• by Jim Fosina , Columnist, December 21, 2017

Another year is about to depart and, with it, many opportunities leveraged and some missed. While it has become harder to keep up, much less leapfrog your competition, let’s all commit to thinking in new, innovative ways as we enter the New Year.

There are so many opportunities when we focus our attention. As consumer media consumption patterns shift in real time to the digital landscape, the real challenge for marketers is our ability to formulate and execute a path that allows all of us to take advantage of today’s market dynamics. Today’s leaders must be ready to pivot, be innovative, creative and passionate about the challenges we all face.

Starting right now, let’s be resolute to become more decisive leaders for our companies. We are all in the midst of market share battles that will determine whether we survive and/or grow in the year ahead. This can be a very exciting year if we adopt a fresh approach to the challenges ahead.  The thoughts shared here are my own reminders and motivators for the battlefield ahead.

• No More Amazon Envy Amazon is a great company and a tough competitor, but the game is not over because they are in our space. There is always an opportunity to outthink Amazon as well as your competitors. Be a student of the competitive market place, conduct regular brainstorming sessions with your key employees with the focus on creating new ideas on winning in the competitive arena. Everyone should voice an idea/decision that can exploit a gap in the way that the competition operates. Every employee needs to be thinking each day about ways that our company can win the battle. We are the leaders. Be determined to build breakthrough idea factories, then act. Decisively.

• Technology Alone Can’t Help You There is so much discussion and analysis regarding the leveraging and deployment of new technology platforms today. We must put the deployment of new technology in its proper perspective within your company’s resources. Will it make your company more viable and competitive in the marketplace?  As leaders, we should always vet technology expenditures and time spent vs. the real value that these investments make to our bottom line.

• Really Engage with Your Customers Your customers/prospects are getting smarter all the time. The organizations that will be successful in the years ahead will continue to stay ahead in customer engagement and service. Each employee that connects with customers in any way is your brand and it is mission critical that all engaged with customers are courteous and professional — all the time. I make it a practice to pick up the telephone and make a random call to a customer to check and ask about their experience with our company and to say thank you and say “we” care. You will be delightfully surprised at how well this simple gesture helps with customer retention and provides invaluable feedback.

• Need / Solution DNA All of us share a singular focus and mission and that is doing all we can to understand our customer’s needs in real time. Energies should be spent on continually satisfying these needs. Successful leaders have a legacy of anticipating the needs of the customers and solving for those needs. If we truly want to lead our market … and win more market share battles, this type of thinking needs to be embedded in our DNA.

• Everyone Sells Here The primary way to grow our companies is for everyone to be passionate about growing topline revenue and increasing bottom line profits. All employees must know how to represent/sell our products and services, acting as prospectors for new business. Teams win championships when everyone fulfills their responsibilities and executes the plan.

Doing business in today’s hyper-changing market demands leaders who are decisive and courageous. We live in very exciting times to be in business and this also means all market leaders are vulnerable. If we become uniquely focused on doing all we can to win small battles each day, we have a better chance than most to thrive in the years ahead. The decision; the commitment to succeed is truly up to us.