop learning and always be hungry for knowledge. This is one of the characteristics of having a Growth Mindset. 

Gives you a Sense of Purpose

Competition shakes off an aimless and boring life by giving you a sense of purpose. You work hard for something because you know you will earn something great at the end – this is the purpose. You wake up each day with your objectives in mind and the energy to strive for the best. When you focus on your tasks and objectives, you know that your efforts are not wasted. You know that your contribution to the company matters and that your abilities make you an integral part of the team. Every step closer to fulfilling your purpose will make you feel accomplished, alive and happy.

Competition is Good for the Business

Leads to Innovation

Your competitor is a great reminder that you are not the only business existing. There could be hundreds of establishments out there with the same industry as yours. If you are not competitive and strategic enough, you could potentially lose your prospects. To stay ahead of the game, you need to be innovative. Innovation is key to a successful business. 

Know that customers are always looking for products and services that are worth their time, money and effort. Companies compete to meet these qualifications by providing customers with better options, reasonable prices, and high-quality items. A healthy competition will help you to become more creative and generate ideas that will distinguish your products from your competitors.

It is much harder to acquire a new customer than to keep your existing customers. So innovate to show that you are a market leader and your existing customer will give you 10 times more.   

Improves Customer Service

In every business, the goal is to attract and retain customers. No customers, no business. And no matter how beautiful your ads are or the products you’re selling, if you have poor customer service, you might lose your clients. This can truly hurt your entire business. Always remember that you are not just competing for sales but also for your loyal customers. Aside from offering better quality products, be mindful of providing your customers with great experience because. This can be your edge. 

Avoids Complacency

Competition is like the fuel that keeps the car engine running. It makes people and companies productive, driven, goal-oriented and focused. Because of the tight competition in the business industry, companies are compelled to level up their customer service and to continue making useful products. They should innovate more for continuous improvement and unique ideas. When companies are committed to healthy competition, they are also encouraging their employees to go for the extra mile and put their best foot forward.

Conclusion

Once in our life, we experience competing with other people, and this is totally fine. We just have to understand that if we commit to healthy competition, we become a better version of ourselves. We tend to realise our weaknesses and our strengths, but most of all we got to discover what other amazing things we can actually do but never expected to. Competition is part of humanity and in every industry. If ever you lose the game, remember that it’s just a competition. Embrace the lessons learned and use them for your next challenge.

Stay at the top of your game! Learn more about the advantages of healthy competition and how it can help you become a smarter, productive person at work and in life. Contact Life Intelligence Group today! Visit our website: https://lifeintelligencegroup.com/ for more info.