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Turning Business Threats into Opportunities

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Published: 21Jun2006
Word count: 482
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A very astute business person can identify the threats to their operation.

So once these threats are known – what then? Simply taking steps to avoid these threats is the most common strategy, the thinking being that all energies should be directed at the strengths rather than the weaknesses.

Is there another way of approaching this issue? Well yes there is. That’s taking the head on approach, and not only confronting the identified threats, but taking steps to convert them into opportunities.

Here’s an example. Mary has operated a corner fruit and vegetable store in her suburb for several years. Through a good location, wise buying and good customer service she has built a successful small business.

One day she’s reading the newspaper and discovers that a major retail chain is planning a large supermarket just up the street, opening in just 4 months time. Mary immediately perceives this to be a threat; and with good reason! Supermarkets have fresh produce sections, offer discount prices, convenience, EFT transactions etc etc.

All of these factors constitute direct threats to Mary’s store. She identifies her options:

1) Sell up ASAP, and start again somewhere else;
2) Ignore the threat on the basis that she’s helpless to prevent it; or
3) Acknowledge the threat, and work around it.

Mary, being the determined type, chooses option 3. She uses the 4 months head start she has to learn all she can about supermarket produce operations. What she learns gives her strength and optimism. She makes a crucial decision – she will not try to take on the supermarket head on. What Mary decided to do is to make the most of the weaknesses she had identified in the typical supermarket operation; namely – artificially ripened fruit; decreased shelf life; wilted produce and a lack of staff knowledge.

By the time the supermarket opened, Mary had made some important changes to her store. She had also made sure that her customers were informed with letterbox drops and articles in the local paper. And the changes?

Her store now had:

1) A large range or organic or ‘vine ripened’ produce;
2) A good selection of ‘prior to ripe’ produce to maximize home shelf life;
3) An in store guarantee – ‘if you see wilted products, I’ll give you a bag of apples’ and
4) Mary and her casual staff became fruit and vegetable experts. They created interesting newsletters, and were often to be found out in the body of the store, chatting to their customers.

Did Mary lose customers to the supermarket? Yes she did. Some she won back, some she didn’t. But what Mary really noticed was that her customers on average spent 30% more in her store than they used to. You see, they’d made the commitment to use this specialty business, and felt comfortable in building up a reliance on it.

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