It takes a lot to reach a competitive level in any industry and activity, but especially business: the skill to understand complex situations and propose solutions to problems, the determination to continue and push through problems and implement those solutions, and the luck that nothing detrimental happens and that certain things turn out in your favour. Staying there requires as much skill, determination, and luck. This is because there isn’t a checkpoint, like in a video game, where not being able to beat a level doesn’t mean you can get to stay there until you can. You earn your right to be there. It is more akin to free climbing a rock face: every decision makes a difference to whether you move upwards or downwards. Here are three tips for staying a competitive startup.
Use Data
There are companies which still don’t use data. The information industry is a lucrative business, and the most valuable in the world. If businesses have not used it and have managed to be competitive, then imagine what they can achieve by using it. If businesses are using it, then it could be further incorporated and improved upon. It is often a scalable practice. Data analysis allows businesses, who are looking to be frugal, to maximise value out of investments and talents – à la moneyball – though, this approach is only truly effective if no one else is trying to do it.
What data allows businesses to do is have a better picture of what has happened, is happening, and could happen. It provides the bigger picture. It allows businesses to make more informed decisions.
Continue to Innovate
Data might suggest an oncoming stagnation or that a competitor might be closer to you or overtake you. As such, change might be necessary. This could be achieved via an adoption of a new technology which the wide market has or in-house innovation. The latter often requires investment of time, money and having the right employees on the project.
A thing which limits the development on these innovation projects is the ‘chores.’ These are manual and repetitive tasks such as creating customer profiles which houses their contact details, or onboarding new employees, or tracking and organising work-related documents across numerous devices. Cloud-based computing services accomplish relieving employees of these tasks. For instance, SysAid’s HR service delivery software can automate HR requests by distributing these requests to the appropriate people immediately rather than it being passed around.
Automating these tasks and workflows mean that employees can save valuable time and energy and are then able to spend such things on these innovation and value-creation projects.
Hiring and Keeping Good Employees
Businesses will not be successful unless they have the right people in the right positions. Hiring processes must be rigorous. They should be employed because they are absolutely correct for the job. Qualifications and experience are notable markers of success, but mental attributes should be too: the values and approaches. Additionally, keeping these employees is essential. They must feel appreciated and rewarded by having appropriate wage packages, continual training and opportunities to progress. It is like sports teams and sportspeople, when players will run out their contracts with their teams to leave without a transfer fee or trade deal to sign somewhere else to get a good payday or play for a team they want to, like Kevin Durant or Emre Can. No employee owes anything to their employer because, nine-times-out-of-ten, they will find what they want elsewhere, if they can’t find it with you.
