Executing vs. Innovating

If you were starting up a competing business to the one you're in today, how would you do it?

Unless you were well capitalized, resources (people, time and money) would be scarce.

So what would you do?

Chances are, it's not what you're doing today.

Trade Shows would not likely make the list, since they're very expensive to display at and in this economy, who's going to spend the money to attend?

Expensive and gimmicky corporate websites probably won't make the list either, since they take some time and considerable expense to develop.

Perhaps a printed customer or industry focused Newsletter? Not likely, because you can't measure whether they got delivered or even if they're read.

As a former Marketer myself, I completely understand and respect that "momentum" has a significant impact on a Marketing schedule.

It's time to prep for the next catalog.
The quarterly newsletter is due next week.
We need to put together the booth for the next Trade Show.
Where is the Marketing collateral for our new whatchamacallit?
The web stats need to be reported.
Time to get those leads entered into the CRM system.

Really, there's no time to try something new....unless you stop something old. We get caught up in the cycle of executing, rather than spending time innovating.