Consultant: Get competitive

– 01/11/04

To business consultant Charles Fred, today is the best time in perhaps the last decade for a company to attempt a "Breakaway" — to seize a competitive advantage and race ahead of the competition.

"Now is absolutely the best time in the last decade to get your companies to grow again," Fred told a group of state business leaders earlier this week. His rationale: The recession of the last few years slowed everyone’s progress, helping to bunch the field. Now that the economy is showing signs of recovery, the businesses that are aggressive in their pursuit of new business will be the winners.

By JOHN HARRINGTON – IR Business Editor

http://www.helenair.com/articles/2004/01/16/business/e01011104_02.txt

"Now is the time to be aggressive and acquire more customers," he said. "If you don’t, somebody’s going to break out in front of you and take your customers."

Though he’s worked with firms across the country and spoken around the world about his keys to business success, Fred would especially like to see businesses here do well.

Fred, who now lives in Denver, has close ties to Helena and Montana. He graduated from Capital High in 1979 and earned an engineering degree from Montana State. His grandfather was chief of police here in the 1950s, and his father was athletic director for the Helena schools in the 1970s.

Fred still has a cabin in the area, and would love to see Montana’s business leaders take the initiative and grow into a more prominent regional or national role.

"There are still many business leaders and owners, specifically in the climate of Helena, who are still waiting," he said. "Too often we’ve held back and waited for something to happen. You’ve got to want to grow. You can never shrink yourself to greatness."

Fred said that in recent years, Montana’s economy has begun to look more and more like that of the rest of the Northwest. National firms and standardized business practices are making their way here.

"It’s a much different business climate in Helena, with money coming in from other states," he said. "Poeple used to be able to operate here in isolation. But other people are coming in here now because there’s a market. I hope the business people and the entrepreneurs will wake up and compete."

Fred was a track and field athlete in high school and college, and still competes today. He draws on athletic competition for the business metaphor of a "breakaway" — specifically, the move to the front a pack of runners makes halfway through a 1,500-meter race, while the rest of the field faulters.

"If I don’t go with the breakaway, I’ve made the decision to lose," he said. "If you go, you’re now thinking about winning. The length of this recession has put us all into that pack. Right now is your chance to break away."

Fred said that as businesses ponder how to win over more customers and break away from their competitiors, they need to consider four critical questions:

What promises are made to your customers?

Do your people deliver on that promise?

Which of your competitors makes a similar promise?

What happens if your competition delivers on that promise first?

Fred said that the pending recovery will be slow, and that the companies that break away from their competition will do so with superior people and customer focus.

"It’s similar to what we’re dubbing a Performance Economy," he said. "It centers not on finance alone, but on people. Customers witness performance in real time."

John Harrington can be reached at 447-4080 or [email protected].