January is a weird part of the year for craft beer. Breweries are accustomed to writing it off as a slow part of the year.
What if you have a strategy in place?
I have found that business owners relate strategy to 3 distinct characteristics.
- Lofty goals
- Missions
- Values
While these “business terms” are critical to establishing strategy, I would like to share with you my definition:
Strategy is:
- Knowing what others don’t know
- Being willing to do what others are not
Simple definition, right?
Implementation, may not be.
Executing strategy takes experience and courage. In the competitive brewery space, owners must be on the search for things that others are not doing. In a favorite book of mine, Zero to One, Peter Thiel calls this secrets. He makes the point that secrets don’t appear or show up, they must be sought after. While most business owners never make the time to search for them. Uncovering a secret will give your brewery a huge advantage over the rest.
Once you find a secret now what? Are you willing to do what others are not? Putting a secretinto practice is a risky. Most business owners are risk averse and rely on copying or stagnant growth over shaking it up. My definition of profit is risk. Calculated risk is healthy for businesses.
Expansion, opening markets, fruit beers, another IPA, is not risky….because everyone is doing it! If you think you have a secret, how can you test it to see if it has legs?
Business is a game, who are you going to outplay.
Speaking of secrets…..
Let’s go!!!
-cf
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