Major reasons for Business Failure

My apology for not having been active on Thoughtsprevail , was held up in activities that kept me away from my blog This week, I picked up a book titled "What Self-Made Millionaires really think,know and do" which has some exceptional content on business.Though reading the book won't make me/you a millionaire but it would definitely help in understanding business in a much better sense !!! After reading a few chapters from the book, I came across a very interesting topic that focused on BUSINESS FAILURE and this article would be a GIST of that chapter.

The reasons are split across four categories, namely:
a) Specialization b) Differentiation c) Segmentation & d) Concentration

Note:
Though many of these reasons might be quite common, but it is important to keep them in mind since , most of the times, we forget the so called COMMON THINGS

SPECIALIZATION

1. No mission, no clear goals, stated OBJECTIVE to make a pile of money.
2. CUSTOMER not perceived as a top priority.
3. Loss of momentum in sales, poor SALES performance.
4. Impatience, trying to get RICH quickly.
5. Operating outside own area of excellence, diversification into UNASSOCIATED BUSINESSES.
6. Failure to focus on PRIORITIES, failure to focus on 20 percent that brings in the 80 percent.

DIFFERENTIATION

1. Failure to establish COMPETITIVE advantage, failure to be better, cheaper, faster or nicer , trying to sell a commodity.
2. Product not suited to customer REQUIREMENTS.
3. Poor QUALITY of product and support.

SEGMENTATION

1. Failure to IDENTIFY CUSTOMERS.
2. REACTIVE rather than proactive SELLING.
   
3. INCOMPLETE marketing STRATEGY, poor sales performance.

CONCENTRATION

1. POOR LEADERSHIP, lack of integrity and COMPETENCE of KEY STAFF, lack of commitment & persistence.
2. MISMANAGEMENT of working CAPITAL.
3. Failure to analyse and respond to trends, CHANGES in MARKET PLACE.
4. No BUSINESS PLAN.
5. Inadequate financial records, POOR BUDGETING, poor cash control.
6. Action without planning, FAILURE to collect the RELEVANT FACTS.
7. Paralysis by analysis, TOO much ANALYSIS, not enough action.
8. Poor RELATIONS with STAFF and employees, poor communications, command and control mentality.

As this book is a great resource hence, the next series of articles on Thoughtsprevail would be focusing on such interesting topics[from the book] that relate to business, hope you enjoy them !!!