Being An Information Source Is A Key To Growth
The most powerful people in today’s knowledge economy are those who provide excellent, reliable and relevant information.
If your business is not cultivating a knowledge culture, it will be difficult as the months pass to keep abreast of your competitors.
The kind of information your company needs to excel is as unique as the company itself. You need the knowledge to produce the product or service you deliver, you need knowledge of your clients and their needs, you need knowledge of your business environment and you need knowledge of anticipated trends for the future.
Gathering, analyzing, sharing and disseminating knowledge must be done simultaneously with all the other functions that mark your daily production goals.
Gathering facts is not enough
The dawn of the digital age has made knowledge gathering much more useful. Even the most humble website can use Google analytics and receive realms of data.
The issue for many businesses that I see repeatedly is the failure to analyze the data properly, and then the failure if it is analyzed, to have a process in place to make rapid changes to accommodate this new knowledge.
If you have knowledge and you don’t go through it and determine what is relevant to your company, it is as useless as ordering essential supplies and letting them sit unopened in a warehouse.
Likewise, if you open and examine the knowledge, but then failure to have any way to incorporate it, you might just as well not have it.
Look at your corporate knowledge sources
Start making better use of your knowledge by studying where it is coming from and what is being done with it.
Even small companies often have done some market research. Make sure it is up to date and relevant. Take that knowledge bank and apply it to each client to see if what you know is translating to what you are giving your customer.
You may also have a series of paper or digital files on your clients that gives you considerable insight into what kinds of products or services they purchase regularly and what growth strategies they are considering that you might be able to seize as a new opportunity.
In most organizations, your employees are also valuable sources of information. It always astonishes me that so few managers take the time to meet with their sales staff regularly to find out what customers are saying to them directly.
Likewise, if there is a complaints department, how is the knowledge they collect distributed to those who should be aware of what your problems are?
Look to professional associations, industry conferences and industry blogs and White Papers or other special reports to keep up with knowledge of your overall business environment. What broader societal trends are apt to impact your company?
Gather information on what your competitors in related fields are up to by attending trade shows or Chamber of Commerce meetings.
Let your customers help you with product research and rely on long-time employees to gather knowledge for your organizational memory.
Make use of knowledge as it reaches you
How do you translate the knowledge you gather into business growth?
Knowledge of upcoming trends and industry trends helps you to make improvements to your products or additions or changes to your service offerings to stay ahead of your competitors and delight your customers.
Knowledge of your customers and their challenges helps you to offer assistance in areas most needed so they can grow and retain their stability and loyalty to your firm.
Knowledge passed on to your staff can increase productivity, generate great ideas, and empower employees to come up with new solutions and ideas.
Depending on the nature of your business, you may even be able to use your extensive knowledge to make and sell on-line courses or training materials and create a whole new revenue stream.
Build a knowledge culture
Help your employees to understand the importance of knowledge by encouraging those who provide relevant and accurate information. Make it clear with every encounter that information gathering is an underlying and important theme to every interaction.
Have information sharing sessions with team members from all departments regularly, with no other goal than to listen to everything and then follow-up with summations of the new data and a think-tank on how it can be used effectively.
Basically, if you are looking for a new business growth tool today, consider how well you currently gather and use the information that would benefit you.
Paula Morand is a leadership building, revenue boosting, strategy expanding keynote speaker, author and visionary. This dreaming big and being bold leadership expert and brand strategist brings her vibrant energy, humor and wisdom to ignite individuals, organizations and communities to lead change, growth and impact in a more bold fashion.
24 years, 27,000 clients, 34 countries, 15 books, former radio personality, 11x award winning entrepreneur and humorous emcee.
Check out Paula’s bestselling books on Amazon: “Bold Courage: How Owning Your Awesome Changes Everything”, “Dreaming BIG and Being BOLD: Inspiring stories from Trailblazers, Visionaries and Change Makers” book series; and her newest release “Bold Vision: A Leader’s Playbook for Managing Growth”.
For speaking inquiries email bookings@paulamorand.com or call toll-free 1-888-502-6317.