“I feel the earth move under my feet. I feel the sky come tumbling down” Carole King.
As trite as it may sound, the marketplace will always be changing. The earth is moving right under your business right now. But the "idea of value" your business represents to customers must be perennial and transcend the changing context/reality in which you sell them.
Your products and services are mechanisms for customers to achieve desired outcomes. Their form doesn't matter when your idea of value is something people love, can't live without, and can't get from anybody else. The last part of my last sentence is the most critical for your business to enjoy sustained competitive advantage.
Especially now where customers in every category have abundant choice.
Take Netflix for example.
It would be hard even for Netflix to become Netflix today. There had advantages. Beginning with a solid customer base from its dvd-by-mail business, it was able to license lots of content that wouldn’t be available today. Netflix was perpetually forward-thinking and novel in its offerings with hardly any streaming competitors. Plus, Netflix was competing against expensive cable bills.
These favorable conditions no longer exist. It would be fair to say the winds of fortune were at the back of Netflix success. The truth is a different story.
Not without its debilitating challenges, Netflix remains a dominant force in the marketplace.
Netflix has always represented an idea of value a growing segment of loyal customers love, can’t live without, and can’t get from others in the category. When form is no longer relevant to the customer's desire to choose you, it's your formless “idea of value” to customers that sustains your only competitive advantage.
As the world moves under your feet, remain focused on the big pieces – what current/evolving customer need are you trying to serve? Is that customer segment growing? What strengths, capabilities and resources will drive your desired success? How will you differentiate and elevate the value you offer to strengthen your competitive advantage?
The times will always be changing.
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