I’m the guy they called when they had a problem.
Who is THEY you ask? Any business that finds itself in trouble.
One of the most important strategies I used to help get a company back on track was called the “Product Strategy.”
Employing it, a company breaks down its product into its smallest components. From there, each component, no matter how small, is cleaned up and improved.
For example, there was a radio station in one of the southern states which played country western music (its product). All of the sudden people stopped listening. To fix the problem the station’s management team broke down every single component that contributed to putting the music on the air.
Most people think that it is the music itself that’s the problem. Usually it’s not. It’s everything that surrounds the music that needs to be checked out first.
In this instance, the first component that needed improvement was the over exuberance of the sales department. It put one too many commercials on air per hour. It was a small thing, a sixty second commercial. But in high competition business, it’s almost always the small things that determine defeat or victory.
The story ended as the listeners started returning little by little, component by component, improvement by improvement, progress by progress.
. . . that’s how MOST problems in life are solved.