Revolution

"Revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets"

Napoleon Bonaparte

What Is A Business Revolution?

The Business Revolution is a process undertaken by companies with inadequate or declining customer bases to ensure the growth and continued success of their organisation.

For businesses of these types, where the main challenges revolve around fundamentals like target market and the industry an organisation is operating within, marketing tactics like increased advertising won't do the job.

Through thorough assessment of the business and external environment strategic decisions can be made.

These decisions can include:

* Targeting new market segments

* Moving from Business to Consumer to Business to Business, or vice versa

* Dropping a product line

* Introducing a new product line

* Restructure of the company

* Redefinition of the industry being operated within

* Moving from a product to service industry, or vice versa

The Business Revolution does NOT have to involve dropping the existing business, or throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

What it does involve is drawing a line in the sand and committing to making change from that point forwards.

Successful businesses evolve and grow. Where evolution hasn't been happening, more radical changes can be necessary, hence the Business Revolution.

Cannon Hall Farm Case Study

Cannon Hall Farm is an award-winning working farm near Barnsley in the UK Pennines.

For hundreds of years it had been the Home Farm to the Cannon Farm Estate, providing food for the owners and staff. The farm has existed, in various guises, for over 350 years.

In the 1980s it became clear to its owners that it must diversify beyond simple farming in order to survive.

From the addition of tearooms, to opening the farm for public visits, to adding children's playgrounds and retail premises, the business has spent the last 30 years adding supplementary business streams to continue to sell to both existing and new customer bases.

Cannon Hall Farm have tapped into the lucrative and growing market for family and more specifically children's activity days. They currently charge £18 ($30) for a family ticket to the farm, plus parking charges of around £3 ($5). They welcome over 40,000 school children to the farm every year and host birthday parties.

In a nutshell:

The core business had been farming and sale of product (product)

Strategic thinking led to Cannon Hall Farm's businesses being:

1) Continuation of the prior core business of farming and sale of product (product)

2) Introduction of leisure day out around farming experience, plus play areas (service)

3) Tea rooms for visitors to the farm (product and service)

4) Retail of produce from the farm plus items sourced elsewhere (product)

Cannon Hall Farm welcome over 250,000 paying visitors every year and make use of excellent marketing tactics (a recent example being the promotion of late night / overnight opening hours to watch farm animals giving birth) to drive repeat business.

Revolution

"Revolution is not a dinner party, not an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly and modestly"

- Mao Tse-Tung

Honister Slate Mine Case Study

Honister Slate Mine near Keswick in the English Lake District is a slate excavation site with hundreds of years of history.

After a period of near inactivity at the mine, it was sold on to local entrepreneur Mark Weir in 1998.

The core business of the mine had been the excavation and sale of slate for use in construction of buildings locally and further afield.

Mark Weir restarted the former core business while also adding additional business streams based around the mine. These included the production of artisan products using slate from the mine (such as house name / number signs, coasters and wine racks) which were sold on individually to end users; the creation of a tourist attraction around the mine providing mine tours to 60,000 visitors in one year alone and access to a Via Ferrata metal climbing ladder on a cliff face; construction of an on-site cafe targeting walkers and visitors to the tourist attraction.

Had Mark Weir simply undertaken a campaign of marketing tactics he would have sought markets for the wholesale slate from his mines. By instead focusing on strategy he was able to reach out to completely new market segments, move from a product business to a product and service one and redefine the industry within which he was operating.

In a nutshell:

The core business had been the excavation of slate for sale to the construction industry (product, B2B)

Strategic thinking led to Honister's businesses being:

1) Continuation of the prior core business of excavation of slate for sale to the construction industry (product, B2B)

2) Excavation of slate to create artisan products (coasters, wine racks, house signs) which were sold on individually to end users (value-added product, B2C)

3) Creation of a tourist attraction on site offering guided tours of mines and the Via Ferrata cliff face climbing ladder (service, B2C)

4) Construction of an on-site cafe targeting walkers and visitors to the tourist attraction (product and service, B2C)

As a postscript to this case study, Mark Weir tragically died earlier this year but the Honsiter business continues in his memory.