Today we answered your question:
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How do you understand the business or business opportunities that can be generated from the surrounding environment?”

Intimately knowing the individual business and the environment within which it operates, both globally and locally, combined are essential to identifying ‘good fit’ opportunities that will strengthen and drive the business forward.

The surrounding environment comprises of PESTLE or STEEPLE, that is the politics, economy, social, technologies, legislation, environment, ethics. Researching this environment regularly highlights potential business opportunities.
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Knowing the specific business comes from having clearly defined business capabilities as strengths and weaknesses, which highlight which opportunities would strengthen the business and overcome weaknesses.

Today I answered your question “Where can I ask people to rate my brand/domain name?”
 
Today, most businesses conduct continuous surveys to stay in touch with clients changing needs. I would recommend you do the same.

A survey can be one simple, targeted question for respondents to fill in rather than many, irrelevant questions. Keep it short and easy for people to complete and tell them why you are asking the question(s).
If you are looking for feedback on your brand from any source and you don’t know anyone, try joining business groups, for example, those on Facebook and ask the group members for their opinion. Remember it is just an opinion.

If you are looking for feedback from existing and potential clients, try compiling a simple survey for them to complete.

The survey should have a specific objective. For example, rather than saying ‘rate my brand/domain name’, your survey should ask questions that provide an answer to whether your brand is clear, or strong for the sector. Be specific about what you are trying to find out. By doing so it will guide you to ask the right questions. For example, ask whether the colours or name are offensive.

Use a combination of positive and negative questions for balance. Ask for additional comments too. Try asking closed questions requiring a yes, no, answers and make sure your questions are not worded in a leading way that forces the participant to give you the answer you want to hear.

You could, for example, ask respondents to rate the effectiveness of the brand on a scale of 1 to 5 or rate the impact of the brand from a negative impact at -5 to a powerful positive impact at +5. Do not ask the respondent for personal details as you don’t need them to determine your brand rating.

I use SurveyMonkey because it forces you to keep to a few questions keeping things relevant, and it collates the responses for you in graphic form making it easier for you to see the results which inform your decisions going forward.
 
#toodglobal #smarterbusiness #competitiveadvantage #CTO #surveys #feedback

The following is from a contemporary technology and business innovation/change management perspective.

Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM says, "You've got to keep reinventing. You'll have new competitors. You'll have new customers all around you."

Ginni’s comment says it all. To stay in business and to remain profitable businesses change and adapt constantly. Some changes are visible, such as Amazon Books expanding to include Cloud Services. Some changes are invisible yet equally as powerful. For example, P & G changed their R&D business model from researching and developing their own products in-house to engaging in open innovation with strategic partners.

Had these companies stayed as they were focused on existing clients without looking for new opportunities, customer segments, and new ways to remain competitive, they would not be the powerhouses they are today because their early business model would not be relevant today. A popular example of this phenomena is Kodak who went from supplying 90% of USA film industry to nearly no business at all.
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So, to answer the question in general terms, companies need to focus on existing and new customers. Look after today’s customers in a way that outshines your competitors to feed your business today so that you can “keep reinventing” (Ginni Rometty) to open new customer segments to secure your business tomorrow.

Today, I answered your question:
 
“Why does change management fail in most of the companies?”
 
There are many reasons for change management failures. One common reason is that the decisions surrounding change are approached in a project-like or linear process by senior management. For example, step 1 - what is the problem. Step 2 - how can we resolve the problem. Step 3 - formulate a strategy for rolling out the selected change. Step 4 - implement the change.

However, change involves people. People, or stakeholders, are often overlooked in the change process yet have the power to significantly influence the success or failure of the change. A common example from a technology perspective is business A researching and selecting new software to modernise the business. Six months after purchase none of the staff were using the software because it was too awkward to use and slowed staff down.
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So, a more holistic approach is required for successful change. An approach of learning and understanding the interactions between stakeholders and the area requiring change before any decisions can be made on what that change should look like. This approach ensures the stakeholders have been considered, are part of the change process, and have had time to adapt to the change when it occurs. After change roll-out a delegated champion can keep morale positive by being available to support stakeholders with difficulties surrounding the change and to remind them regularly to apply the new changes.

If you are currently looking at adopting a popular business model, whether it be for a new business idea or innovating or updating an existing business, a strong strategy would be to familiarise yourself with today's popular business models. Then adopt one (if possible) that will be widely adopted over the next 5 years. That way you can get ahead of your competition. Here is some useful information and a resource to get you started:
Business models:
A strong, precise business model(s) can be a powerful tool for innovation, competitive advantage, decision-making, and culture development.  Business models (BM) can either be explicit, written/drawn out, or implicit, unspoken/ undocumented, yet no less powerful.  A business model can be a graphic, template, or text heavy document in the form of a business plan.  Often businesses have more than one business model (BM). For example, a business may have one BM for each of the following:
Innovation
Change
Technologies
Building and developing strategic partnerships
Acquisitions
There are over 50 types of BM’s that most businesses fall into (Gassmann et al, 2014). Some of the most common today are:
Freemium (18) - use some of the service for free, upgrade for additional functionality;
Subscription (48) - pay a monthly fee starting at an affordable price point with the option to increase or decrease over time;
E-commerce (13)- sell products/services online;
Performance based (38) - the client pays on results.
Resource:
St Gallens Business Model Navigator (Gassmann et al, 2014)

A business plan, explicit or implicit, is the blueprint of your business. So it is different for each business. Below are some general questions to answer.

In my experience working with start-ups and existing businesses, I find the best place to start is to graphically represent the business as a business model. It is far easier for everyone to understand the business when viewed as a graphic, and to build on.
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I like to use an adapted version of Gassman, Frankenberger, and Csik (2014) “magic triangle” framework (below) as it provides a simple, easy to understand graphic of the information needed to create a business plan and model with the focus on the view from your customer’s perspective of the value you provide. 

Each corner of the triangle and the centre can be developed with more information as your research develops. The details can easily transfer into a business plan and an interesting pitch deck for those presentations to potential investors.

Simply fill in the four circles. Who is your target market, what value are you providing your target market, how will you provide it, at what cost, price, and mark-up (pricing model)?

Now build onto your initial answers for each circle providing much more detail as you progress. Detail comes from your knowledge of your business and experience. It also comes from thorough research and analysis. For example:

• Competitor analysis - who are your competitors; where are they located; what do they offer; how does your service/product differ and why; what plan do you have in place  when your competitors start offering the same as you do?
• STEEPLE analysis - Keeping your business and target market in mind, look at current and upcoming changes to the economy, technologies, legislation, the environmental impact, politics, ethics, and the impact it will have on your business achieving its goals, on your customers.
• SWOT analysis - from the above two analyses, what are your strengths and weaknesses as a business, what opportunities can you take advantage of and how will you manage the threats.
• Value proposition - what value are you providing your customers? How do you stand out above your competitors? Do your customers want what you offer? How do you know? What research have you done? How many orders do you have already?
• Income/Expense projected for the business - how much will it cost to set up and run the business each month; what equipment, staff, materials, will be required; what revenue are you expecting each month; what will your cashflow look like? Here I recommend asking an accountant to put this together for you if you have no training in this area.
• Technologies – what processes do you need; what technologies support the workflow that provide customers with a good experience working with you.
• Outsourcing- What aspects of the business will you need to outsource because you do not have the resources internally. An example, accountants, lawyers, technology experts, to name a few.
• Forcefield analysis – taking all this information, what aspects drive your business and support its success, and what aspects will work against your business.

 
These are some of the questions to answer. Once answered add the information you accumulate to the different triangle circles. Show you know your business, market, and finances.

Now you can easily transfer the information from the graphic into a old format business plan with headings such as described by SmartAsset Top 10 Components of a Business Plan - SmartAsset

The short answer is that until the start of widespread technology adoption around 2008, small businesses had the upper hand in many ways. Examples are:

• Decisions could be made instantly
• They were in touch with their customers’ needs and understood their expectations
• They offered a personal service
• Their business was far more transparent than larger companies
• Staff felt their contribution was making a difference.
• Integrate new technologies quickly.

Since then big companies have been forced to consider these aspects of business management largely as a result of technological advancements. The advancements have removed geographical boundaries so there are far more competitors than previously. And, as technology changes every 18 months (Moore’s Law) new types of competition spring up every 18 months so competitors are unknown. At the same time, consumers are far wiser shoppers, their shopping habits have changed because of technologies, therefore their expectations are different. A familiar example, technology allows consumers to have something instantly by touching a button.
To survive businesses have employed skilled CTO’s over 10 years to adapt their business. Here are a few:

• Large head offices are being replaced by smaller, distributed offices that are managed entrepreneurially. That is, an office that can make fast decisions, are more in touch with customers on a local level.
• Large businesses are developing cultures of transparency and customer-centric value hence the explosion of surveys and feedback forms that keeps the company in touch with every customer, so personalise the service for each customer. It is this culture that staff buy into now, so feel their work makes a difference.

So, for the moment, what small businesses have is the ability to integrate new technologies quickly. Unfortunately, many small businesses, from the sole trader upwards, do not know how to use technologies in this way, or that it is a key advantage for them at the moment. In other words, small business could have the potential to offer all of the above faster than major corporations.

The question implies you are a business owner trying to adapt your business to Google Sites.

Try approaching this question the other way around.

In other words, start by working out the optimum workflow and processes from your customers perspective. Then adapt Google sites (or any other software) to your business. If Google sites can’t be adapted, choose another app that can.

Doing it this way around provides all the answers you need.