by Leigh Goodwin

Created on: March 01, 2009

Successful businesses have a critical path and set of game rules they follow that breed operational success. If these rules are left to chance a business is likely to toy with company failure. Although, failure is not always bad as long as company executives learn from it.

The most important aspect for one business may be slightly different for another. The guiding principle may be the same, but if a company is to truly maximize its strategies for success they must consider their resources and precisely what they can achieve with them.

To start, managing barriers to entry are one important business aspect, with the ability to develop business from a targeted market being a very close second.

Managing barriers. Just as there are barriers in personal life there are barriers in business. A marketing barrier which slows the progress of one company may not be a problem for another company. A good example is what we saw with Microsoft and other software companies who used inferior marketing strategy's. Microsoft led the pack because it had a marketing model not like other companies but one based on what jived with its own organizationally specific resources. In order for companies using inferior marketing models to become competitive they needed to adopt resource specific techniques which they could apply to achieve their company mission. Whether micro or macroeconomic, barriers will always be present. Success lays in a company's ability to manage and overcome them with a strategy that maximizes their resources. Successful firms achieve how they can and don't worry about how they can't achieve.

Business development. Nearly anyone who wants to have a business can. But if they want a successful and thriving business they need customers. They need customers who will spend money and credit for the life of business. If of course the objective is be financially profitable. The following four aspects of customer development are important for businesses.

One: Having a target market. Whether the audience is B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer) the company must have an identifiable group of potential users and customers. If a company is to maximize marketing dollars, gone are the times when you can just ask any and everyone if they want your product. Knowing who wants it sets successful companies above failing enterprises.

Two: Have a direct avenue for reaching these customers. Trade associations remain one of the good ways to reach target groups. Knowing how

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