The business journey from startup to grown up is one filled with endless hurdles. Well, at least that was the case in my experience. It took me 3 failed tries to find an endeavor that worked.
While I would not like to re-live those broke days where I had to rely on payday loans to stay afloat, I’m very grateful for the experience. Every failed attempt taught me something new. One thing that kept me going through those murky days was reading the success stories of companies like Fujifilm and Vitalife that were plagued with the same hurdles I was. The only difference being they thrived while I merely survived.
So this then begs the question. What’s their secret?
Diversify from Your Core Strengths — Fujifilm
Once a humble photography start-up, now a multinational corporation operating in diverse industries from medical equipment to LCD televisions.
When traditional film photography rapidly declined with the advent of digital photography, Fujifilm and many other photography companies were faced with rapidly adapting to the new digital marketplace, or bankruptcy.
Many firms ended up doing the latter, like the photography giant Kodak, but Fujifilm not only survived, they thrived following some drastic strategy changes.
Instead of becoming purely a digital photography business, they chose to diversify into brand new markets with their existing competencies and strengths.
They discovered that the technology and chemicals that they had been using to develop their photography film were also used in liquid crystal displays for computers and televisions and that the process of getting the colors to stick to the film could also lend itself to cosmetics!
So they branched out and entered these new markets, becoming widely diverse in terms of the industries in which they now operate, but very focused in terms of their core competencies and strengths.
Look for ways that your business competencies and strengths can be applied to other industries and businesses, and see if you can diversify in this manner also — to protect yourself from specific industry decline and environmental/market changes.
Be Adaptable — Vitalife Group
Vitalife switched their focus from full-price retail health products to cut-price discount health products — following the intense competition and pricing pressures.
Fast-moving consumer goods are things consumers buy regularly, and they, therefore, want the best possible price for their items.
With increasing online competition, margins became squeezed. The way Vitalife reacted was to create a sub-brand that focused purely on discount health products, in a way that didn’t damage margins further and allowed them to compete more effectively on price.
Their original health product site vitalifehealth.com also changed and focus was placed on delivering a greater level of value to customers that were seeking goods without potentially harmful ingredients that other ‘health shops’ would still offer customers.
This strategic change allowed Vitalife to grow sales and profitability in a time of increased competition — quite an achievement.
So when your market and environment places pressures on your business, be prepared to adapt in order to continue to grow and reach success.
Continually attempting to force products or services on a market that isn’t responding well to them, or to cave into price competition — paying disregard to the profitability of your model, are surefire ways to go out of business.
