approach | Usman Sheikh

It’s all about FOCUS

“It’s not what’s happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it’s your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you’re going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.” Anthony Robbins

I have got many questions regarding stage 2 of the idea developmental process. I understand that it is a difficult stage and requires a lot of time and commitment. However without developing your NABC proposition there is no moving forward. Essentially when you have your NABC in place you can start moving forward at an extremely accelerated pace. The next couple of days I will provide you with some complimentary things to help you during this idea generation phase which is crucial. Today’s topic is going to talk all about FOCUS. This is one word which I feel hasn’t got the type of attention it needs. Essentially without it you could have a brilliant NABC, team and company and you will still find yourselves lost in a maze. I have had countless ventures where we essentially lost focus of the need we were fulfilling or the benefits we wanted to create and it had a disastrous result on the business.

Focus in my opinion is what differentiates the winners from the losers. If you look at prime examples in the world today such as Google (focused solely on its search engine to organize the data on the internet), Amazon (focused on the online shopping experience), Dell (focused on supply chain management to minimize costs), Apple (focused on creating revolutionary new designs and concepts). These are just some of the examples of companies who have identified the need they wanted to cater to and then developed their approach with a fanatical sort of focus. This has led to products and services which go far beyond just catering to the basic needs of the customer or market.

In my experience this focus is not visibly apparent in the beginning. You have to work very diligently with your approach while keeping in mind the benefits you are providing in comparison to your competitors. Once you have figured out an approach which satisfies these requirements then you can move on to making optimizations to the process. Regardless, you will have to make a commitment to yourself and your business that you will provide it with everything you have to offer. Juggling too many things at once is a confirmed recipe for disaster. So next time you are in a team;

1. Identify firstly what is it that you are good at.

2. Next identify the ways you can use those skills to benefit the business.

3. Laser like focus is required with the rest of the team on fine tuning your product or service.

Dividing your focus among multiple divergent businesses is a tough proposition. It may seem very attractive at first but without the necessary experience it is a losing proposition (even with experience you still won’t get the same results). So choose your projects wisely, preferably those which magnify your strengths. It is very easy to lose focus along the way and very difficult to keep it going during the tough times. Keep plugging away and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Are you different?

“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” Warren Buffet

Coming to stage 2 you have identified and quantified customer and market need. Now is when things begin to get interesting. For any new venture to succeed it requires a value proposition. Without it you will find yourself lost. This has happened to me in the past and it still does sometimes. The typical situation is you identify and quantify a need, then you assemble a team as fast as possible and execute the plan based solely on gut feelings. Further down the line, if you have not constructed a valid value proposition, you and your partners have to restructure the business to make it work. So the key is “create greater customer value in comparison to the value being created by your competitors” and document it extensively before starting the venture.

Being able to quantify this value and bring it from being an abstract thought in your head to reality is not the easiest of things to do. I list down the following four factors when breaking an idea down.

Need: “What is the important customer and market Need?

Approach: “What is your unique Approach for addressing this need?”

Benefits: “What are the specific Benefits per cost that result from this approach?”

Competition: “How are these benefits per cost superior to the Competition?”

I realize that initially creating a value proposition based on these four factors is difficult. Sometimes you can’t identify a direct competitor, calculating benefit vs cost gets complicated or a host of other issues. The important aspect is that you have to start thinking about these factors and over the passage of time you will incorporate many permutations to come up with a winning value proposition. To go about this effectively here are a couple of helpful tips:

1. Talk with your prospective customers and clients about your new concept and get feedback. Remember your customers are out there in the real world and not your office. Get out there and get to know them a lot better.

2. If possible create a prototype for your service which will help your target audience to visualize what it is that you are selling or providing. Also let your customers take it for a spin and see how they interact with it.

3. Do a thorough competitor analysis to document what are the alternatives out there. This will also help you to understand where it is, that you have to create value for your target customer.

4. Study the market or the industry that you are wanting to operate in. Deep market knowledge and understanding the dynamics between the players, government and competitors is critical. There are a lot of great market research reports on the web. Get as much information as you can to make an educated decision on the future growth and scalability prospects for your business.

Your first draft for the value proposition will be far from perfect. However, remember that the journey to success is usually not a straight line. IDEO a leading design firm states, “Fail often to succeed early.” I think that should be the motto for all entrepreneurs. I have started businesses which were headed in one direction when we started and are operating in a completely different space now. The most important things needed to help make this journey worthwhile is a great team, get your NABC proposition pat down, be passionate and proactive and then……enjoy the ride!

p.s Stage 2 requires a lot of time and dedication to so make sure you do this step properly. Don’t be in a rush now because it will cost you dearly in the future.