Why Business Isn’t The Apprentice. I hope.
There’s no doubt that The Apprentice is great TV, but as an example of "British Business at it’s Best" I sincerely hope that it’s as far removed from reality as the X-Factor is from musical talent. I mean, this win at all costs, never accept any blame/responsibility, go for broke, lunch is for wimps, I’d sell my granny if it meant I can win culture has to be long gone doesn’t it?
I cut my teeth work-wise in the 80s. I do remember that period (see my blog Productivity vs Creativity for more on this) and I look at how these people behave and feel that I have indeed found proof that time travel exists. And this is not how we should behave today.
Business should now be in a period of collegiate enterprise. Networking is critical, and I don’t just mean from the point of view of meeting potential customers. Rather, as a business, we should be forming relationships with other businesses so that we can cross-promote, offer a wider service than we could on our own and generally meet the needs of our customers.
For example, let’s say you design unique wedding stationery. Get to know your local jeweller, florist and key venues. Arrange to promote their services to your clients if they will do the same for you. Then look for jewellers and florists and venues in nearby towns. Then go further a field. Pretty soon you’ll have a real network of organisations acting as your sales team. Automate it to a point also by having links on their website. You’ll also be able to tie in your customers to yourself by recommending additional services that you, on your own, cannot provide. Furthermore, because you won’t be a one stop shop that is jack of all trades and master of none, you and your partners can provide a higher quality service than someone who is trying to provide all wedding services from under one roof!
A real example is my own company, The Inform Group. My expertise is in the areas of training & development and project management. I have good web capability and a working knowledge of social media development- but they are not core strengths. So I now recommend my friends at That Social Boom who specialise in web marketing and social media, and brandnoo who specialise in complex web development services. In return they recommend me if a client needs project management, or training services.
If we adhered to The Apprentice Principle, we would never introduce each other to our clients- we would try and do the whole thing ourselves and, whilst doing an okay job, it wouldn’t be excellent. So a collegiate approach delivers the best for our clients which in turn mean they are more likely to promote us to other companies.
It’s the new win-win-win scenario.
And granny can rest easy knowing she won’t suddenly be hoisted off somewhere out of the blue.