How are businesses that are successful?

The search for the perfect business is like finding the lost ark, the Holy Grail and the Philosopher’s Stone. There may be, it may not, but they do not stop searching. Let’s start from the premise that there is no perfect business, and we wonder which of the businesses that seem to be aware if there were.

As we live in a Global Society, which identifies with Business and Enterprise business with Brand, is the ideal business could be something like Coca Cola, Microsoft, Sony?  Or it might be more in line with Google, Amazon or IKEA? An ideal business is a business that moves a lot of money, right?, Which provides benefits and generate more value and business. So, perhaps the ideal business is intrinsically linked with money, could be the HSBC, Santander, the Chasse Manhattan Bank?, Perhaps an Investment Fund, an insurer? Well, in light of recent events with its own name as Lehmann Brothers or Merryl lynch, that the road may be another A company of online auctions? You may something about the spectacle and entertainment, as this is the entertainment company, Pixar, Time Warner, Paramount? Something more cool, admired and liked, Apple, MTV, Nike? A business with the glamor of Armani or sofiticación Bentley?

Big business all of them. Companies that operate large-scale, led by the giant among giants: Wall Mart. Not all profitable, of course. No simple, but global no doubt. The majority of them suffering from what we might call the Babel syndrome, characterized by trying to cover everything and touch the sky. Most of Marks mentioned here are contained in the Ranking 2008 “Best Global Brands” that produces an annual Interbrand. Ah!, But the ideal business could not have anything to do with any of them. Mies van der Rohe, the great German architect, said at once, when asked about the secret of perfection that reflected the great works:

“Perfection is not a question of dimensions, but of proportions.”

If there is a perfect business, will surely be a business balanced proportions. Balance means harmony. If there is a perfect business, to be sure, it will mark a banner recognized, valued, well positioned, associated with strong values and an emotional connection with the public. When the big consulting firms develop their rankings of most valuable companies, always take into account the importance of the brand, the reasons for consumer purchases and likelihood of revenue from the brand in question. These parameters determine the value of the Business of Enterprises, of Brands. Serve as an example the ranking of the 50 most valuable brands in Latin America produced by Interbrand and AméricaEconomía.

The 2.0Internet has changed quite a few of the parameters with which we were accustomed to measuring and valuing the business. Among other things, has transformed into businesses (sonadamente lucrative cases) projects and initiatives that would not be crazy adventures and fanciful short time ago (delusional and ridiculous remain so, despite everything, but we have to take off his hat before the skill that some people have had to make these crazy ideas their way of life).

The most representative of this phenomenon are the Blogs. A very recent phenomenon, considering that hatching can put the world in 2006. Blogs are now a world in themselves, a new territory that puts us face a different reality, influential and constantly growing, every day 120,000 new blogs are created and 17 new post is published every second. U.S., Japan, the United Kingdom and Germany are the leaders of the blogosphere.  Statistical data of the blogosphere is the most interesting, and analyzing a bit better we can understand the magnitude of change we are experiencing and that goes beyond the technological impact. It is a social change, and certainly a transformation of the business-economic parameters.

Though not all blogs on the Internet as much as 2.0 now it seems. In any case, since they are the major “stars” of the moment, as they were in their day websites, e-commerce, flash applications, virtual communities, video streaming or the messenger, let’s say 4 things on the blogs:

• Anyone can write a blog, but it is always nice to have something interesting to explain.

• Your blog can be read worldwide, but, keep in mind, it’s possible anybody like it.

• With your blog you might get rich, but does not create everything you read about the easy money on the Net.

• Yo publish and to maintain a blog is completely free, as long as you consider that the time devoted to your task of blogger has absolutely no value.

There is life and business beyond the blog. However, it seems that whatever the business or the business idea or the perfect business plan, you must go through having a presence in the list of His Majesty Google. Much has changed since Google appeared in our lives, but Instead, the new era that the most famous and used to symbolize the search engines, began to make a long, long time, back in 1945, when Bush Vannaver published in The Monthly Atalantic an article that prompted a new way of understanding and sharing knowledge.

What a curious, right? That new things are, in fact, the updated version of things that already existed or who come from far behind.

The search for the perfect business is as old as the very concept of “business”. What suecede is that some time ago that the Internet came into our lives and our society as well as in our estrucutura mentally, to make us look with new eyes ideas that are not.

We agree that the Internet is essential in any business, from the most traditional to the more avant-garde. This does not mean that a truly prosperous business can exist only within, to, for and on the Internet. Certainly, the Internet is a channel of communication, a sales channel, a research tool, a wonderful shop window and a tool of great value if branding is to use well-known. But if we take e-commerce as an example, we see the actual data are, say, discreet. It is true that the trend is upward, but not yet live in a 100% digital environment.

There is something, however, that has not changed since the start of business. Something whose importance has not changed decisively industrial revolutions, social or technological. That “something” is the customer. A good business, a real good business is measured by customers. Hence stems everything else, from the Corporate Reputation to the Income Statement, via the Brand Image and Positioning in the Marketplace . Customers, actual or potential consumers, satisfied or dissatisfied, they are the ones who make good or bad business, which close or move away from perfection. Clients. Consumers. Neither more nor less. Because a business fails, does not live on ideas, but from customers.

And then come the times of crisis. And it gives the impression that the fog of the crisis it permeates all and nobody knows what to do, and the basic principles of business are invested, the bonds are upset, it is difficult to distinguish a good from bad news and, most serious However, nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. To understand a little better in this crisis, we recommend a visit to encarecidament blog Leopoldo Abadia, its analysis of the crisis NINJA is bright. But tell me, just in case we ever know what will happen tomorrow? No.

The crisis may increase the uncertainty, but uncertainty remains intact. If before we did not know what was going to happen tomorrow, now the situation is the same. And a few certainties also keeps intact is more, confirms and reinforces. And these are the certainties, if not a perfect business, yes to a viable business:

• It is better to engage in something we do well and find differentiation in how to do that trying to make a fortune on something that no master and whose only advantage is that it is “new”.

• The gap between the fortune and the debacle is the measure of risk. A high-risk business is ephemeral and, unfortunately, we do not know when the streak ends good. Excessive risk, failure insured.
  

• A business with certain guarantees of prosperity should keep a balance analog / digital reasonable. You should also keep a balance innovator / known reasonable. It is important that the market understands what is offered and can compare it to something already known.
  

• A great business must be, above all else, great for you. You should feel right at him and with him.Can hardly convincing if not convinced. It is very obvious, it is true, so this is a stone on which so many face.

• If there are customers there are business.

 

In a previous article said customers no longer exist. Does not exist in its conventional meaning, because in the environment of Internet 2.0, define customer is complex. A customer is not necessarily the one who buys a product or a service uses. A customer can be someone who consults a content, which read a blog, which shares a file, someone who weaves links in social 

networks, updating your profile, leaving comments at a forum. Customer is someone who bids on an item in an auction, which leaves their data in a form … Client, ultimately, is the person who, with his action and his relationship with respect to our business gives us a value (because it has no be money, although that value must be measurable and be transferred to economic value) that allows us to maintain our business, to grow and generate increased value of assets. That is, what the customer provides (information, links, comments, references, content, time, money …), this should enable us to generate wealth.

If there are no customers, no wealth is generated (we let everyone give meaning to the term wealth to create more convenient). The search for the perfect business goes through the search for the type of client suitable for generating wealth. Do you have a business?, It is neither good nor bad. You have’got customers?, That’s good. Preserve and be sure to strive to achieve more.