Bernadette Jiwa wrote a short but insightful post about the difference between responding and reacting to situations.
She writes:
It was impossible to walk down any high street in June without running into a notice informing you fidget spinners were BACK IN STOCK. The fidget spinner was clearly ‘thething’ of the moment. A month later we’re already beginning to witness its decline. Another fad bites the dust.
A fad by definition is transient. It’s success hinges on what people are talking about today and is not backed by a genuine need that will require to be fulfilled tomorrow. It takes effort and courage to respond to everyday needs instead of following the crowd that’s reacting to what’s top of mind. It’s impossible to do both—which is why a good business strategy is always intentional.
This is so typical of her to raise such important issues in such a short and poignant manner.
I would just add one more dimension to this question
Is your business reacting, responding or creating?
Generally speaking, we see three types of businesses in the market-place.
Self-obsessed businesses:
These are businesses that are obsessed with themselves and what they want to do. These are typically businesses that are founder driven and the founders have a strong vision of what they want to do with their business, whom do they want to serve, how they want to serve and go about running their business accordingly.
Competitor obsessed businesses
These are businesses that are obsessed with their competitors. They use their competitors and their position as the driving energy to do what they do. They want to be better than their competitors. They go after the same customers as their competitors and they want to win the market and surpass their competitors. These lead to markets where there is intense rivalry between the players.
Customer obsessed businesses
Then there are businesses that are customer-focused. They identify a customer segment that they want to serve and then go about solving all their needs. They dont define themselves as they are in a specific kind of business or a specific industry. They want to know their customers really well and want to continue to grow by solving different problems for the same customers.
We can all think of businesses that could fall in either category and are immensely successful in their own rights. So, none of these are necessarily good or bad way to run a business. What is important is that we as entrepreneurs know and are deliberate about what kind of business we are building.
Irrespective of which kind of business we build, we still need to answer the question:
Are we reacting, responding or creating (to/for our customers, competitors or our own aspirations) ?
Reacting:
Reacting gives the power to the other. We are dependent on the customer/competitor or flashes of insights and aspirations to do something new.
Stimuli —-> Reaction
Responding:
Responding gives the power to us, in terms of how we respond. We can be deliberate the right action, but still needs a stimuli.
Stimuli —— (Deliberation and choice) —> Response
Creating:
Creating rests the power completely with us. We dance to our own music and rhythms. We are setting the pace and owning the outcome. There is no need for an external stimuli which needs a reaction or a response. This is the reason, I believe that as entrepreneurs, we need to be operating in this realm more often than not.
This can only happen if we are deliberate and intentional about how we run our businesses.
So, are you reacting, responding or creating?
