Purpose – my why?

I want to connect with and inspire people to look at business ideas and concepts in new and innovative ways.  My greatest passion and strength is ensuring the way a business runs each and everyday is aligned to strategy.

“Ideas are the source of all things”
― Plato

Vision – what do I want to achieve?

I want to keep learning and improving myself each and every day.  I want to inspire you to do the same.  I want to challenge my thinking and your thinking.

This site will:

• Share ways to incorporate strategy into your everyday – DYNAMIC STRATEGY.
• Focus on the importance of being the real you at work – DYNAMIC LEADERSHIP.
• Look at ways to influence teams – DYNAMIC EMPLOYEES.
• Ways to improve self and be more aware – DYNAMIC ME.

My Values:

Honesty; Integrity above all else.  I want my site to be trusted for it’s content.

Bravery; Anyone that takes the step to be a better person, irrespective of what those around them think, I have huge respect for you.

Fun; I love business, but it cannot simply be about money, there must be a higher purpose and you cannot take yourself too seriously.  You need to be able to have a laugh.

I want real; give me you, the real you, not what you think others want you to be.

I want to feel; I want to feel the energy and hear the passion and excitement in your voice, or read it in your words when describing your story, ideas and concepts.

About me:

Here’s a link to one of my blogs explaining some of my journey to be a better person at home and at work.

I love my family, friends and kids.  I love reading everything I can get my hands on in regards to business.  I keep myself fit with my love of surfing.

I have over 20 years experience in bringing business ideas to life and improving business  performance.  I have worked in executive roles in the gaming and entertainment, hospitality, food and beverage,  manufacturing industries and now in General Management within local Government.  My skill-set focuses on strategy, commercial, IT, HR, strategic marketing and financial streams.  I have a deep interest in how all of the parts of an organisation fit into the whole and working on improving things daily.

If you want to connect, look at a consultancy arrangement, or simply follow me, please sign up to my website and/or follow me on LinkedIn: linked in.com/in/johnmarik

A customer-centric strategy is still the best way to win in business

Author: John Marik | sharing-business-ideas.com | Sept 2017

Customer-centric strategy, it’s the buzzword in keynote speeches, in business journals, financial papers, on blogs, in every strategy paper going around right?  That’s right, it is cliche’ and so mainstream, however a customer-centric strategy executed correctly can set up a business for success.

A customer-centric strategy is essentially looking at your business through the customers eyes, standing in the customers shoes, listening to what the customers are telling you.  This may be directly through feedback from surveys, word of mouth and through your digital channels.  There are indirect ways too to understand what is and isn’t working by reviewing your customers actions and behaviours of where they are going online, parts of your physical premises they are not going to etc.  While declining sales in products and services will ultimately tell you that customers are not happy, by this time it is too late and you want understand why.

The catch with being a customer-centric business is to ensure that meet customer needs in a profitable way.

I feel the above diagram, while not exhaustive, is a simple way I can explain the concept:

1.) Customer is at the centre of everything that you do.  If the customer is buying your product or service that means you have something that satisfies their problem or their need.  Customers do not care that you are having a bad day, your website is slow due to connectivity issues or the suppliers were late with deliveries which put production behind.  A customer-centric business will ensure the customers sale goes as smoothly and easily as possible.

2.) Products and/or services are ultimately the most important element of a business.  Your business needs to sell something that customers actually want or need.  While this may seem so ridiculously basic it is almost laughable, many times businesses look to improve culture, employee engagement, better leadership etc. when businesses are declining, interesting going back to basics and ensuring the mix of your product offering needs to be the first port of call.

Find that product or service where there are enough customers to make a successful business (market), at a price that you can make a profit (adequate margin) and that the customer values and you are well on your way to success.  Make sure you can make, prepare, deliver your product and/or service on a consistent and easily repeatable basis at the quality your customer expects.

3.) Physical premises and /or digital this encompasses the physical store, online store, digital channels, processes, procedures, systems etc where you connect the customer to your business and make the sale.  This is what separates the good from the great customer-centric businesses.  The truly great ensure that the customer can find products and services easily, can pay for them easily, delivery is seamless etc.  A truly great customer-centric business will work on continuously reviewing and improving all facets of not only customer facing operations, but ensuring all back-of-house areas understand how important they are in the process of making a sale to a customer.

4.) Making an emotional connection with your customers, with your staff, with your community and other stakeholders like regulatory bodies, suppliers, partner businesses will ensure that people will want to do business with you.  If your company treats people well, builds relationships, makes strong connections with people, performs business in an open, transparent way then trust will result and that will lead to a strong corporate culture.  A strong culture goes a long way to having a successful business.   Emotional connection = loyal customers that come back and buy again and again, loyal employees that will go the extra yards for you, loyal suppliers that will go out of their way to deliver on time and make sure they provide quality goods.

5.) Speed to market pretty much in any industry the traditional 5 year plus planning cycle for strategy is dead.  In some industries 3 years may even be too long i.e.  IT.  The premise of speed to market in the customer-centric sphere is to look at where is the organisation is failing the customer in the products & / or services provided, in the physical or online store and in the emotional space.  Look at those three elements in the short, medium and long-term by listening what your customers are telling you and update your strategic plan and your annual business plans accordingly.

This customer model can apply for established businesses with existing customers.  There is an assumption the company purpose, vision, mission and values are well established.  If this is not the case then the emotional piece has already failed and this is the starting point for you and your team.