For business owners and entrepreneurs, your company is often your biggest asset. It’s also what you put most of your time and effort into. That’s why it is important to understand how to improve your business's valuation. One way to achieve this is by strengthening the operating model.

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Have you ever heard the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child"? Well, the same applies to businesses: it takes a village to raise success. Ecosystems have become increasingly important to business strategy over the past few decades.

Companies have traditionally focused on building internal capabilities to compete in their market. But as the pace of technological and social change has accelerated, it has become increasingly difficult to keep up with new developments to maintain a competitive edge.

Interdependency has now become the dominant market force.
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Imagine a workplace where every employee feels like they have a stake in the company's success. Where more people in your business are motivated to work harder, smarter, and better because they know that their own success is directly tied to the success of the business. This is the promise of employee ownership, a concept that has been gaining traction in growth businesses around the world. It is one of the models that ensures that the tech giants use to lock in employee retention, despite the fierce competition for that talent globally, and it has been quickly mimicked by rising tech stars, such as Spotify, Atlassian and ZenDesk. But employee ownership is not just for technology companies. Here’s why.

As one of the key leaders in your business, regardless of your role, it's important to understand the value of a strong business model. A business model defines how your company generates revenue, creates and delivers value, and maintains a sustainable competitive advantage. In this blog post, we'll share how you can improve your business model and why it matters to your competitive strategy.

When we hear the term "black swan event," we tend to think of rare and unforeseen events that have massive and unpredictable impacts. The name itself comes from the historical European belief that all swans were white. This view persisted until the colonial ‘discovery’ of black swans in Australia. Suddenly, it seemed that something was possible that had previously been unimaginable.

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Small business owners face a multitude of risks that can make it difficult to maintain and grow their businesses. These risks include financial uncertainty, market disruption, operating model inefficiencies, and regulatory changes. They also include daily operational risks that keep most small business owners up at night: cash flow and payroll, finding and retaining customers and finding and retaining staff. These challenges can be particularly acute for small businesses that are just starting, as they may not have a significant cash reserve or established customer base to rely upon. Below a certain size, small businesses find it hard to step out of this operational risk cycle.

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Managing people can be one of the most challenging aspects of running a business, even though people are a key driver of sustainable value. There are many factors that contribute to the difficulty of managing people as an asset, including the shortage of available and affordable talent, the changing nature of work, the complexity of human behaviour, and the need to balance short-term and long-term goals.

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The decline in the average lifespan is a global trend, but it is one that is particularly pronounced in Australia. Over the past 50 years, the average lifespan of an Australian company has fallen from 65 years to just 10 years. This is a concerning trend, and it's one that should be of interest to any business owner or leader who wants their company to be successful over the long term.

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In a world where customers have endless options at their fingertips, building brand trust is essential to ensuring the longevity of any business. One of the key components to achieving this is by being predictable for your customers. When customers know what to expect from your brand, they are more likely to trust you, become loyal to you, and recommend you to others. It’s hard to do well, being predictable, especially when you’re growing. But there’s no doubt it’s an unsung ‘wow’ factor in your customer engagement.

So why is being predictable for your customers so important? Let's take a closer look.