There is no need reinventing the wheel, if you desire success in your business, your best bet is to find out what others did to achieve success in theirs and also adopt it. Now, here are the business strategies, and keys to AT&T’s business success for your own success.
Take Advantage Of Cutting-edge Technology
You don’t have to be afraid of using cutting-edge technology or to oppose it, rather take advantage of it, find out how it can help your business to achieve it goals faster, easier and cost effectively.
In Alexander Bell’s time the cutting-edge technology was electricity. Many businesses were directly or indirectly raised from the use of electricity, including AT&T, which came to being after Bell discovered how to transmit voice through electricity, which was the telephone.
Today, the cutting-edge technology is the Internet, so, how much are you taking advantage of it?
Don’t Lose Focus
Frankly speaking, it is difficult to keep focus on our business goals because of so many seeming unrelated fabulous opportunities to make more money that usually get our attention everyday, but the truth is that if you are going to be successful in achieving your business goals, you must push aside every other thing and concentrate hundred percent on achieving the set goals.
AT&T veered off its business goal of connecting the whole of America to its telephone network by seeking international business opportunity with International Western Electric Company, before the new President, Walter Gifford decided to sell International Western Electric Company in 1925 and keep the company focused.
Continue To Innovate
Innovation will keep you on top of your industry as it allows you to keep creating new and increasing value, and enables you to improve on your offer to the customer. Frequently innovative companies are difficult to compete with because they continue to remain fresh in the customer’s mind.
Therefore, research and development, which would enable you to innovate, should be a priority concern in your business.
Without doubt, AT&T’s repeated innovations all through its history have been a major reason for its huge success and leadership in the industry for over a century.
From the invention of loading coils in 1913, which fixed the difficulty of having strong signals over long distances, to the installation of the world’s first digital electronic toll switch between 1975 and ‘76, AT&T kept being number one in the industry.
Prepare For Competition
Whatever business you are in, or about getting in, know that there will be competition. There will be other businesses offering the same value as yours to the same market. Even if you are a monopoly right now, a time would come when competition will come, so get prepared for it.
And the best way to prepare for competition is to develop you business to the level of giving the best possible value to the customer at a price they can afford, or even at lower price they didn’t imagine possible.
AT&T could have been dangerously hit by competition when the Bell System was dissolved in 1982, but for it strong technological and human resource base that it had developed over the years.
Upgrade Your Facilities And Processes
Technology change almost everyday providing new effective and efficient ways of running a business. If you do not upgrade your operations accordingly, your business may be extinct before you know what’s happening.
AT&T knew just how important it is to business success to have the best working systems. That was why it invested heavily in the digitalization of its entire network in the 1990s.
Grow Your Business
It is equally important that to achieve and maintain success in business, you have to invest its growth. And one way to grow a business is through acquisition of other businesses that are relevant to helping you achieve your business goals.
AT&T’s buying over NCR in 1991 enabled it to tap into the increasingly popular and lucrative computer industry, as well as to be able to offer its customers greater value as they enjoy the benefits from two companies in one.
And by buying McCaw in 1994, it secured direct access to consumers and made it the leading player in the wireless telecommunications industry.
Restructure Your Business To Be Better Efficient
If the effectiveness and efficiency of your business has been decreasing for sometime, or you feel you want to pursue a new goal, then it might be time for you to restructure the business.
Restructuring helps a business to be revitalized and refocused on its primary goal. It’s like having a shave after ten years you had the last one – you’ll certainly feel renewed.
AT&T success in business cannot be said without the mention of its strategic restructuring processes that it embarked upon severally in its history. The 1995 breakup of AT&T into three separate companies, and the one of 2000 were quit remarkable.
Don’t Be Rigid
Successful companies run flexible systems and operations that can easily be channeled in a different direction if need be. You should have operational systems that will enable you to transform your business quickly and easily from a non viable business area to a lucrative one.
AT&T didn’t sink with the crises that enveloped the global telecommunications industry in the early 2000s because its operational systems were flexible and could easily be transformed to do other businesses.
That was why Dorman could transform AT&T from a consumer oriented voice company to an enterprise-focused networking company, and therefore avoid being hit by the meltdown and remained in business.
Be Alert To Possible Government Policy Changes
As a business owner, one of the things you must learn is to be abreast with the workings of government, and be able to read between the lines where government policies are swinging to.
Your ability to understand this can save from terrible business loses resulting from policy changes that are not in favour of your business.
This ability helped AT&T to avoid being hit below the belt when government amended the Telecommunications Act in 1996. Knowing the outcome before hand enabled the company to divest from certain businesses and chart another direction of profitability.
Read AT&T’s success story here.
………………………………..
Recommended
Put your business on the path to success with a solid plan created with Business Plan Pro Software .
Experts in business and technology, as well as daily users rate this software higher and above others. Click here to see why.