Listen, Learn and Lead
Industry-leading companies usually have several advantages, such as pricing power, brand recognition and a loyal customer base. It takes time to achieve a dominant position in an industry, and maintaining that leadership position is an ongoing effort.
Our approach LISTEN, LEARN and then LEAD helps companies to become leaders or retain leadership.
LISTEN
Listening is fact-finding and intelligence gathering from clients, customers, stakeholders, and the employees who are on the front lines of the marketplace. The leader who will not take the time to listen has effectively closed his mind as well as his ears.
LEARN
Leaders are always learning, and in a fragile economic environment this skill is paramount. Although the free fall of the past years may be over, today’s revival is tentative, and the engines of growth are not as apparent as they were in the past. For today’s leaders, the search is on for new-world ideas to replace, augment, and even rehabilitate those ideas and institutions that have fallen into disfavor. Today’s leaders are on high alert for new ideas and insights; they are keenly interested in the changing world around them.
LEAD
From listening and learning comes the foundation of strategies from which to lead. Industry leaders know how to innovate, which involves excelling in both operational execution and strategic management.
| Strategic Management | Industry Structure | Innovation |
|---|---|---|
| Industry leaders need a clear and consistent vision. Successful companies know how to anticipate as well as to drive changes in consumer behavior, industry standards and even public policy.
Successful companies explore new market niches and reposition their companies to take advantage of new market opportunities. |
The industry structure plays an important role in determining leadership positions.
A company can achieve and sustain a leadership position in an industry with very few players, such as aircraft manufacturing. However, it is much more difficult for one company to dominate a fiercely competitive industry, such as consumer electronics. |
Successful innovation means developing new products on an ongoing basis and responding rapidly to competitive product launches.
Leading companies that fail to introduce cutting-edge products risk losing market share to agile start-ups. Leading companies need radical innovation, which transforms the relationship between customers and suppliers and displaces current products. |