Hello there!
Welcome to the first edition of a business publication that we hope you will come back to again and again.
A group of innovators and thought leaders have come together to collaborate on something that has been a passion for all of us for some time. We wanted to figure out what drives “The Supercompany” and how do those pioneers that are making it happen think differently – particularly in how they interact with the customer.
Supercompanies are companies, both mid-size and large, that seem to be able to buck the trend repeatedly and grow at massively greater than average levels. It’s not exactly a stretch to connect a focus on customer with high performance but there is a lot more to it than that. There are plenty of companies that have great customer experience reputation ratings, yet have declined or even failed. More strangely, there are companies that don’t seem to care about customers and yet prosper!
We believe that supercompany performance is within the reach of most companies. Supercompany performers think differently. They think next practice. They think customer. It’s a change of mindset as much as a change in what you do.
We also believe that traditional best practice will not take you beyond average growth – because if everybody is using the same tools and methods in much the same way how can you meaningfully differentiate?
What is absolutely clear is the WHAT you do is not the answer because no single strategy fits all. It’s the WHY and the HOW. If this was working effectively then there would not be a need for this type of publication. The majority of mid-size and large companies grow in parallel with the growth in their market.
What is clear is the business world has gone through immense change as we go through the information age. However, we have seen nothing yet. We are on a cusp of an information and technology revolution where the rate of change is going to rise rapidly. Companies are going to come and go at a much faster rate than before. Markets that have operated in a relatively similar way for decades will change in just a year and will be disrupted forever. There will be winners and losers and there will be people on the sidelines asking “what just happened”?
We are in a world where we cannot safely predict the future and I’m not sure we should even try. In maybe three years, we could have as many as ten times as many internet-connected devices as we do today . The era of big data is going to turn into “giga, mega, stupidly-huge or whatever-we-want-to-call-it” data. We are not predicting that well with the volumes we have now, and I’m not sure in the foreseeable future that will change. I do think that companies need to prepare themselves for a world that cannot be predicted. Both Peter Drucker and Abraham Lincoln thought that a long time ago – but it is even more true today than ever.
To reiterate: we don’t believe that widely-available best practice is the competitive strategy to sustain and grow beyond the average. The Next Ten Years is about thinking differently, thinking next practice and thinking customer. We want to bring you ideas, resources and thinking that will help you in your thinking, in your career and your company.
The core team are founder members of NextTen Innovation Solutions, a separate sister company that provides services, training and products to help companies adopt a “Supercompany Thinking” mindset and deliver significant step changes in their business performance. The team will grow and we will collaborate with many other people and companies on many fronts:
- We want to challenge existing thinking
- We want to identify new ideas that will help people and companies
- We want to take the customer much further into the ‘DNA’ of the company than it currently is
- We want to share case studies that will develop new thinking
- We want to honour people that go the extra mile and achieve things that are beyond the norm. We also want to “clip the ears” of people and companies that talk “one for all” and walk the “all for me” mentality. We won’t always be popular with everybody and we won’t always be right, but we do aspire to deliver value and to share on many fronts.
We must think differently, or we will be left behind
If you wish to be part of this – as a contributor, collaborator, constructive critic or more – then please contact us. We would love to hear from you. Call us on +44 (0) 203 290 5965 or email us at innercircle@nextten.eu
Best wishes
Charles Bennett
Managing Partner, The Next Ten Years
