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Focus on Fast Ways to Accomplish 20 Times MoreIn identifying large opportunities to accomplish 20 times more, nth degree thinking is critical. Nth degree thinking requires you to take one element of your business environment and expand it to extremes . . . both much larger and much smaller than you can possibly imagine could occur. In picking 2,000 percent solution (any way of accomplishing 20 times more with the same, time, effort, and resources) opportunities, you also apply nth degree thinking. To do so you stretch the benefits that stakeholders could gain or lose to their limits. Here's an example. Assume that a book publisher examines the following areas using the nth degree test for competitive and profit impact: cost of development; cost of production; duration of development; distribution availability in bookstores; amount of publicity; total of positive word-of-mouth comments; pleasure that readers get from the book; what percentage of readers like the book; and pricing. Notice that taking the number of positive word-of-mouth comments to the maximum would tend to overwhelm the other areas. Most publishers, however, don't put much attention in that area. A publisher that did could probably expect to create an overwhelming 2,000 percent solution for its books and its publishing performance. Time is an important element in focusing your attention because benefits that arrive sooner are surer and more valuable than ones that take longer. Certainly, in choosing between creating a 2,000 percent solution that you can put in place over a few months and one that will require decades, most would choose to pursue first the faster one. An analysis of the present value of the cash flow benefits (discounting the future estimated benefits for inflation and uncertainty) would also validate that choice. The publisher's most valuable benefit for increased sales is to generate unlimited amounts of positive word of mouth about its books. Here are some of the possible solutions that the publisher might have identified that help improve other benefits: -Publish books written by well-regarded celebrities with intriguing new information. -Authors dedicate royalties to popular charities which will promote the books. -Companies donate books as part of their product promotions due to the subject matter. -Tie the book launch timing to a series of related broad-scale media events. -Create an appealing corporate-sponsored contest related to the theme of the book. -Provide newsworthy disclosures daily related to the book. Next, the publisher needs to think about how long it would take to pursue each of these potential solutions. Clearly, there are only a limited number of celebrities who could have the right kind of appeal and would be willing to tailor their books to this purpose and donate their proceeds to charity. One might work on attracting those celebrities forever, and still not gather a single one. Some other approach for adding word-of-mouth interest is needed. This conclusion is particularly true for a small publisher whose market strengths might not be considered to be valuable enough to attract such celebrities. Many celebrities are already associated with corporations through endorsement contracts and charities through voluntary activities. Having identified which celebrities the publisher wants to pursue, the next step is to research their commitments and connections to corporations and charities. Then, the publisher could see which celebrities could be approached through these intermediaries. The best starting point would probably be a charity. In some cases, the publisher might find that the corporate sponsor and the charity also have a tie. That combination could be even better. As the publisher, you next need to develop a book concept that fits with all of these circumstances. Then, you should document why the book concept will be very valuable to the celebrity, the charity and the corporate sponsors. How long would it take to pursue these activities? Not very long if you know what needs to be done, but most publishers don't have the skills in house to advance such an approach into reality. Currently, publishers wait for authors' agents to approach them with such packages . . . and then the acquisition editors choose among the proposals for the most valuable book concepts. What is required is not unlike what theatrical, motion picture and television producers do. An important step might be to develop a partnership with such a producing organization that could participate in providing some of the other entertainment that could be built around the concept. Our publisher needs to focus attention on either working with people who have these skills and contacts or hiring such people. No one should build a possible route towards a 2,000 percent solution around one potential set of allies. So our publisher needs to explore associations with other potentially enabling parties, like the celebrities' agents, corporations and nonprofit organizations that sponsor popular events, and entertainment impresarios. Another approach might involve partnering with foundations that wanted to help pioneer this type of nonprofit fund-raising. Such foundations could use their own contacts to help put the necessary talent and skills together. The publisher should continue to focus on potential solutions until several paths have been found that can be fairly quickly explored and implemented. At that point the publisher will be ready to begin developing a 2,000 percent solution using the materials and questions in the next eight chapters of this workbook. If the publisher cannot find several paths for word-of-mouth increases that seem to have high potential, the publisher would be wise to shift focus. That publisher should look instead for rapid paths for pursuing some of the other benefits that the nth degree analysis identified as being particularly valuable, such as pleasure that readers get from the book and, how many readers like the book which can help build positive word-of-mouth-based interest. Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved Other articles by this author »
About Donald Mitchell
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The Portable 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook. You can read about his work in find free excerpts from The 2,000 Percent Solution at: http://www.2000percentsolution.com . Related
And here is another random article you might be interested in... 10 Effective Ways To Reduce Your Business Costs1. Barter If you have a business you should be bartering goods and services with other businesses. You should try to trade for something before you buy it. Barter deals usually require little or no money. 2. Network Try networking your business with other businesses. You could trade leads or mailing lists. This will cut down on your marketing and advertising costs. You may also try bartering goods and services with them. 3. Wholesale/Bulk You'll save money buying your business supplies in bulk quantities. You could get a membership at a wholesale warehouse or buy them through a mail order wholesaler. Buy the supplies you are always running out of. 4. Free Stuff You should try visiting the thousands of freebie sites on the internet before buying your business supplies. You can find free software, graphics, backgrounds, online business services etc. 5. Borrow/Rent Have you ever purchased business equipment you only needed for a small period of time? You could have just borrowed the equipment from someone else or rented the equipment from a "rent-all" store. 6. Online/Offline Auctions You can find lower prices on business supplies and equipment at online and offline auctions. I'm not saying all the time, but before you go pay retail for these items try bidding on them first. 7. Plan Ahead Make a list of business supplies or equipment you'll need in the future. Keep an eye out for stores that have big sales. Purchase the supplies when they go on sale before you need them. 8. Used Stuff If your business equipment and supplies don't need to be new, buy them used. You can find used items at yard and garage sales, used stores, used stuff for sale message boards and newsgroups etc. 9. Negotiate You should always try negotiate a lower price for any business equipment or supplies. It doesn't hurt to try. Pretend you are talking to a salesman at a car lot. 10. Search You can always be searching for new suppliers for your business supplies and equipment. Look for suppliers with lower prices and better quality. Don't just be satisfied with a few. Other articles by this author »
About Helene Malmsio
Helene Malmsio has been a successful business entrepreneur for nearly 30 years and has been operating Strategic Services group of Companies since 1987 Article reprinted with permission from Helene Malmsio. All rights reserved. To get more business entrepreneur business resources on how to increase your Affiliate Income as well as free books to help improve your business visit http://www.strategic-services-aust.com Article reprint requirements:
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