The Power of Positioning

My wife is a marketing coach and consultant to service professionals, and over the last few weeks, we’ve been working on one of her programs on positioning.  And as I think more and more about positioning, I’m beginning to notice just how few organizations really understand their position in the marketplace.  As a result of poor positioning, many of businesses either struggle to gain marketshare or are dramatically under performing their potential.

Your position is that unique niche that you carve out of the marketplace where you get to be the leader in your field.  It’s the place where people choose to work with you because you are the best and can offer something that few others can offer.  EVERY business can create a powerful position in the marketplace – even if the products that you offer may not be especially unique.

Knowing your market position is one of the fundamental pieces that allow you to Track the Nature of Your Market, which is one of the 7 KEYS to Grow Your Business Green.  If you want to learn more about positioning, let us know by clicking HERE.

An Inconvenient Disappointment

With all due respect, Al Gore blew it.

Sure, An Inconvenient Truth was a tipping point for America’s relationship with the environment.  The movie’s compelling argument ended the debate about global warming and dramatically increased public awareness on the issue.

This in itself is a monumental achievement and Mr. Gore is certainly worthy of all the accolades extended to him.  In the eyes of many, including yours truly, he is a hero.

But at the point when he so convincingly got the world’s attention, his call to action consisted of a series of very “convenient” actions.  At the precise moment in history when all the world’s attention was directed to a key environmental issue, and the opportunity to galvanize a movement was at its most titillating peak, we were all told to go change our light bulbs.

I understand the thinking.  Keep it simple and easy.  Resolve the depressing conclusion with a positive message.

But the weight of the message, and the absolutely convincing nature in which it was delivered deserved something so much more compelling.

What if instead of lightbulbs, Mr. Gore challenged every business and every utility and every household to establish a sustainable carbon use plan, complete with reduction targets and strategies?

What if he challenged governments and non-profits to develop the tools to help the businesses, and utilities and households plan and implement this target?

What if he held out the carrot of “Carbon Hero” prizes to be given to the organizations that implemented the most effective tools and plans?

Imagine the innovation and economic stimulus that could have resulted.

Kind of like the environmental equivalent of a moon-shot.

Now that would have been an outstanding example of authentic green leadership.

Business as Missionary

So, exactly how and when did the human experience become so darned unsustainable?

For about 10,000 years, our communities were tightly intertwined with nature. Our impacts were local and mostly benign.

We would hunt, farm, fish and gather enough to feed ourselves and our neighbors. Our population was very small relative to the abundance that nature could provide.

I’m guessing that this probably began to change in the 20^th century. My great grandparents (who were born in the waning years of the 19^th century) were much more connected to nature than most people I know today. They grew their own food, sought water from their own well, and crafted many of their possessions with their own hands.

Now, I’m definitely NOT a Luddite, and I’m not advocating any kind of draconian return to “a simpler time”. But I think it might be informative to explore exactly how we came to be where we are.

I propose that one of the critical distortions might be related to Milton Friedman’s proclamation that “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits“. This absurd proposition continues to be a fundamental teaching in most business schools today.

Friedman argued that it was the duty of every business manager to avoid the wise application of judgment in favor of a rigorous commitment to enriching the business owners at every possible opportunity.

I suspect Dr. Friedman was a product of his times. Any western Cold War patriot was obligated to promote everything capitalistic and disdained anything socialistic.

From my perspective, the concept that profits should drive business to the exclusion of any other goal is as absurd as suggesting that that sole purpose of living is to breathe.

What if the “social responsibility of business” is to perpetually fulfill its mission?

A mentor of mine once told me that the most successful businesses are those that solve problems for its customers. If your mission is to solve a specific problem, and you can do it well, you will always have a supply of customers eager to help your business thrive.

Perhaps this little tweak in how we think about business might help lead us, in some small way, toward a more sustainable human experience.

A New Beginning…

Well, here we are. Now what…

Today, we take a stand. Actually, I’ve taken this stand for as long as I can remember, but now I’m going public with it. From this moment forward, we are committed to transforming our ECONOMY into one that is in harmony with ECOLOGY.

You might notice that these two words stem from a common root. Economy is defined as

“the management of the resources of a community, country, etc., especially with a view to its productivity”

The word ECONOMY can be traced back to the Greek words oikos, meaning “house” and nemein, meaning “to manage”. Literally, oikonomos, “one who manages a household”.

Similarly, the word Ecology is defined as:

“the branch of science dealing with the relationships and interactions between organisms and their environment”

The word ECOLOGY can also be traced back to the Greek words oikos, meaning “house” and logia, meaning “study of”. Literally, oikologia, “one who studies one’s household”.

Now, our modern meanings are somewhat different than the root meanings for these words. Economy has come to describe the growth of money available to society, and ecology has come to describe nature. But I believe the drift in the meaning of these words is similar to the drift in western society over the last few hundred years – over time and ever so gradually, as our economy evolved from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, we’ve learned to act as if man was somehow separate from nature. And over this time, it became normal to believe that our primary resource is money, since money has become the tool by which we can most readily exchange goods and services.

Now, you may have noticed that as man’s impact on nature continues to grow, that we are starting to over-ride nature itself as the one managing our “household”.

So, from where we sit, the solution as a civilization is that we must now move our economy toward the ECOLOGY AGE, where we can re-unite the root of economy and ecology, not just in words, but in deeds.

HOW? Well, that’s what this is all about.

In this blog, we’ll discuss lots of ideas for how we can align economy and ecology. We’ll focus on business, primarily small to medium sized businesses that form the crux of our communities. We’ll talk about how to lead the growth of a green business. We’ll share ideas for growing these businesses so that they will prosper in abundance as the changing marketplace looks toward more environmentally sound solutions.

Because like in nature, those organisms that are most resilient are those that capitalize on change.