Growth Online > Knowledge Base > Business Growth > Aligning with the Aspirations of Society Business: Aligning with the Aspirations of Society by Roy Posner and MSS   Align with Aspirations of Society The greatest growth occurs at moments when companies align the development of these internal engines with the explosive emergence of new forces in society. Understand the social aspirations and energies of the society around you, and make an effort to align your business with those energies. Business and Needs of Society For a business to prosper infinitely and endlessly it should ride the tide of the changing needs of society. Any business that becomes aware of these trends, and develops goals and products/services in that area will rise to the very highest pinnacles of success. Microsoft once moving in that direction has abandoned it for self-aggrandizement. If it goes back to riding the wave of society's needs, it will become the largest company in history. The Pioneer and Emerging Society One who draws on the emerging social forces that is subconscious to the society becomes the great pioneer, and great achiever. The business who that has an ear to the ground of the emerging social forces, and implements it as new products will explode in sales and profits. The same opportunity is there for the individual, institution, or any collective unity of the society. Overwhelming Success that Presages Emergences in Society We see how an individual's pioneering effort brings out an emerging element of the society that is subconscious to that society at the time. The vast success of Darwin's book Origin of the Species (sold out on the first day) lead the society out of parts of its folly, ignorance, and falsehood. Margaret Mitchell's enormous success with Gone with the Wind's in which the heroine is a difficult, though liberated woman presages the vast emergence of woman in 20th century. And Tom Peters enormous, unexpected success in In Search of Excellence helped accelerate the liberation and freedom of the individual in the workplace, an echo of the hippy phenomenon a few years earlier. Each was an overwhelming success, presaging the corresponding new emerging element in society. If an individual can catch the wave of the emerging element in society -- there is always one or more -- he will have an overwhelming success in his work as these individuals did. Catching the Emerging Wave of Society Their greatest growth occurs at moments when companies align the development of these internal engines with the explosive emergence of new forces in society. Companies that can attune their business strategies to reflect the evolutionary changes of society in several or all of their growth engines (market, products and services organization, people, and finance) catch the growing swell of the wave of social advancement. By synchronizing multiple waves of this energy, they are catapulted forward and upward to levels ten times or more their previous position. Three Levels of Relating to the Market to Develop Your Market & Products The market exists at three different levels. At the first level, the market consists of a finite number of recognized needs, and companies compete to meet those needs. If your company approaches the market from this point of view, its growth is confined to the already established needs of the market. At the second level, the market consists of needs which exist, but are unrecognized by society and companies, and therefore are unmet. Companies grow by recognizing those unfulfilled needs, creating a general awareness of them and then meeting them. What are the unrecognized needs in your industry? What new dimension or incremental improvement can you add to an existing product or service that will meet a latent need of society or your customers and create a new market that does not now exist? Not every company can create a new product or a new market. But the third level of market is open to all. There is in every industry a gap between what the market actually needs or wants and what companies perceive it wants. That gap represents fertile untapped ground for any company that can become more conscious of the market's real wants. When is the last time you really and systematically asked your customers about their preferences? If it was not today or yesterday, perhaps you should ask again. Put yourself on the other side of the counter and looking at things from the customer's point of view." The effort required is one of careful observation, perception, and thoughtfulness. Free Market Competition, Unhealthy Competition, & How Companies that are Organized, Attuned to the Needs of Society that Survive It The free market is the surest mechanism to ensure economic democracy. USSR tried command economy administered by the State. It only stifled growth. The rules of the market are a powerful antidote to the greed of men. Before the private phone companies entered the market in India, phone calls were costly and service was poor. One paid Rs 24 for a three-minute STD call to Madras from Pondicherry. Phone repairs had to wait for days and demanded several reminders. Still the workmen had to be paid extra. Now when the competition is allowed, service is readily available and call charges are more than halved. Competition is necessary for keeping the market healthy. Even such a competition turns unhealthy often. Those who are flush with money reduce the price of the product below the cost price with a view to wiping out the smaller fries in the market. They die in vast numbers and quickly too. In a field where there are about a hundred small producers, unhealthy competition wipes out most of them, sometimes all of them, except one or two. Coca-cola faced such opposition from Pepsi Cola. Each year the cola wars have their own season. Smaller fries quickly vacate the field. Competition ensures fair price to customers. It stimulates the opposition to become efficient. The unhealthy price wars are ruinous to cash-starved companies. Also, ill-organised companies cave in under the mighty blow of an adversary armed with efficiency, enormous capital and unscrupulous motives. Is it all? Is there something beyond it? As usual, there is more than meets the eye. A fully ORGANISED company cannot die whatever the competition is, however unscrupulous they are. Organisation is health, vitality. It is healthy irrespective of the environment. There are various levels of organisation. The company that faces stiff competition will survive if it is organised enough to survive in the environment. A company that is integrated with the society will be vibrant. Any society is moving on certain lines. On those lines, the society will carry great force, as the Indian society is moving towards greater education and greater prosperity. To minister to THOSE needs consciously is to be vibrant. That vibrancy is a vibration of growth. Strong competition will stimulate that vibrancy. At a time when companies are dying like flies crushed by the competition, a vibrant company will find itself growing. Competition is a welcome stimulus for an organised, vibrant company. Forty new entrants in the scooter market twenty years ago struck terror in the heart of Bajaj. That year, he grew 100 percent. (MSS) Populism and Business Success Your [Business Week] headline [about how populism and business don't mix] is very 20th century. Why is populism a notion that is at odds with business? At each point where business takes up the need of the individual, it thrives. Successful business is populism in action.   ARTICLE on the Relationship Between Business Success & Society's Aspiration           New Insights into Infinite Business Success A Growth Online Portal Visit Now       Growth Online   Contact Us