I’ve been reading the book “How Companies Win,” by Dave Calhoun and Rick Kash.

Kash and Calhoun share a basic premise which is that we have moved from a supply-driven economy to a demand-driven economy. Thus, in order to succeed in today’s economy, businesses need to shift the way they think, manage, organize, produce, market, and sell.

In a supply-based economy, the power and profit belonged to the business with the most efficient and/or largest supply chain. The businesses that could provide the product (supply) in the fastest, best, most reliable, or most varied (providing choice/quality) way got the customers. Everybody else got the leftovers.

Things have changed, say Calhoun and Kash. We’re now not only in an economic time of oversupply (scarcity? what’s that again?) but we are also in a place of reduced demand. From the dot com bubble bursting to the housing bubble bursting, we’re all figuring out how to do more with less. Disposable income is down. Demand is down.

However….
This isn’t necessarily bad news, especially not for small/micro businesses, home businesses, freelancers, and other creatives out there making a living in this demand-driven, recession-labeled economy.

Over the next several posts, I’m going to take a look at some of the concepts Calhoun and Kash share, and how they apply to the small/micro/home/freelance business front.

For now, let’s look at four questions posed in the book, then reinterpret them a bit:

Four questions you should ask to succeed in the demand-based economy:
1. Who are my most profitable customers?
2. What is their unsatisfied current, latent, and emerging demand?
3. How do I differentiate my products and services so I better satisfy the demand of those most profitable customers?
4. What is the action plan so I can align the people inside of my company to satisfy the demand for all of our customers outside of my company?

For our purposes, let’s rephrase those questions a little bit:
1. Who are my most profitable customers or clients or networks or relationships?
2. What is their unsatisfied current, latent, and emerging demand? (This question stays the same no matter what size your business is. Identifying demand is the key.)
3. How do I differentiate myself, my brand, my products, and/or my services so that I can a) compete with bigger companies in the same niche and b) better satisfy those demands?
4. What is my action plan to align my day-to-day actions and long-term goals so that everything I do in my business moves me toward meeting those unsatisfied demands?

Ponder that. We’ll talk more tomorrow…