The Next Growth Strategy for IBM

In a March 9, 2009 article entitled “IBM chief upbeat on growth potential”, Kevin White writes about IBM’s optimism that it can parlay its 8 million square feet of data center resources into a virtualized, cloud based computing infrastructure that dynamically manages business services. “In an upbeat letter to shareholders, chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano outlined how the company would develop smart, digitally aware, networked and intelligent systems with pervasive instrumentation and interconnection, as well as build out cloud computing services. ”

IBM’s Willy Chiu, VP for IBM’s Cloud Labs described how the company is working to be able to string them all together through virtualisation and cloud-based provisioning so as to be able to dynamically manage business services. “Ultimately, it’s all about changing the economics of enterprise computing. It’s all about boosting efficiency. And it’s about doing more with less.”

Before Twitter, before Google, before Microsoft there was IBM. The gold standard of corporate excellence was a proud organization and the “men of IBM” wore blue suits with white ties. IBM stood for reliability and innovation. It was the “go to” equipment choice – don’t bother considering the alternatives.

But dominance led to complacency and IBM lost its way. This loss of prestige and power was personified by its inability to understand young Bill Gates who clearly outmaneuvered IBM in Microsoft’s early days. Since then, the proudest of U.S. corporations has been quiet for a long time. Its biggest news was its 2004 $1.75B sale of its PC business to the Lenovo Group. IBM once dominated this business but failed to keep pace with Dell and Hewlett Packard.

Can IBM rise once more and be king? Stay tuned.

–Art Jacoby

An Overview of Corporate Growth Strategies

Every business wants to grow, and there’s a good reason why.  Continued, sustainable growth is important for the survival of your company and for your well being.  However, it can be hard to figure out what to do to get your business beyond the level of basic subsistence.  Here are a few corporate growth strategies that others have successfully used to get their businesses where they need to go.

1. Take a look at your existing markets.

Getting new customers is something than many businesses focus on when they want to grow.  However, your existing customers can be a much better place to look for more sales.  After all, they’re already buying from you.  It’s a lot easier to get them to buy again than it is to convince new customers to buy.

2. Referrals are valuable.

Your existing customers can also help you find new ones.  By referring you to their friends and relatives, they can help your business grow and your reputation improve.  However, you shouldn’t assume that just because you do a good job, your existing customers are passing on the word.  Seek referrals actively to get the best results.

3. Find new uses for your services or products.

One way to find new markets and get more purchases from existing customers is to discover new, innovative uses for your service or product.  After all, many things have multiple uses – you just have to find them.  Diversifying what you offer is another version of this that can be very effective.

4. Find new customer pools

Extending your reach to new customers can be a big help.  This can include opening new physical or virtual locations so that you can reach more people, or by increasing your advertising.  Choosing to advertise in media that targets a new market can be very profitable.

5.Look for niche markets.

If you’re capable of dominating a small, unique sector, it’s a lot more effective than being a small fish in a big pond.  Specialization can be a very good idea if you can find needs that aren’t being met.

6. Trade shows are valuable.

Trade shows can be an extremely effective way of helping your business grow, by drawing in people who already have an interest in what you do.  Your bottom line can improve significantly.  Just make sure that you choose your shows with care and find the ones that go best with your company.

7. Keep costs down.

Remember that growing your business is actually about improving the bottom line.  If you can reduce costs and make things more efficient, things will improve.

Of course, these are just a few ways to help your business grow.  There are plenty of others that’ll help you increase your bottom line and become a real success.  Use these tips with a smart strategy to keep on expanding.

The Benefits of Healthcare Business Consulting

Those in the healthcare business must be more diligent that ever when it comes to safeguarding their finances.  One must be careful of overhead and project expenses that can get out of hand, costing millions of dollars to the business.  The worst case scenario is that the business is hemorrhaging money but cannot quite understand why.  This is where good healthcare business consulting can be of use.

The first thing a healthcare business must do is to take stock of its financial situation.  The business managers must ask themselves tough questions about their salary, project and budgetary costs.  They must question every aspect of the business to see where the problem may lie.  If they have asked themselves all of these questions, and still cannot find why they are losing so much money, then it is time to hire in a healthcare consulting business.

Healthcare consulting businesses can enter an ailing business and figure out what is causing the business to decline.  This can mean everything from looking at your payroll expenses to helping your practice define which projects or practices need streamlining in order to turn that loss into profit.  It may be that there are certain initiatives the practice or hospital needs to abandon in order to recuperate their losses.  Perhaps there are some new initiatives that would help the healthcare business increase their profit margin.  You just never know until you actually speak to a healthcare consulting representative.

Healthcare consultants can help you focus in the following areas to help improve your revenue and cut costs.  These areas often overlap and that’s where the experience of a good healthcare consulting business can come into play.

• Reimbursement/Accounts Receivable In-Depth Analysis
• Fee Schedule In-Depth Analysis
• Billing System Analysis
• Analysis Of Your Managed Care Contracts
• High Level Operations Analysis

Sometimes it is hard for a new practice to admit that they need a healthcare business consultant. Especially in the early stages of a private practice or in a hospital program that takes great pride in their work.  That early in the game, it can make a doctor, dentist or hospital administrators question their overall game plan.  The truth is that there may be something quite simple that is causing some budgetary problems.  A healthcare business consultant can use their experience over many years with many different healthcare businesses to help your business find the holes and fill them.

If you cannot find answers to some hard questions about your practice or hospital, then it may be the right time to find yourself a healthcare consulting business to help put your practice on the right track.  Rather than see this as a detriment, look at it more like an opportunity to put things in perspective and steer your organization to a successful end.

Do your research before hiring in a consultant, but rest assured that you will be making a great decision.

How to Write a Health Care Business Plan

A good health care business plan is crucial to any startup business. Whatever enterprise you may be considering, the better your business plan, the more likely that you will be able to attract investors and isn’t this the objective of the business plan itself? A Health Care Business Plan is no different from any other business. You need to prepare a document that clearly outlines and describes the fundamental nature of your business, the goals of the business, and how you plan to run this business.

Where do you start?

• Like any plan or proposal, a good business plan must start with a summary or an overview of your project. This is like the introduction in a book or even the first scene in a movie. It is key in that its purpose is to grab the attention of the readers, peak their interest and make them want to read further.
• Once you have written your overview, you can start to get a bit more specific by stating your objectives. These should be succinctly stated and use clearly defined measurable goals.
• The next part of a good business plan is the part where you give what you think are the “keys” to your future success. Simply said, what will make your company or idea fly?
• After this, comes the mission statement of your company. This should include a value system of some kind relating to the treatment of both your patients and your staff. What are you committed to doing?
• A company summary follows this mission statement, which gives a history of the company, its employees, or founders of the company. It should stress all accomplishments and successes.
• A detailed account of the services that the company will provide is the next part of a well-written business plan. These should be listed using behavioral language telling clearly and precisely what the company will do or what services will they provide.
• A good business plan must demonstrate to the reader that you have done your homework; therefore a solid thorough market analysis summary must be included. What has your research told you about the need for type of business and the future prospects of your business? What is your competition and how will you compete?
• Once you have given all of the above mentioned background data, you need to give the hows. How will you go about setting up the company or implementing your ideas? What are your start up strategies?
• A managerial summary follows and lies out the administrative structure of the company. Who will be responsible for what and who are the overseers of the business?
• A financial plan is essential to a well-prepared business plan. What will be the costs – the startup cost, the cost of running the business, and additional sources of funds, including loan options?
• A well-prepared business plan ends with an appendix. This appendix gives detailed projections of all aspects of the business.

Remember, a solid well-written business plan is crucial to the future success of your Health Care Business. To read a sample of a well-prepared business plan, you may want to check out the following sites -http://www.hjventures.com/Health-Care-Business-Plan.html, http://articles.bplans.com/writing-a-business-plan.

Sustained Business Growth is About the TEAM

Your business has potential — there’s room for business growth. The idea that you had worked – and worked well. The business has really started to kick off and you are getting successful. It is a great feeling.

Beneath that great feeling is a level of unease. You know that what is keeping your business going is all about you – and the stresses and strains of that are starting to show.

It’s a feeling of exhilaration tinged with fear and disillusion. You know that you cannot keep up this pace forever. What happened to the success and what it was supposed to give you?

What’s more, you want a vacation.

Want Sustainable Business Growth? Then Think Again…

It is time to think again. It is a problem that is solvable – and that solution may not be as far away as you might think.

What you have right now is unsustainable, so you need to switch that into something that enables sustainable business growth. This is making sure your business prospers and grows, without the backbreaking work on your part. Giving you the time to enjoy some of the fruits of your labors too.

To give sustainable business growth, there is one ingredient in the recipe that needs to be taken out of the equation, at least as far as the grunt work – the everyday operation of your business – is concerned. YOU.

Yes, it is now time to ensure that you are as little a part of the sustainable business growth package as possible, by creating a bunch of people around you that are able to do your work; to take the weight off your shoulders, by being as good, if not better at running your business as you are – or think you are.

In fact, by turning over running your business, not only will you achieve sustainable business growth that doesn’t kill you, but you will also build a business that thrives on others doing the work you help so close to your chest for so long – understandably, because it was your baby.

And when others are a part of your ‘master’ team, it will become beyond sustainable business growth, it will elevate into a far better business proposition than you might have dreamt.

Sustainable Business Growth Is About Letting Go (Yes, You!)

By developing a group of people in your team who are capable; enthusiastic; motivated and focused, you will be able to loosen your reins of control. You will be able to take a back seat in the running of the business. To quote a well-known phrase, you will be able to work ‘on’ the business, rather than ‘in’ the business. And that’s a big step.

Five rules of ‘letting go’:-

1) Rigorously consider everything you do and decide just how little you could do if you had the right person in place.

2) Decide on a timescale of letting that go to someone else, even if you don’t know who that might be right no (hint – be challenging with timescale – 6 months should do it).

3) Consider who you have in your team now who could step up what they do to the next level.

4) Create a quick and dirty 6 month program of developing (supporting, challenging, delegating and above all trusting) each of the people you have already, to step up. If you haven’t got the people you think can do it, plan to recruit inside 3 months (note – you probably have the potential inside the people you already have, so check that out first).

5) Start tomorrow

One thing you need to know. It will take a big shift in attitudes from excuses and reasons for it not being possible, to ‘can do’. And the biggest hurdle that you will find in creating this sustainable business growth model of shifting total accountability to others, will be you. Your people will love it; love you and take it in their stride.

The capability will most often be there. It’s up to your to let go, support and take a vacation, safe in the knowledge that your business is thriving.

Psst – most often it will do even better when you are not there!

–Martin Haworth

Overview: Strategic Business Consulting and Strategic Planning Consulting

Strategic planning and strategic business consulting is the strategy roadmap to manage business very effectively. To improve the performance in each business level, business strategic planning & consulting is essential. We should draw a clear strategic planning model to dilute the business complexity. If the strategic planning models are clearly set it is easy to find the business solution.

We can implement strategic plans for non-profit organizations. For strategic planning we should follow some strategic planning steps. Strategic planning process / Strategy can be implemented in long run as well as short run. For Strategic planning one should deploy clear strategic planning techniques. The strategic planning goals are based on business objectives, vision, mission, financial and non-financial perspective.

Strategic Consulting concentrates on rejuvenating business and strengthens the fundamentals through strategic planning. Strategic consulting deals with analyzing the business competitor behavior, examining the market trend, determining the business process, creating strategic planning framework, understanding the consumer perception and leveraging the strategic plan with optimal technology. Business strategic plans are not same for all business or organization. It varies from one business systems to other business systems.

Strategic business consulting focuses on understanding the company requirements in relation to companies objective. Strategic consulting provides an in-depth analysis to help your company to redefine its business strategy. Consulting strategic plan to expand business operations. Proper Strategic business planning & consulting helps the corporate to achieve the strategic planning goal.

In strategic consulting process, focusing on strategic plans is the key to success. Strategic consulting should proved innovative and logical business solution to the company. Strategic consulting firm use different business strategy for long term planning and short term planning. Strategic consulting company should understand the consumer expectation, identifying the necessary resources.

Strategic consulting has the capability to deliver business strategic plans for start-up business, developing business strategy and business plan to increase the performance, building the business architecture, reducing operational cost. Strategic consulting and strategic planning is the two vital concepts in strategic management.

Ramki is with Axsellit Technologies. Axsellit Software delivers professional, benefit-enriched business solutions with an unbeatable performance-to-price ratio. Axsellit Technologies provides Strategic Consulting and Balanced Scorecard Software.

-Ramki M

Businesses Restructuring for Increased Market Share Growth

Businesses now exist in a hyper-competitive environment & where market share growth is hard. The more competition there is, the more power shifts from businesses to the customers (including prospects). Businesses that are still structured according to the model of power residing in the business will suffer competitive disadvantage versus businesses that adapt to the new order of customer-centric power.

This article explains why businesses need to be restructured to maximize share growth, and then goes on to outline how best this can be done.

Why Businesses Need to Be Restructured

The organizational structure of most businesses develops organically, from the competences of their founders. As the founders of most businesses are entrepreneurs with a vision for a product (including service), their focus is primarily on the product, and their structure is designed to facilitate the processes of making products and PUSHING them out toward customers in order to earn revenues. Accordingly, their primary interface with their customers is through the SALES function.

This model served these businesses well for the pioneering stages of the industries they were operating in. However, as their industries mature, and there are more and more competing products in each product category, the customer gets more and more choice in determining which product they purchase, and therefore, in influencing which business gets the revenues,

Customer’s don’t buy products, because the actual product is invisible and intangible to them, hidden in the physical or conceptual expertise with which they are manufactured or designed. Customers buy brands, which are the perceptions of the product, and which exist in their minds, rather than in the physical marketplace.

As customers exert more choice in their purchase of products, the businesses center of gravity shifts from the products to brands, the business mode shifts from the product-oriented PUSH dynamic toward the brand-oriented PULL dynamic; and the competitive arena shifts from the factories and offices of the business to the minds of customers.

These seminal shifts transform the business from and product generator to perception builder. if only because it is the perception that the business builds and maintains, that will determine customer preference, and customer preference determines their purchase, and their purchase is the primary source of revenue revenue for the business, which determines the business’ marketshare growth.

These are the reasons why businesses need to be restructured to maximize share growth.

How Businesses Need to Be Restructured

We have seen that the success of businesses will depend increasingly upon how well they transform themselves from PRODUCT GENERATORS to PERCEPTION BUILDERS. This involves a shift of expertise from product design, manufacturing, and delivery toward brand design, development, and delivery.

This does NOT mean that businesses won’t need expertise in product design, product manufacturing, and product delivery any more. What this means is that product design, product manufacturing, and product delivery expertise must increasingly be regarded as means to design a brand, develop the brand, and deliver the brand in the mind of the customer.

The ideal structure for a business that is primarily focused on perception building is based on regarding itself as a customer-interfacing organization. This calls for a circular structure, comprising three concentric layers:

1. An outer customer-interfacing layer. The business must be designed in a way that its entire perimeter is poised and ready to interact with customers in ways that deliver customer experiences and communications that establish and consolidate the desired brand perception effectively.

This outer layer will include all customer-interfacing functions: sales, sales support, customer service, billing, collections, credit-control, advertising, sales promotion, merchandising, product development, product manufacturing or supply, packaging, distribution, and merchandising.

2. An inner layer for facilitating the outer customer-interfacing layer. Immediately behind this customer-interfacing perimeter of the business must be another layer that is designed specifically to guide, support and facilitate the smooth, comprehensive and perpetually improving interactions of the outer layer with customers in each of the different customer-interfacing functions.

As the primary objective of these first two layers is to keep increasing revenues faster than the rest of the category in order to maintain market share growth, these two layers will be overseen by a Chief Revenue Officer who is responsible for ensuring that all customer-interfacing functions are optimally delivering experiences and communications that build the best possible brand perception for the business.

This Chief Revenue Officer will also be responsible for perpetually improving the second layer’s provision of facilitation and support toward improving the outer layer’s customer experiences and communications.

As each of the customer-interfacing functions in the outer layer, and the facilitating and support for each customer-interfacing function must perform specific function-based results other than their perception-building functions, each of these customer-interfacing functions must be overseen by a function head that is responsible for perpetually improving these-non-perception-building function results as well.

3. A core hub for the functions for monitoring and refining the business as a whole, and for finding and applying the best resources toward reducing the business’ expenses toward maximizing profit, and increasing the market value of the business.

This core hub will be overseen by a Chief Financial Officer, who is responsible for cost savings and efficiency, and for finances in general. All other function heads in the core hub, such as Information Services, Human Resources, Administration (Legal, Security, Facilities, etc.), will report to the CFO for their performance in keeping costs down.

All three layers of the new concentric structure of the business will be overseen by the Chief Executive Officer who is responsible for profit deliver of the business, which results from subtracting the cost-savings results of the CFO’s performance from the revenue generation performance of the CRO. The CEO also oversees all the function-heads for their performance in their respective functions as distinct from perception-building and cost savings respectively.

Phasing the Restructuring Process

It will not be easy to transition immediately from the traditional organizational structure to the new one immediately, or all at once. Hence, it might be better to effect this transition in two phases:

Phase I, as soon as possible.

Adding the Chief Revenue Officer function that has a dotted line responsibility for integrating all brand perception building functions, i.e., all customer-interfacing activities, such as: sales, sales support, customer service, billing, collections, credit-control, advertising, sales promotion, merchandising, product development, product manufacturing or supply, packaging, distribution, and merchandising. In the interest of avoiding delay, the CEO may initially assume the CRO function until this position is satisfactorily filled.

In this stage, the CFO will also assume dotted line responsibility for the efficiency (cost-saving) aspects of the core hub functions.

Phase II, from month 7.

Continue to consolidate Phase I and restructure the business into the three concentric circles, as shown above.

–Ravi Arapurakal

Entrepreneurship and Growth in Business: An Interesting Relationship

Entrepreneurship and growth in business is often considered as some kind of mystery by many people. While there are plenty of books which make lofty claims improving the reader’s business management skills, no one seems prepared to offer lessons in entrepreneurship – maybe it is considered to be a skill that cannot be taught. But it can be.

The entrepreneur is charged with the task of turning a business idea into reality, either by starting a new business or injecting new life into an old one. At every point along the line – from having the idea to planning and implementing it – the entrepreneur learns the lessons from others who have charted the same territory previously. He can follow their example and the wisdom of their clear practices and precepts. In fact, many entrepreneurs have done exactly this and built their wealth upon the past experiences of others.

But every firm is faced with a key question sooner or later: do you try and grow the business, or are you quite content with what you’ve got? If the latter is true for you – a view which perhaps represents the traditional image of the smaller firm – then you are in the minority and behind the times.

Most firms these days are committed to growth. However, you can’t expect to grow without entrepreneurship and innovation when the climate is one of intense competition. And intense competition is not only the current climate, but a permanent feature of the new economy.

Many are averse to the inherent risk of innovation, however – including those who are actively seeking to grow their business. This is especially the case with proprietors. A survey showed that 30% are ‘unwilling to pursue any risky growth strategies’. That figure goes down to 18% among non-proprietor managers, though – obviously a more dynamic bunch altogether.

But only a fifth of the managerial types concur that ‘Growth is everything: we can’t survive in this business unless there is growth. Success comes only from taking big chances, and I would risk a great deal for a strategy which promised to deliver strong long-term growth.’ Those quite intimidating words could help to explain why as many as three-fifths of the businesses came out in favour of relative safety, preferring a ‘medium-risk strategy – as long as growth prospects are reasonably good.’

But anyway, growth doesn’t appear to be the number one objective. Most firms rated profit as ‘very important’, with growth just underneath it on a list of priorities, then market share, steady employment and value for sale.

But success comes with profitability and growth in business (together) – you need both, along with innovation and entrepreneurship.

–Robert Heller

Devise Business Growth Strategies With A Business Growth Consultant

Devising correct marketing and business growth strategies are important for expansion of all businesses. Only those products that are marketed well sell in the market. They sell because their promoter has done his groundwork well. He has found out answers to the basic questions that determine the success of any business. He has found out who he is, what is he doing, which is his market, who are the potential customers, and when does he want do product launch and how does he trap customers.

The marketing plan document developed by the promoter will have answers to all these queries and lay the foundation of the business’ success or failure, depending on how cautiously it has been planned. A marketing strategy must be written and communicated in a very simple way so that it conveys in a nutshell what it intended to.

Professional business consultancy services come to a promoter’s rescue in this area. Such professionals help the promoters in developing a vision for the company by identifying the business’ strengths and areas of improvement. They also gaze loopholes in several business related strategies and modify them to achieve the set goals.

View Your Consultants as Marketing Partners:

Consultants can offer you relevant advice on necessary business tactics after studying the market trends. Their suggestions are based on their market analysis that views various market related facts under the microscope. Some factors that consultant consider while compiling a market report include preferences of the consumers, consumer habits and their buying power, and the competition that the new business is likely to face in the targeted area.

Thus, the consultants help you in determining the feasibility of your business, and therefore act as your marketing partners. They weigh pros and cons of business strategies and advice you accordingly. Besides, they offer a variety of services including business start-up advice, operation analysis, formulating marketing strategies, making business plans, management consulting, and much more.

How Do Consultants Help With Business Growth Strategies?

Expert consultancy services are available in the market. They can increase the productivity of your business manifold, allowing you to concentrate on management or other services related to the core business. Such services are personalized and customized for user satisfaction. Besides developing marketing strategies, consultants also undertake the work of marketing them. They do it in many ways – propagating through advertisements in public places, creating catchy television ads, or by simply offering incentives to the buyers when the buy a particular company’s products.

E-commerce marketing strategies are also gaining a lot of popularity, since they are low-cost ways to advertise. There are specialized business consultants who develop websites for companies and implement effective strategies to create traffic that generate revenues for the company.

So, go ahead hire a personal marketing partner to show you the right direction.

– Alexander Gordon

Welcome to Business Growth Consultant