So what do you do when you lose your way? Well, the first thing I did was sit down, have a PBJ, and figure out where exactly I was. I did have a map so I knew I was about a third of the way up the south side of the mountain. Similarly you will need to step back and take the time to make a realistic assessment of your situation and the surroundings in the marketplace.

Next I looked at how I got to my current location. Likewise, a retrospective on your progress relative to your initial plans can be very enlightening. It will provide insights on both your ability to execute as well as the validity of your initial assumptions.

Third, I needed to find a way out of my current predicament. It was not a well-traveled area so waiting for a passerby was not an option. I tried in vain to find the trail up the hill, but only ended up with dead ends in the thick forest.

To find my new direction I went to the last spot that I thought was the trail and walked in a wide circle around this spot. In the same way, you can systematically venture around from your known position in the market to find the direction to go. Upon making a larger circumnavigation of my position, I was finally able to locate the trail and find my way out. You may need to look beyond the near horizon to find your new direction.

Finally, if my circular search had not provided a clear direction, I would have turned to old-school methods. (I don’t have a GPS). My last resort was to pick the compass heading of due south and bushwhack to the road. Though this would have been very difficult and devoid of fun, I would have certainly been out of the woods by dark. If you find your immediate path is not clear, but you know where you need to get to, then follow the compass. The path is rough, muddy, and hard work, but you will get there.

So when your products are lost, business is losing direction, and customers are going the other way, it is time to reevaluate your direction. Take the time to see where you are, what’s around you, and set your compass for profits and success.

After the conference everyone goes home with a bag full of new sales leads or a bunch of literature on must-have products.  The big challenge here is to maintain this momentum and energy after the meeting and avoid letting things just revert to the calm before the wind.

So how do you keep people excited about your new stuff and capitalize on this excitement?  Here are a few ideas.

• First your new products need to solve problems that matter.  Determining the nature of the customer’s problem as well as the product requirements needs to be done far in advance of any launch.  Hopefully you spent the necessary effort here.

• Second since you clearly understand what customers need, you must be able to communicate with them in a way that they “get it.”  Not a lot of jargon and press-release-speak, but honest to goodness frank, simple communication.

• Third and most important you need to keep the high level of excitement in your organization.  I often see companies that launch products, then sit back and assume their work is done, except for order taking.  The launch is the starting line, not the finish line.  Keep your folks excited, make it fun.

After you make big waves in the market with your new product, be sure to keep the momentum.  Like the wind blowing the white caps, keep excitement high and customers will follow.

How does a plant grow from a rock?  I was wondering this as I looked at the black birch seedling sticking out of the hunk of granite.  Looking a little closer I could see that it had a toehold in a small crack, where it was able to summon the ingredients for growth.  This is similar to what happens with many businesses in the life sciences.  If there is a crack or gap in the business or in the customer’s situation, all kind of effort will result.  These cracks are the opportunities for growth.

Granted many of the gaps are self-imposed, but they are still responsible for guiding people’s efforts.  So let’s take a quick look at a few.

• Revenue gaps – If the corporate goals are on the other side of the void, then an acquisition, development of a new product, or improved sales channels will get you across.  If there is a gap at that business unit level, then more near-term, tactical activities will result – increased marketing, sharpening the product strategy, or more hands in the field.

• Customer gaps – When companies determine that their customers are facing a hole in their process, they have a great starting point for new product development.  Often the customer has gaps in their workflow in terms of efficiency, costs, time or performance that can be addressed.  Just look at your favorite new product, and it becomes obvious what gap it is trying to fill.

• Organizational gap – Sometimes the gaps are internal and relate to the company’s’ ability to get its products completed and in the market.  Or maybe they are having trouble getting to the right customers.  Here they can add personnel, partner with a complementary organization, or sometimes they just stumble along, knowing they have this gap.

Though understanding the gaps in and around your organization or marketplace is not the whole picture, it is responsible for putting the fine point on many of your efforts.  Here are a few recent examples

• ThermoFisher acquired Proxeon to fill a gap in their offering for LC/MS, which in turn addresses the customer’s gap in efficiency

• BioMarker Strategies will receive $1 million from the National Cancer Institute to fill its funding gap.  This will enable them to develop their live tumor cell testing system.

• Ireland’s National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training partnered with Waters to fill a gap in people’s ability to characterize glycans.  They will create a database of glycan information to help enable the production of effective and safe biotherapeutics.

So to focus your efforts, take a look at your organization and your customers to see where the cracks and gaps appear.  That is where the opportunities lie, just waiting for you to take hold of them.

First, he is not tied to the ways of the past. He did not hone his craft from listening to coaches and the like; he skied how he felt he should, exploring along the way. Second, he is absolutely clear on his bottom line – to ski as fast as humanly possible. By combining these two tenets he has amassed a chest full of medals and reached the pinnacle of his sport.

Though sport analogies are everywhere, I think we can learn from Bode’s approach here and develop some robust strategies. Looking at the first concept, the challenge is to think in new ways, but this is difficult. If you are raising money, nothing will raise eyebrows faster than mentioning a “new business model.” People funding companies are somewhat conservative and want companies and people to follow well worn paths. If you are in a larger organization it is even more challenging. The common approaches have worked in the past and are strongly held on to. The result is little change and stifled innovation.

To break this gridlock on creativity, the bottom line must be the starting point. The first step is to identify the real bottom line which is often not net income or EBITDA. These are, of course, very important metrics, but they are hard to use as barometers when people are deciding what to do in a certain circumstance. What is it you are really trying to accomplish – improve health, identify new markers of disease, or clean the air?

After you have made the bottom line as clear as a bell, then you can unleash your creative juices to determine how to get there. Rather than pull out the “five forces” and “blue ocean” tools, let the creativity take over and craft a new pathway to your goal. Granted some structure is required, but it doesn’t need to have a name. There are lots of techniques and names for making ski turns, but Bode doesn’t necessarily use them.

With the pathway and goals laid out, it is imperative that people are lined up with them. In fact, if they helped define the path – even better. It requires more than mission statements to be sure people understand the goals and how they fit into making this happen. After all, making the plan become reality is often the hardest part.

So simplify the whole process of growing your business and don’t make it an onerous procedure. Think in new ways and have a laser focus on the goals. As Bode has shown us, this simple approach can bring home the gold.

If you trace any technology from the lab bench to its successful commercial application, you will see many, many people, groups, and organization that came together to make it happen. They also had a common goal and put in a lot of hard work to accomplish this feat.

Looking at the recent news releases in the life sciences you will see plenty of new products, some financial news, as well a number of announcements proclaiming the new relationship between company X and company Y (along with the wonderful expectations of this partnering.) They realized that they can’t fly the whole way alone with the wind in their face, and they needed help for a number of reasons. Of course, all of these new relationships should ultimately lead to increased revenue and profits, but here are some of the specific benefits you can have.

• Speed up the development of your new product by filling the technology gap with your partner’s goods

• Add pieces to the product to make it a more desirable offering, a so-called “complete solution”

• Increase your company’s ability to find the customers who will buy the products

• Improve your operation’s efficiency by bringing in service providers

• Make the marketplace more aware of each other’s products and value

Sure many companies do go it alone, and it is possible to succeed with this approach. However, there is a significant increase in the number of companies that collaborate at various levels, and with the limited access to capital these days, this trend will only continue.

So whether you look to partners to market your products, supply technology, or get your goods to the people with the wallets, it is a good idea to seek some assistance. Granted it is not a free ride and will cost you something, but the rewards should far outweigh the costs. So be like the geese flying together to help each other travel a thousand miles in a week. Try it out – find an ally or two to help you get your company moving towards higher profits and growth.

Many of the companies I work with are faced with this common dilemma – own a niche or battle for a piece of the big pie. With many new technologies and products coming to the market, this question must be answered quite regularly, and the most common answer is – ‘both.’ It is human nature to go after any potential business for your products or services. But to really succeed you usually need to let go of a few areas to put your efforts where you will be most efficient.

So what can you do to get focused? First you need to agree that a focused effort will provide a better pathway toward growth and increased profits. If the birds had flown all over the place whenever there was a hint of food, they would have exhausted their energy and turned into fuzzy ice cubes. They have to carefully choose the nutritional sources that give the most energy and are readily accessible. In essence they figured out the return on their investment in their tiny little heads.

Companies do this as well, based on wonderful rosy forecasts. The biggest challenge, though, comes in honestly assessing what it would take to capture that amount of business. Here are some of the things that must be considered when deciding where to sell your products.

• Channels – Can you get to the people who have the problem your product solves. And can you do what is necessary to help them be successful with it.

• Value – Your product or service must not only provide a good ROI to you, but more importantly for your customers. If you were them, would you buy it?

• Competition – Is this segment ruled by a couple big guys or is it a free-for-all with everyone getting a small piece of the carcass.

• Cash – Most importantly, do you need to generate some fast cash or can you afford to nurture and develop a new area of the market

• Barriers – Do you have to cross mountains to get to the tasty feast or is it next door. This is where folks tend to underestimate what it takes for people to adopt their product.

So when it is time to choose your source of nutrition be sure to consider carefully what will best help you grow. Simply going wherever there is sustenance may not be the wisest approach. Take a careful look at the options and decide what will nourish you the best. You don’t want to chase every opportunity and run out of energy before your reach your next meal.

So what can you do about this situation? Often very appealing markets are right in front of you, and it is obvious that the customers would be much better off with your product. Why can’t you just go get a little bit of the market and grow from there? You’re not trying to knock out the market leader, just nibble a little away from the edge. Sounds logical….except it doesn’t work, and similar failed logic is applied time and again in markets with dominant players.

The main lesson is don’t challenge the leader on their terms. Here are a few other approaches that should give better results.

• Try an end around. Look for opportunity just beyond the edge of the market, perhaps in adjacent segments. After getting traction there, you can parlay that momentum towards the target with better chances of success.

• Try to see some gaps in the current offerings. Maybe there is a portion of the customer’s workflow that is underserved. Focusing efforts on satisfying this may give you the sales you need to eventually challenge the leader.

• Like the resistant oak above, sometimes a bigger maul will do the trick. There are 12 pounders that would have probably split the log on the first swing. You can sometime use very large (aka expensive) efforts to get your products accepted in the market. It’s not the best approach, but if you absolutely must attack the leader, you need to use the 12 pounder.

• Find someone to lend a hand. Partner with someone that is participating in the market and form a mutually beneficial relationship. You will need to give up something to do this, but you will get into the fight and you’ll have some success.

• Finally, maybe there are some totally novel approaches that you can create. I have seen “firewood processors” where you load up whole 30 ft logs and out the end comes split firewood. No need for mauls, chainsaws, and tired backs – just hydraulics and petrol (and $$, of course).

So when the best opportunity for your products happens to be the market governed by a potentate, put on your thinking cap and figure out some clever ways to get there. Whatever you do, don’t charge in expecting to take a little bit away. Like the recalcitrant white oak, you will bounce right off.