Competition is bound to go up, it is strategy that matters

Dr BK Mukhopadhyay

(A noted management economist and an international commentator on business and economic affairs.

He may be reached at m.bibhas@gmail.com)

The very background

It is a well known fact today that all businesses face competition. Examples are not far to seek - the only restaurant in town has to compete ceaselessly with cinemas, bars and other businesses where its customers will spend their money instead of with the restaurant. Even in these days with increased use of the internet to buy goods and services and to find places to go, a unit no longer just competing with immediate neighbours, but could find itself competing with businesses from abroad. The competitor could be a new business offering a substitute or similar product that makes the counterpart redundant. What is more the concern is not limited to units that are already out there but also needed to be constantly on the lookout for possible new competition. Clearly, competition is not just limited to another business that might take money away from a unit but it can be another product or service that’s being developed and which the unit is ought to be selling or looking to license before somebody else takes it up.

Actually, in today’s fast changing world business is not just a cake walk / goodwill tour that one lands, grabs the opportunity and then vanish. Myopic approach is suicidal. Truly, success means a long-term phenomenon – continuous market scans and adapting to change-friendly approaches. Strategy existing today may not be liked by the next generation and thus quick adaptability system is required to remain inbuilt.

Realistically speaking: Global business arena has been changing very fast making it difficult for the poor-walkers to retain the market. There is a lot of noise out there. Merger / amalgamation / tie-up arrangements / outsourcing are being watched out – still something more is needed and that too on an urgent basis especially for our indigenous banks, especially considering the existence of a very competitive world where there are many hungry competitors – the number too going up by leaps and bounds.

Facing the competition as it surfaces

In today’s business world competition comes in many forms: price / service / quality / of delivery / uniqueness / experience / experience / knowledge / contacts / resources / brand equity, so on and so forth. Boosting of service quality, keeping in view the very nature of effective demand, is the crying need. The challenge is not only to acquire the customer, but also to retain him in the business for furthering the process of improved customer value. What is more: The fact remains that the market share once gone would be very difficult to regain as not only the number of C O R E [Competitors, Opponents, Rivals and Enemies] is on the rise but technology also is being continuously replaced / is on a continuously changing positions.

And of course the formula for trade off comes into play in such a vital context. Be it a commodity marketing or services marketing ultimately it is the quality that matters. Quality is nothing but a summation of cost and time. Changing any one of these variables would lead to change the outcome. If the amount of time is shortened to complete the assignment, either the cost is to be increased or quality is to be lowered. Quality refers to identifying the quality standards relevant to the assignment and determining how to measure and satisfy them.

Managing capital and risk exist at the front door:

Tapping the high growth opportunities ensuring capital efficiency stay thus at the forefront. Essentially, before the broad objectives / strategies are set the crucial aspects are to be kept in mind. The risk factor, that is to say, determining the risks likely to affect the implementation and evaluating possible responses. Business without risk is similar to day without night! It is just like sugar and salt in life.

In such a process it is also as clear as anything - the stake holders cannot shark off the responsibility, obviously, under the ongoing facts and circumstances. Measures already taken are good beginnings only – the need is there to continuously changing the strategies best suited under a given situation.

Strategy changes over time

Obvious enough, the choice of strategy also depends on facts and circumstances – may be one particular strategy becomes outdated or calls for supplements not necessarily by discarding the older one. This renovation is thus a continuous process. The redesigning of existing processes can effectively lead to dramatic enhancements in performance that enables the organization to deliver greater value to customers in ways that also generate higher profits to the stakeholders.

The happenings thus require a conscious and undivided attention. A well-groomed strategy could not only help protect the fund deployed, but also enable to face competition through customers’ confidence building.

The issue is a burning one inasmuch as the same not only affect liquidity, profitability and equity of individual company but affects the national economy by freezing the supply link also, which, in turn, terribly affects the process of capital formation.

The path to success is an elaborate one tasks remain unending: [a] Building the credibility; deciding on what to do; identifying the competitive edge; locating what makes service successful; understanding what makes the service fail; what makes ourselves stand out [b] knowing about our customers & prospects : who needs us - at the market, in order of importance, whom do we want to be our customers, whom don’t we want, where are they, how do we get to them, when is the best time to get to them, what turns them on and of course what turns them off ?

So, focusing on, measuring and redesigning the customer-facing and internal processes improvements could be there in areas like cost, quality, speed, profitability and other key areas.

Arranging for such change-over calls for more than rearranging work- flows – which does what tasks, in what locations, as well as in what sequence.

Tomorrow is another day

The broad areas under such a change-over method include, among others, reshaping organizational cultures to emphasize on team performance, fixation of personal accountability, customers’ importance; managers overseeing the tasks rather than supervising and realigning the information system so that the cross-functional processes work smoothly than simply support departments.

Actually, business processes must become more mature and the institution must be able to deliver higher performance – spatially, temporally, hierarchically and functionally. Obviously, to achieve the same the starting point is designing [the comprehensiveness of the specifications as to how the process is to executed]; followed by the performers [people executing the process based on skill and knowledge]; owner [persons shouldering the responsibility for the process as well as the results]; infrastructure [information / M I S that support the process]; and of course the metrics [the measures the company uses to track the process’ performance].

Enterprise capabilities are the crucial factors for the ultimate achievement – leadership [executives who support the creation of processes]; culture [values of customer focus, teamwork, personal accountability and of course the very willingness to change]; expertise [skills in / methodology for, process design]; and governance [the very mechanisms for managing complex projects and change initiatives].

Who wants to fail? Success succeeds like anything!!