Is Your Business A Predator Or Prey?

It's a simple choice. You can wait, not decide, hope the world continues on track and be prey ...or you can try, experiment, dismantle old thinking and have a chance to be at the top of the food chain; the king of the jungle.

In most industries, every business is prey. There is no predator. When it comes to information, they remain on the forefront of inefficiency. That's the perfect scenario, extreme inefficiency and no predator. Enter one with a predator attitude; a predator plan, a predator's ability and the rest will be slowly, methodically devoured.

There are no barriers to entry. Somebody's going to shatter tradition, change the rules, and devour the competition, because they can. Is your business the one to seize the opportunity?

Commerce today is an interlocking, co-dependent world of business and information. You can create business-transforming results through innovative ideas and knowledge at the point of contact with your customer. You can turn your information into profitable wisdom at each customer encounter.

But how do you do that? What information solution delivers the greatest value? How can software have its greatest impact on your bottom line?

Success, and even long term survival, in today's business environment requires an information engine built from the ground up to enhance your company's business goals. It requires an information engine created for your unique business.

Big business or small, it doesn't matter. The playing field is level. All technology is available to everyone. The only barriers are in our ability to imagine the unique information solution that will catapult us to predator status.

You understand your business and its information. Working with technology people, you can create a transformation to predator. There are companies doing just that. There are companies, which have used information capability to become dominant.

SC Design in San Diego is one of those companies. It is a home design center business; selling and installing various options for builders in their homebuyer selection process inside the new-home building industry. They complete approximately 7000 units annually over four states.

The owner, Steve Santa Cruz, and his CIO, Michael Eggert, have worked together to create an information solution that enables SC Design to dominate their market.

Their gross margins are consistently 5 to 8 points higher than all of their competition. They are the predator. They have the competitive power to accelerate profits during the good times and accelerate acquisition of their competition during the bad times.

A much larger example is USAA Federal Savings Bank in San Antonio. They have used information capability to enable on-line direct banking to the extreme degree:

* Customers deposit checks on-line electronically by scanning an image.
* Mortgage loans are approved over the phone, while you wait.
* Cashier checks can be ordered on-line.
* All statements are created as PDF and stored securely on-line.
* Need a car? They find it, negotiate price and send you a check to buy it.
* No fees for any of these services.

They have only one location. But customers worldwide would never even think of banking anywhere else. It is the only financial services company to ever receive the JD Power's Chairman's Award.

SC Design and USAA Bank are both examples of the level of service and information efficiency that is within the grasp of any business. When applied to your business, it creates a picture of unequaled efficiency, unequaled customer satisfaction and competitive power.

What would that business be worth? It would certainly be worth many times more than the cost of implementing the information capabilities. That's a small price of admission to predator status.