How to Look Your Company from the Outside In

[MSONGA The Consultant]

In a business world where change is a constant, for a company to remain sustainably competitive, its managers need to ask themselves the following questions; what our customers want? How well do we know what our suppliers and employees expect? What would it take to meet those needs better than our competitors could?.

Key business decisions are often made through either a top-down or bottom-up approach. Voices of the customers and other stakeholders should take precedence over all else. This is the essence of the outside-in approach, a methodology that will transform how you align business objectives with customers’ and other stakeholders’ needs, ultimately saving time and resources while driving growth. Transitioning to an outside-in approach may seem daunting for companies used to hierarchical methods, it's really about incorporating customer research into your goals and decisions, rather than completely changing how your company is structured. The following ways if used properly, can help you have a look of your company from the outside in;

• Interview your Customers and Others Stakeholders who are currently dealing with your companies. Observe their experience, their expectation towards products or service offered by your company.
• If your company organizes offsite meetings that involve a group of senior executives who get together to develop a strategic plan, involve in these meetings customers and other stakeholders, failing to do so your meetings will be like operational plans. Questions like; how customers decided to buy from you or from the competition, how employees committed to join your organization, how suppliers agreed to enter into contracts to provide you with goods or services when they had a choice to do otherwise, how partners signed up to sponsor your events when there were plenty of other options to pursue need to be asked during these meetings.
• Continuously Listens to the Market. The market (prospects, customers, analysts and influencers) will tell you what it needs if you listen closely. If you can identify a hole in the market and create a solution that fills it, you’re one step ahead. And you’re also likely to have a built-in customer base looking for your product.
• Go Beyond Your Current Customers. The group may include customers and others stakeholders who are currently dealing with your competitors as well as those who interact with neither you nor your rivals. Engaging with these groups will help you understand them fully any objections they might have to products or service they consume, engage with them will also help you develop ways to eliminate any barriers face them to purchase, and figure out how to appeal to them in order to disrupt their pattern of choice.
• Act like a New Customer: Search for your company’s online location, this can be Google Maps, directories, social networks etc, visit your company’s website (is it clear with a good interface, mobile-friendly?) and sometimes try to buy something or even use a service.

Transitioning to an outside-in approach is really about incorporating customer research into your goals and decisions, rather than completely changing how your company is structured so as to make your company sustainably competitive.

By
Omar MSONGA
Strategic Management & Fundraising Consultant
Business Strategy | Resource Mobilization | Capacity Building
📞 +255 719 518 367
📧: msongatheconsultant@gmail.com
📍 Tanzania | Working Across Africa & Internationally
"Smart strategy. Sustainable growth. Lasting impact"