Forget the Vision, Tell Me the Reality: A reality check for change and growth.

Too often in the work I do as a Consultant, I meet clients with aspirations that are far beyond their realistic reach. While this might seem a direct contradiction to the “anything is possible” attitude we are constantly fed, there is a key follow-up to the age old slogan that always goes unsaid.

“Anything is possible, but most things are not probable.”

In management, like in anything else and especially in marketing where so much is not within our control, it’s critical to nurture a realistic attitude towards what you set out to achieve. A good starting point is to understand the level of authority you command within the organization.

Start with the Authority

It’s a simple reality that unless you own the business yourself, you are ranked somewhere in the organizational hierarchy with an assigned level of authority and accountability. If you severely overestimate your authority to make decisions unchecked, much of what you plan to achieve will be challenged or at worst just tossed out. A good rule of thumb is to determine whether your current positions let you make decisions or suggestions. Once you figure this out, the planning can be done with the required level of buy-in from the involved stakeholders.

Always ask Finance, always

Whether you have the next Facebook all planned out or the prototype for the next iPhone in your pocket, the truth is that unless you have the finances to back you up, you’re as good as nothing. While ideas themselves don’t cost much, production, marketing and distribution often cost in heaps. Skimping on these costs or haggling suppliers down will almost always guarantee a bad result so just ask Finance for a budget and everyone will be better off for it.

Do you really need this?

Think about it. This might be a great idea, this might be a personal passion, this might make great PR, but if you’re neck deep in your core business running out of capacity as we speak, you probably don’t need a new business venture or product line. Innovation is the cornerstone of growth and progress, but you can’t innovate while drowning, when you’re drowning, swim first.

Everybody is not a target group

If I had a dollar for every time a client told me that their target market is everyone, I’ll stop consulting. Honestly. Here’s a quick recap on Marketing 101, when someone asks you what your target group is, they’re asking you who is most likely to buy your product or service. Unless you’re selling tooth brushes, your target group cannot be everybody.

In fact, even tooth brush sellers are targeting individuals who brush their teeth (living in the areas where the product is made available, with the purchasing power to afford the tooth brush). That is the target group.

Nobody cares what you want, they want what they want

This is so simple and yet so many people are oblivious to this hard reality: people are to the most effect selfish, sane and rational (aka perceived value).

Of course this can apply in any number of ways, but let’s start with recruitment. If you’re hoping to start an advertising firm, you have to understand that the creative team won’t wear suits and ties. No matter what you think about rubber slippers and crew necks at work, that’s what they will wear. Deal with it. Of course, you can solve this problem by just doubling the industry average salary, but can you afford to do that? Probably not. If you keep insisting that you set rules to please yourself, what you will end up with are the people who couldn’t find any other jobs. This applies to everything from salary, work culture, perks, and so on and so forth.

Don’s skimp on the value

Value generation in my opinion and that of many others is the only method to sustain success. Value of course is perceived and can come in many forms so long as the customer calls it that. Unless you operate in a monopoly in which case you needn’t read my nor anyone else’s advice, value is the reason buy your product or service.

Nothing can save a business that isn’t generating value. Some might argue that many people market their way out of bad value situations or price war their way through such situations; but what was the last time a truly inferior product/service was marketed or priced to success? Never. In the few examples that you might quote, marketing and pricing are generating value to a decent or good product. As I said, value can come in many forms — marketing and low pricing included.

Understand your stakeholder interests

A slightly more complicated situation, but I’ve had my fair share of clients who didn’t quite figure this out ahead of briefing me. To illustrate dramatically, if you are funded by an oil company, you probably won’t be able to launch an electric car, seeing as the latter goes directly against the interests of the former.

Time is of the essence

So you have this great idea to diversify into a promising new business vertical, but first mover advantage is everything and a competitor is a month away from roll-out. What should you do? Find a new idea, this one isn’t happening. Time is not a suggestion, it’s a hard fast reality and it’s ticking. To think somehow that the work of a year can be done in a month is to set yourself up for failure.

In closing, invest in the possible and stay clear of the improbable. You’ll thank me for it.