t become different by doing what no one else is doing. Unfortunately, few business owners spend enough time thinking about what their industries will look like in the future.

To begin creating a vision for the future of your industry, start by asking yourself some very important questions: What percentage of your time is spent on outside issues, such as understanding the impact of new technology? How much of the time t

If you want to take the lead in your industry and dominate your markets, you have to do more than just move ahead of your competition. Instead of trying to do what all the businesses are doing in your industry, you need to have a vision of what your industry will look like five to ten years into the future. You have to have a vision of what the industry leaders will be offering and then get there before they do.

Unfortunately, very few businesses compete this way. Instead, they wait to see what the leader in their field will do next and then they set their sights on doing next year what the leader is doing today. Meanwhile, the leader is already working on new ways to leave the competition in the dust.

You may think you’ve been doing just fine by reacting to each competitive threat as it comes. But this passive approach won’t work for very long in today’s competitive market. Technology is making new products and services available at such a blistering pace that any competitor can roll out something overnight that will put you out of business. Just because a new product or service may burst onto the market overnight, don’t be misled into thinking that you can catch up in a few days time. It takes years to build the skills you’ll need to match the revolutionary products and services that will soon come barreling down your competitor’s pipelines.

To be able to take the lead in your industry you must create a clear and detailed vision of the future of your market; then you have to be relentless in doing whatever it takes to get there first.

If you want to build leadership in tomorrow’s markets, it’s not enough to become better at what everyone else is doing. You must become different by doing what no one else is doing. Unfortunately, few business owners spend enough time thinking about what their industries will look like in the future.

To begin creating a vision for the future of your industry, start by asking yourself some very important questions: What percentage of your time is spent on outside issues, such as understanding the impact of new technology? How much of the time th

unately, very few businesses compete this way. Instead, they wait to see what the leader in their field will do next and then they set their sights on doing next year what the leader is doing today. Meanwhile, the leader is already working on new ways to leave the competition in the dust.

You may think you’ve been doing just fine by reacting to each competitive threat as it comes. But this passive approach won’t work for very long in today’s competitive market. Technology is making new products and services available at such a blistering pace that any competitor can roll out something overnight that will put you out of business. Just because a new product or service may burst onto the market overnight, don’t be misled into thinking that you can catch up in a few days time. It takes years to build the skills you’ll need to match the revolutionary products and services that will soon come barreling down your competitor’s pipelines.

To be able to take the lead in your industry you must create a clear and detailed vision of the future of your market; then you have to be relentless in doing whatever it takes to get there first.

If you want to build leadership in tomorrow’s markets, it’s not enough to become better at what everyone else is doing. You must become different by doing what no one else is doing. Unfortunately, few business owners spend enough time thinking about what their industries will look like in the future.

To begin creating a vision for the future of your industry, start by asking yourself some very important questions: What percentage of your time is spent on outside issues, such as understanding the impact of new technology? How much of the time t

r very long in today’s competitive market. Technology is making new products and services available at such a blistering pace that any competitor can roll out something overnight that will put you out of business. Just because a new product or service may burst onto the market overnight, don’t be misled into thinking that you can catch up in a few days time. It takes years to build the skills you’ll need to match the revolutionary products and services that will soon come barreling down your competitor’s pipelines.

To be able to take the lead in your industry you must create a clear and detailed vision of the future of your market; then you have to be relentless in doing whatever it takes to get there first.

If you want to build leadership in tomorrow’s markets, it’s not enough to become better at what everyone else is doing. You must become different by doing what no one else is doing. Unfortunately, few business owners spend enough time thinking about what their industries will look like in the future.

To begin creating a vision for the future of your industry, start by asking yourself some very important questions: What percentage of your time is spent on outside issues, such as understanding the impact of new technology? How much of the time t

ionary products and services that will soon come barreling down your competitor’s pipelines.

To be able to take the lead in your industry you must create a clear and detailed vision of the future of your market; then you have to be relentless in doing whatever it takes to get there first.

If you want to build leadership in tomorrow’s markets, it’s not enough to become better at what everyone else is doing. You must become different by doing what no one else is doing. Unfortunately, few business owners spend enough time thinking about what their industries will look like in the future.

To begin creating a vision for the future of your industry, start by asking yourself some very important questions: What percentage of your time is spent on outside issues, such as understanding the impact of new technology? How much of the time t

t become different by doing what no one else is doing. Unfortunately, few business owners spend enough time thinking about what their industries will look like in the future.

To begin creating a vision for the future of your industry, start by asking yourself some very important questions: What percentage of your time is spent on outside issues, such as understanding the impact of new technology? How much of the time that you use to look outward is spent imagining how different the world might be in a decade? Of the time you devote to looking outward and forward how much of it is spent to form a consensus with colleagues about the future?

Studies have shown that the average business owner spends less than three percent of his or her time on building a view of the future and spends the rest of the time running the business. Whereas, industry leaders spend an average of twenty to fifty percent of their time on building a view of the future for their industry.

To create a vision of the future, you need to first construct a new kind of strategy. It needs to be a strategy based on the foresight to imagine tomorrow’s markets today. Your plan should incorporate a strategic architecture for building the skills you need to dominate the market. It must be a strategy that challenges you and your employees to stretch to achieve the impossible, and focuses on resource leverage to overcome limits. Concentrate on what your company does best rather than product leadership. If you focus on being the first to bring new products and services to the global market, you will find your company far ahead of your competitors.

One of the most important points to keep in mind when you’re developing a vision of the future is that it is more important to restrategize than it is to reengineer. This is because most business owner’s idea of strategy focuses on the tools needed to capture market share. But when the market does not even exist yet, the rules have not been written. And the traditional tools are of no help because they are powerless to analyze the future.

Competing for tomorrow’s markets means th