The question of "What business am I in?" is not as simple as it seems.
To identify
your career or business goals, you must first learn to define your
business in terms of what you do for your customer or for your company.
Expand the
definition of your business so that it is as broad as possible. Never
stop with the first answer. Take the first answer to this question and
find new applications, new markets, and new definitions for it.
Let me give you an example...
Railroads
At the
beginning of the last century, the railroads that defined themselves
strictly as railroads—providers of rail transport—failed to see that new
technologies and methods of transport, such as trucks and airplanes,
were a potential threat to their business. If they had defined
themselves instead as movers of goods and people—providers of
transportation—their response to the changes in technology might have
been different.
When you
define your business, think in terms of how your products or services
affect the lives and work of other people and organizations. Consider
both existing customers and those customers that you would like to
acquire.
Target the Future
The next
question to ask is, "What business will I be in if things continue the
way they are today?" Think about your career or business two years from
now, then in five years. If you do not change the way you define your
work or your business, what kind of work will you be doing?
Is it a sound
and viable strategy to continue in your current way of working or doing
business, or should you be looking at changing in some way? Start by
imagining what business you could be in.
Where would a
dramatic change in knowledge or skills, products or services, or
industries and markets lead you? To express it another way, if you were
willing to take stock of the environment for your career or business and
commit to taking action, what business could you be in, if you really
wanted to be?
Analyze your Market
Take the analysis a step further and think about what business you should be
in. To do this, take a careful and comprehensive self-inventory.
Examine your skills, your abilities, your ambitions, your energies, and
especially your heart’s desires. Then analyze the market in which your
career or business will be operating. Is there a fit?
If not, either
evaluate the changes you would personally need to make to create the
career or business that would flourish in that market, or select a more
appropriate market.
These
questions are among the most important of your life: What changes will
you have to make to become the kind of person who can live the life and
do the work you would really like to be doing in the future?
Action Exercise
What business are you in? What business could you be in? What business should you be in?
What actions are you going to take immediately?
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