Illustration by Rachel Revilla.
I just got off a zoom call with the president of one of the major Filipino businesses, a market leader in its industry. We were discussing the outlook for this year.
“Do you know why 2022 is a special year for the Philippines?” I asked him. “No,” he answered.
I replied: “Because it is a unique time in history: the global and national economic order has changed because of the pandemic. Consumer behavior the world over has shifted. And the Russia-Ukraine conflict has brought about many additional unforeseen changes. And finally, we just had elections in the Philippines. All of these combined present business leaders and business owners with a multitude of choices. Big changes always bring about big opportunities.”
I went on to explain: “Take quick-service restaurants, for example. They need to analyze how consumer behavior will change to decide on the winning strategy for their long-term investments: Will they build new stores in the same setup as before the pandemic? Or will they include more drive-thru and fewer dine-in areas because they believe that consumers will not yet go back to their prepandemic habits? That is just one example from one industry. If you are in manufacturing, you may have to rethink your entire supply chain due to the global ripple effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”
Secret #1: Embrace change as an opportunity
Business leaders the world over generally fall into two categories: the first category whines and complains about unforeseen changes, wishes everything would go back to the way it was before. They are overall very uncomfortable with change. They represent the majority.
The other category of business leaders embraces change as an opportunity. They are the minority. However, they are usually winning and coming out on top. They know that the only real constant is change. And that they need to set up their businesses in the right way so that negative impacts are minimized and they can profit from the unique opportunities that changes in trends, or changes in the political or the economic order, always bring.
Secret #2: Think ‘future-proof’
When new clients approach us, more than 93 percent of them say that part of their goals is to become future-proof. Whatever happens that is out of their control, they want to be able to be in a position that offsets the risk so they continue not only to survive but to thrive and grow. This mindset puts your business in the best position because you will make sure it thrives not only in the short term but also over time.
Many things will happen in the future that will be beyond your control. It probably will not be another pandemic. But how many people around the world correctly predicted the Russia-Ukraine conflict? Exactly, not many. Just as the world thought the pandemic was over: bang! We got hit by another surprise.
But what you always have total control over is productivity: your own and that of your business.
Secret #3: Focus
Most companies squander their efforts and energies by trying to achieve too many things at the same time. However, they could be a lot more successful by achieving their goals sequentially. This leads us to the topic of “breakthrough goals.”
If you focus your energies on one main goal, it is called a breakthrough goal. It is the one thing that you and your teams identify as having the biggest leverage point for your business at this time. How can you use this to your advantage?
At any point in a company’s development, there is usually one area where most energy should be concentrated to achieve the biggest wins.
One sharp blow and the war is over
Thus was how Napoleon, the legendary French military leader, called it. Take the battle of Austerlitz, for example. One of the most important battles of the Napoleonic Wars, it has often been called a tactical masterpiece and regarded as one of the greatest victories achieved by Napoleon because he had defeated a larger Russian and Austrian army.
Following this maxim, Napoleon identified that by winning a critical high point, he could defeat the Russian and Austrian armies who outnumbered him.
He then unleashed a relentless assault that caught hold of the position and divided the Russian and Austrian armies. Now that his enemies were divided, he could turn his energy on their left wing, crushing it and causing them to retreat. After a few weeks, Austria asked for peace.
Ask yourself: Where is your high point? What is the one area where you could concentrate most of your energies to achieve the biggest wins for you and your business? Remember: the more changes that are happening, the more opportunities exist to capture market share from your competitors while they sit and wait.
Secret #4: speed
This leads us to another secret in modern-day business warfare that has become even more important after the global pandemic: It is not about size anymore.
What counts are speed, flexibility, nimbleness and agility. Ask yourself: are we flexible, fast and agile enough? How fast do we execute a winning idea or strategy? When we want to introduce a product or service to the market, how competitive is our go-to-market strategy? How fast can we execute that compared with our competitors? How fast can we pivot if we realize we are no longer in a winning position?
In most businesses, even the successful ones, there is still enormous growth potential by making the organizations and processes more streamlined, effective and efficient. The Philippines is no exception. Most Filipino businesses my team and I have seen over the many years could easily do away with a large amount of their staff and then still double productivity by streamlining their processes.
A missed opportunity
The owner and president of one of our Asian clients told us the sad story how they had the idea for a new killer product—only to put it on the market six months after their main competitors. They were too slow. I call that “death by committee” —too many meetings before they made a final decision. On top of that, the owner had the bad habit of wanting to have 100-percent certainty because he was too afraid of making mistakes. That is the best way to miss out on big opportunities.
Even if you master all winning strategies, business is always a bet. You can improve the odds but you can never have 100 percent certainty. You can, however, significantly improve the odds over time by applying the correct strategies and principles.
Secret #5: simplicity
And here are two more precious secrets of corporate growth if you want to become a giant: complexity is the enemy of execution. And speed increases with simplicity.
Find what works. Then, systematize and simplify it so that you and everyone else can follow through.
Action steps
- Embrace change as an opportunity.
- Think “future-proof.”
- Focus your energies on one main breakthrough goal.
- Stress speed, flexibility, nimbleness and agility— not size
- Find what works. Then, systematize it and make it easy enough for everyone to follow through.
Tom Oliver, a “global management guru” (Bloomberg), is the chair of The Tom Oliver Group, the trusted advisor and counselor to many of the world’s most influential family businesses, medium-sized enterprises, market leaders and global conglomerates. For more information and inquiries: www.TomOliverGroup.com or email
Tom.Oliver@inquirer.com.ph