In the last few weeks business owners have been warned by the head of one of Australia’s biggest mining corporations that if we don’t change our business models we will die.

So who do business owners turn to for advice? In AdNews the marketing head of one of the big 4 banks reveals agencies don’t get digital. And the CEO of one of the biggest media planners in the country said "anyone in the media industry who claims they know what is happening is lying."

How many consultants does it take to change a light bulb?

Too late, fibre optics and LEDs have changed the market.

Every manager who has grown a business understands the value of seeking advice from specialists, you can’t be an expert at everything. Today we have the added problem that most so-called experts learnt their skills pre-Internet. Most business coaches are dinosaurs, as the world of commerce changes at ever increasing pace, conventional methods won’t save your business if the customer has evolved to a new way of life.

Think biz is tough? It’s even tougher for big businesses

Don’t panic. Unless you are number 1 in your category, you have less to lose by changing the way you play to fit in with the new rules that are being written by the customer. If you are a mid sized business today you have an advantage that in the past was a handicap. Yes, smaller is more nimble. Big businesses with big investments in infrastructure, systems and sunk costs can’t easily re-invent themselves. Think of all those silos of managers in big companies who have to hang in there for another 5 years because their super was decimated. They are a dead weight that slows down change.

Companies falling out of the top 3 in a given year:

Market share leaders that are the profitability leaders:

Forget the past, where’s the future profit coming from?

Most likely from something you are good at now, but not focused on. If you are a mid market player and still in business, you obviously have enough retained knowledge to draw on. Here are some examples of where UNO's clients have found profit opportunities:

• For a manufacturer it was cutting out the wholesalers.
• For a premium winemaker it is leaving Coles and Woollies to the major brands and growing high margin club membership.
• For a financial services B2B supplier it is repackaging bite-sized insights for the consumer market.

Today more than ever, get to know those who know 

What you most need now is a trusted advisor who can draw upon a network of today’s specialists. To grow today, you need to re-invent your model, refresh your offer and relaunch by integrating traditional and new ways to market.

Forget incremental improvements. A few percent saved on input costs and a couple more from efficiency gains won’t save you when the competition pockets a whopping 30%+ of margin by removing an entire step in the route to market.

There’s an idea. Better to do it now, or be done over?