Nigerian businesses need to adopt innovative practices and address gaps in business practice in order to thrive amid the uncertainty brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Michael Raynor, a renowned business strategist.
Raynor is the author of “The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure.”
According to Raynor, who spoke at BusinessDay’s CEO Forum Thursday, successful innovation means breaking constraints in the right way.
Highlighted that in the hospitality industry, using Airbnb as an example, he said hotels were constrained with having to build in locations with low reach and cost implications, but with the right innovation, those constraints were taken out.
Airbnb mobilised dead assets and provided more options with affordability and is fast thriving, Raynor said.
This, he said, shows how innovation and product offerings act as major determinants of how well positioned a business will be in the market.
“Provided your solution has a successful strategy, embraces certain constraints to be different and delivers unique value to a specific segment, your company will thrive,” he said.
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Raynor also said businesses that want to become high performers should first identify successful companies and conduct research about them. This way they can understand what drives high performance and emulate practices gathered from the findings.”
Raynor said although businesses aim for sustainability, no organisation lives forever neither can they stay the same for as long as it survives, so the objective is to change as it is required and last as long as possible.
With a reputation for helping companies escape the whims of chance, which can upend the best-executed strategy, Raynor is an authority in business strategy.
Raynor, who was described by the Financial Times as “one of the most articulate and interesting thought leaders in innovation today,” brings a unique data-driven approach to the development and implementation of cutting-edge concepts.
After performing a statistical analysis of more than 25,000 companies over more than 40 years, Raynor said during his presentation at the conference that there were just three rules companies need to abide by to excel.
First, they must strive to offer better products and services before price. Those who compete on differentiators rather than price stand a better chance of standing out and succeeding in the long term.
Second, they need to put revenues above cost. In other words, they must prioritise increasing revenue over reducing costs.
Finally, there are no other rules so companies must embrace disrupting their business models and standard practices to achieve the first and second principles.
