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Understanding customer needs is at the heart of business success.

During these weird times of lockdown and social distancing, many business owners are pivoting to online solutions. We are certainly being approached by people with new ideas who want to make sure they address the intellectual property dimension appropriately.

Thinking bigger, specifically considering what business we’re really in, is a great way to potentially come up with ideas that would be valued by your customers.

A benefit of articulating a big purpose for your business is so you broaden your vision and don’t limit your thinking to the products and services your business currently sells. It’s important to see opportunities which you might otherwise overlook.

Although it isn’t an easy question to answer, it can make or break your business to see yourself correctly. Most companies think the business they’re really in is tied into their products and services. By avoiding a narrow definition of your business, you ma...

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Asking ourselves the question ‘what business am I really in’ is not just something that’s nice to do in order to identify business development opportunities. It’s actually critical to avoiding business failure.

Take Kodak as an example.

Kodak

Kodak is a cautionary tale that illustrates why it’s imperative to stay relevant to customers. Had that company asked itself this question it might have discovered that it was not just in the film business but in the memory preservation business too. 

By defining themselves and their role in this wider way they would undoubtedly have reacted more appropriately to the changing technological landscape that digital cameras presented.  

Kodak did not fail because it missed the digital age. It actually invented the first digital camera in 1975. However, instead of marketing the new technology, the company held back for fear of hurting its lucr...