The economy remains weak and uncertain. Glimmers of hope and clouds of despair alternately give way to each other. So with 2012 just around the corner where are the strategic opportunities?

1.  Customers: Know their hearts

Customers are as anxious as everyone else. That provides an opportunity for you to meet their emotional needs. Like their need to feel confident. More than ever, customers need to feel they’re making the right decision in choosing you and that you can reliably do what you say you can do. Your job is to instill them with total confidence. Can you point to similar successes you’ve had with other customers? Do you have impeccable references that will speak on your behalf? As powerfully as you can, you need to convey your expertise, not just your experience.

Next, your customers have an emotional need for comfort. Comfort in knowing they have one less thing to worry about. If you can anticipate and prevent even the smallest problems, respond urgently and comprehensively if they should arise, and take action to make amends for any inconvenience, then you are relieving their anxiety and providing comfort. Not to mention providing value well beyond your product or service.

2.  Competitors: Know their pain

Sure, you’re going to take some hits. Just make sure your competitors take more. In tough times companies turn inward and often forget to monitor their competitors. Yet the pain of your competitors can provide you with strategic opportunities to differentiate yourself in ways that customers value.

Have your competitors cut back on inventory? Then emphasize your supply of stock, and quick and reliable delivery. Have they closed branch locations? Focus on your local presence and relationships. Are they on the ropes financially? Discount pricing might squeeze them out of the market.

Your competitors’ pain may be your opportunity. Track them closely.

3.  Associates: Give them reason to believe

Anxious employees want to believe everything will be all right. Give them reason to believe. Ramp up your employee communications:

• Explain the vision – not just the “what” but the “why”, and why it’s attainable
• Outline the roadmap – show them the path for achieving the vision
• Speak with conviction – the more you convey that you believe, the more they will believe
• Involve them in the “how” – encourage their ideas and their critique of your ideas; let them know you’re in this together
• Celebrate more than you think you should – for successes big and small

During difficult times, morale is especially sensitive. Devoting extra time and attention to engaging employees means you’re likely to get the discretionary effort you need to outperform your competitors.

4.  Offerings: Repackage and restructure

Customers still want and need your products and services. Maybe it’s a question of repackaging them and restructuring your value proposition.

If customers are less willing to commit then make it easier for them by offering free trials, shorter contracts or smaller shipment sizes. Consider unbundling your offerings or developing “light” versions. If the concern is downstream costs then adjust your warranty policy and provide service incentives. Is cash flow their issue? Offer flexible payment options. Do they need to make do with what they have? Start a consulting division to help them optimize their existing equipment.

You don’t have to figure it out. Challenge your people to develop creative ways to repackage your offerings and restructure your value proposition.

5.  The Business Model: Attack your assumptions

There’s nothing like intense pressure to force the question: is our current business model still viable?

Consider the decline of independent bookstores. Only recently has that trend slowed. Why? Because many of them changed their business model. Some have focused on products that complement books: cooking utensils next to cookbooks, small travel items next to travel books, vases next to gardening books. Others have added service: free door-to-door delivery within city limits. Some stream in-store readings on their website and offer to mail signed books for online participants. Still others have formed alliances with competitors to jointly promote and host special events.

If your strategies are still not getting you where you need to go, then it’s time to question your fundamental assumptions – your business model.
Every situation provides strategic opportunities. Uncertain times are no different. Focus on the fundamentals: customers, competitors, employees, your offerings and your business model. While you can’t do much about the economic clouds of despair, you can provide a silver lining.

These are strange times, folks. Never have opportunities been so plentiful, yet never has business been so fiercely competitive. Customers are more knowledgeable than ever about their IT requirements, and bizarrely this coincides with a determination to hold onto every penny they can for as long as they can. Unfortunately, the customer doesn’t always know as much as they think they do, and they are sometimes swayed by the wrong people spouting the wrong information. You might find it annoying when the other guy (who doesn’t know as much as you and isn’t as clever as you) gets all the attention and all the business. Well, I have good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that it’s all about perception. And the good news is that it’s all about perception. The person or company that is seen to be the leader reaps tremendous rewards. So, logic says that you would do well to be seen to be a leader in the industry.

Many people think IT is about technology, but we know that is not the whole story. Good IT managers and directors are excellent problem solvers, and the very best ones, the real leaders, position themselves as proactive strategists within the business, participating in top level decisions and leading the way with confidence and ease. The way they do that is by adding more and more value, focusing on real business issues and offering new and unique approaches to everyday situations and challenges.

It is in part a political game, realigning one’s position from someone to dump problems on, to a trusted advisor or even a visionary. Some people in other departments and even some customers are simply not used to seeing you that way, so it will involve a bit of a sales job as well. And in order to do that, you will need to create your content and key messages so you have something to say to people. Real leaders only get to play the political game when they have something to say, a well-formed idea or an interesting viewpoint.

I have seen many top business leaders create enormous success for themselves by taking the time to think through what I call their thought leadership strategy. ‘Thought leader’ is a term usually reserved for the top people in an industry, those who have innovative ideas and share them widely, gaining recognition from their mentors, peers and market. It is generally used retrospectively, after someone has contributed something remarkable to their field. I believe that thought leadership can also be strategic if you take the time to do the proper thinking and follow a good process. Personally, I think it is the only way to stand out and be recognised, so I believe it is worth doing. As I mentioned before, if you don’t do it, someone else probably will and then you will possibly kick yourself. What follows are my best tips and techniques if you want to position yourself as the thought leader in your field.

First, you need to ask yourself what area of the business you are most passionate about. Drill down to find the most specific topic you can. People often think that they need to be experts in everything, but actually not only is that impossible, it also muddies the water and dilutes everything across a huge range of topics. If you have experience in hardware, software, networking, Internet, ten different applications and peripherals, no one is going to be able to pigeon hole you. And guess what, people want to pigeon hole you. They can’t keep track of ten different areas of expertise and would rather associate you with one. They want to be able to say ‘he is the absolute expert in Microsoft server apps’ or whatever it may be. You quickly gain credibility when you focus on one area, and you can command more attention and more money as well. What are the specific solutions or products that you know more about than most people? It would probably be a good idea to be more vocal about those.

Then you need to get opinionated. Nobody is interested in hearing the same old, same old things that everyone is saying. Do you feel strongly about certain parts of your job, or a business application? Have you got an idea that you would love to share with the market? Let’s put it another way. Is there something your competitors are saying that you know is not true? Have you got a view, the more controversial the better, on a major issue? Get thinking and figure out what you have to say that could add value to the customer’s business. You want to put together some key messages that help people see you are a true leader in your field.

Finally, you need to create a plan to disseminate your ideas into the market. Traditionally, this involved writing articles and full-length books, but recently we have seen the advent of ebooks, blogs, videos, podcasts, Twitter and many other vehicles for sharing information and views. A published book is still highest in the pecking order of credibility builders, but most people think they haven’t got the time or are not capable of writing a whole book. Having worked with hundreds of experts to help them bring their books to life, I can assure you that if you do the previous two steps properly, it is very easy to write an excellent book in just a few months, part time. In the meantime, you will have created your content and deliverables plan, and can begin blogging and publishing articles in advance of the full-length book. When you are confident about your message, everything will be congruent and cross-fertilise the other communications you put out into the market. When you really get it right, people will start talking about you and be attracted to you because they have heard and read your important ideas. You will be perceived as the true leader I know you already are.

- by Mindy Gibbins-Klein, Source: Vistage International