This weekend our client Browns will open their new dedicated shoe store in Brook Street, London. It is good to work on exciting new projects and hear of growth from our clients in the current climate and it has got me thinking further about patterns for successful business in difficult times.
There is lots of talk of this recession "weeding out the rubbish", it sounds like Darwinian "Natural Selection" for business, but clearly this doesn't really apply, large companies with catastrophically poor performance (RBS, Northern Rock, various auto companies) will still survive, albeit owned (or bailed out) at least in part by government - perhaps the principle of survival of the fittest holds truer for small business, although of course some small companies, through no fault of their own, are struggling.
The truth is in fact survival of the most agile - in SMEs, including the hard hit fashion and retail sectors, success is down to product and service but also agility (perhaps the banks could be considered to have been agile in having achieved change in ownership rather than collapse). Many businesses are having to look at adapting resource to fit changing dynamics in terms of which areas of the company are doing well or struggling. Good reporting systems in companies can allow leaders to analyse and respond rapidly to changes in trends, the natural progression for success and growth now is to build on the areas of opportunity and quickly drop areas likely to be hit over the coming year.
Even in recent months there have been a surprising number of success stories in the fashion and retail sectors, all with important lessons:
New Look
Great sales figures, particularly online, with plans now to extend their transactional websites to France and Belgium. It is worthwhile considering broadening markets by making transactional sites multilingual.
All Saints
Superb product, a total understanding of their customer.
John Lewis
Again, product and service.
Liberty
Exceeded expectations and challenged sceptics with a successful web business launched only last year. A big lesson here is how they have built a web presence which really engages with their customers.
Successful businesses will be those that integrate their IT systems and use them to communicate with their customers not just sell to them - look at Anna Lou of London's "Challenge of the Month", regular photos and use of humour as another great demonstration of this.
Returning to the example of Browns, it is clear from Erin Mullaney's interview with Drapers that success follows from agility, in this case listening to customers, seeing the success of an area of the business and then planning rapid, adaptive growth - quickly adapting to benefit from providing products and services that are desired in a way that will engage existing and new clients.
