Scarily, it is 23 years since I walked out of Aston University fresh faced and clutching my MBA. Fast forward to today, and whilst much has changed (the birth of the internet and the advent of mobile computing to name 2), some things have not. During my studies, I learned 2 things which are still very relevant today:
- Stick to your Knitting
- The importance of the make or buy decision
In the world of SME businesses, these 2 elements are still key to creating a sustainable & profitable business.
Stick to your Knitting
Too many SMEs in their quest for growth, or more commonly in the fear for survival are too quick to say Yes when asked “Can you do …..”. Though this may deliver a short term boost to income, it rarely helps profitability & invariably leads to stress. If this sounds familiar, you may find this post on the subject – Are you too busy? We were… – interesting. Sticking to your knitting, is all about knowing what you are good at, excelling in your offering in that area, and avoiding doing stuff outside your remit. However, focusing on this alone, can lead to a business that is stagnating, and probably going nowhere.
Make or Buy
That’s where the “Make or Buy” decision comes in. To illustrate my point, let look at the the way BSA handled a couple of requests by clients
- “Can you host my website?”.
For BSA, our “knitting” is about
"Delivering Joined-up marketing communication that works" ...with the emphasis on Marketing.
So when clients started asking us to host their websites, the first question we asked was “does that fit with our core offering?”.
The simple answer to this is Yes – Websites are key to modern day marketing communication, so offering hosting is sensible.
Having taken this decision, the next step is to ask how best to resource the offering, do we develop the capability in house, buying servers & hiring techies to manage them, or do we partner with an expert in that field?
On looking at the business case for the various options, unsurprisingly our decision was to do the latter.
In-fact we partner with a range of providers in the field of hosting, allowing us the flexibility to offer the best solution for an individual client, from simple low cost, no frills to state of the art, bespoke hosting options.
- “Can you help us with Social Media“
Again, on the question of is it within our remit, of Effective Marketing Communication, the answer is yes, But in this case the decision was taken to develop our capabilities by resourcing this in-house.
Whilst this did involve taking on and training additional staff, it was felt that the nature of social media, and the level by which it needs to be integrated into the wider marketing mix meant that outsourcing would not deliver the best solution either for us or our clients, and thus developing in-house capabilities was the best option.
The result is that by Sticking to our Knitting and developing our offering through partnership with other experts who are doing the same, or where appropriate developing capabilities in house, we add value to our offering in the eyes of clients, develop new revenue streams, whilst at the same time ensuring that our core business remains focused on what we do best
Delivering Joined-up marketing communication that works.
