Competing in a noisy world is hard. When there are many like you, you need to gain an advantage to stand out. Getting this right means building your business differently. Here is how…

Imagine you were in the cup business. Cups are a necessity so that’s a good business to be in. But Many people think so and therefore many people are in this business all competing to get ahead and grow.

Across seven events in 3 days, I met over 1,500 business owners. The biggest, a fourth-generation family business achieving R450m annual revenues. The smallest, a 9-month-old township business growing towards R78 000 annual revenues. A smorgasbord of entrepreneurs, business owners and warriors. All fighting against increasingly tough odds, to simply survive. Many, thriving too.

Within friction, lies opportunity or demise. If products are products, which they mostly are, and service is service, which it mostly is, where is the next edge of competition? Friction holds the key to unlock your advantage. As it does for your competitors too.

It might not seem like it with trade wars, Brexit and burgeoning nationalistic intentions across many countries today…but the world is getting smaller. Technology has ensured this. Today, you might be the king in your industry and tomorrow, a minnow from a far away place usurps your market knocking you from your throne.

In a world that’s changing so fast, uncertainty erodes the confidence of even the smartest, most experienced businesspeople in almost every sector.

Perspective becomes critical to take a step back, understand the trends driving the change, and develop an approach to your business that is likely to position it as relevant to the future.

The noise can be reduced to three main levers of change that are reshaping the business environment of tomorrow.  Understanding these trends and creating a strategy to build your business into the future is the benefit of perspective that translates into valuable action.

It’s fair to say that the world has never been so noisy, competitive, impatient and uncertain. Customers and clients are harder to reach than ever before and all services and products are becoming commoditised offers, draining margins whilst operating costs relentlessly increase.

Positioning to win in this environment requires a complete rethink about your business and how you present it to your market. Getting this right will help you to land your message and offer more simply; to reach your target market more affordably; and to generate greater engagement and sales.