The difference between a risk and a rabbit.
Companies don’t grow in a smooth, linear manner. Those that succeed in growing by moving up the value chain do so in steps. The services that bill for £3K can be stretched to £4K, but when you want to bill £6K-£8K, incrementalism won’t cut it and you will need to offer something that’s a substantial step up.
The unsuccessful attempt to do this by looking for rabbits they can pull out of hats. Maybe they come across something shiny and new, an innovation, a trend, the new zeitgeist, that seems to have tremendous promise, and they cast around trying to turn that into a service that will – tada! – elevate their business at a stroke.
Never mind the detail, go for it and strike whilst the iron’s hot, is their mantra. I have never seen this work, and I have seen an awful lot.
What does work is something altogether less dramatic – effort. Thoughtful, unglamorous, well-informed effort, and I was reminded of this when reading a recent article in Fortune (July 31st, by Lila Maclellan), about Accenture’s CEO, ex-lawyer Julie Sweet.
To quote from the article:
“Those who have worked with Sweet say she regularly makes bold leaps following a specific recipe: She rigorously studies the topic in question (war, the cloud, agentic AI), seeks insights from a wide range of people, and then makes breathtakingly swift decisions”.
My advice to clients seeking a step-change in their business is similar and comes, not from Accenture, but from working in and observing highly successful marcomms businesses:
- Speak to clients and other senior contacts, about what services they are buying now and, importantly, are thinking of buying in the future;
- Look at competitors’ services and those of adjacent professions (ad agencies, digital firms, lawyers, management consultants, etc) to see if they have services that, with some amendments, could be repurposed for your business;
- Don’t stray too far from what you know. They less you understand the potential new service, the greater the chance of something going wrong. It’s not “stick to your knitting”, more “stick to your near knitting”;
- Find someone in your business who is sparky, (but sensible) and willing to try to turn the idea into a service you can sell for a premium. It’s likely to require several iterations before you can roll it out.
Do all this and then take the risk. By this point, it will no longer feel like one. And if a rabbit does appear, it will be because you bred it, not because you pulled it from a hat.