Competitive Advantage Redefined
We think a lot about being customer-centric rather than customer-driven. If you’re driven by your customers, you bend your business around their particular needs and preferences. It’s very difficult to be efficient or to scale in that model. Customer-centric organisations understand their customer very well in terms of their general needs and preferences.
Contrary to what you might expect, that’s much harder to do successfully. Responding to particular needs is as simple as answering the phone when it rings. Responding to general needs means thinking about the customer as a type, identifying the patterns and characteristics that apply to all customers who are like that.
We’re doing that right now in the primary production sector: most of these businesses have seasonal spikes with a large influx of seasonal labour. Traditional instructor-led workshops don’t work for these industries because of the gap between when the teaching happens (off season) and when the learning is needed (high season). So, we’ve come up with a leadership development solution that is better suited for this type of business than anything else on the market. It’s based on a deep understanding of how they operate, the challenges they face, the problem with traditional approaches and the key design features of a solution works much better. Customer-centric, not customer-driven, and a key competitive advantage.
Looking at that idea through another lens reveals something even more interesting. We’ve long maintained that the principles and practices of marketing apply as much to talent as they do to customers. For example, it’s really helpful to apply the find/win/keep/grow marketing framework to your talent strategy.
These days I take it a step further: the toughest competition we face now is not for new clients, it’s for people. We’re hearing extraordinary stories about what people are prepared to pay to get or keep their best people.
But it’s bigger than that – or at least it should be if you aspire to be employee-centric rather than employee-driven. Here are some of the general needs and characteristics you should be thinking about in working through your competitive point of difference – why someone should work for you.
Talent is becoming more demanding and discerning. Employees have a wealth of opportunities today and the market is very much in their favour. We see that in wages and salaries rising across the board, and changes in generational expectations of employer behaviour.
It has never been more important to have a strong employment brand, built on a brand promise of fairness, consistency and respect. And here’s the thing: it’s your managers who deliver your promise. They define your employees’ workplace experience. According to Gallup, 70% of the reasons people give for leaving a job relate to their manager.
How are you developing your managers to help your organisation find, win, keep and grow the best people in your industry? Because right now, that’s what matters most in business. Your ability to systematically attract and keep good people is the new competitive advantage.