Business is full of failures. Failure is inevitable, but it’s also good. You learn from it, grow from it and ultimately, it helps you find the path that will lead to your business’s success. Now that you know that the outcomes of your early business expeditions is most likely failure, you as an entrepreneur need to know how to deal with it. One of the main changes a company can bring when reviving itself from a failure, is altering its strategy.

“What’s the point of business school then?, Aren’t we taught methods to not fail?” And the answer is, no one can really prepare you to do that. Your business is as successful as the decisions you make. Every company has a vision for it, which never changes. It has its own image, its own target audience, its on personality, and its own ideal path to success. And starting a company, how do you know what the right decisions to all these unknowns are? You learn from your mistakes, understand your company,so that finally you understand these unknowns, and the strategy to use to implement the vision you have for your company.

A company needs a well defined road map. The central vision of the company, with a thorough understanding of its market, defines the strategy that the company uses to base its decision trail on.

Let’s look at Airbnb. Airbnb is a norm now, with millions of users, but its taken a lot for Airbnb to get to this point. In an interview with Brian Chesky, he talks about how when the company just started, every investor was against it. No one thought there was a market for a stranger to stay in another stranger’s house. But the founder’s had a vision, and as Brian Chesky said, he kept relaunching the company after it failed, again and again, till he found thew right formula for his company, understood the strategic path to follow, and the rest is history.

Once your company is defined, it will use smaller strategies for sustained success. Let’s look at something as specific as Muji’s expansion into Canada. Muji has defined its identity as a company, and is well established to its market. It’s plan is for slow expansion, opening 7-8 stores in all of Canada over the next 5 years. Its strategic expansion plan, shows its understanding of Canadian markets, and how best to grow its revenue and business.

In conclusion, strategy is central to a companies success. It’s a direct tie to the vision of the company, and because of its specificity to a company, it’s going to take more than a few failures to figure out what works. So I guess the lesson is: Perseverance is key….hmm..

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References:

G. (2015, November 30). Retrieved October 29, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W608u6sBFpo

How to Create Simple Business Strategy. (2017, April 14). Retrieved October 29, 2017, from https://www.jcount.com/how-to-create-simple-business-strategy/

R. (2014, September 30). Muji plans 7 or 8 Canadian stores over the next 5 years, senior executive says. Retrieved October 29, 2017, from http://business.financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/muji-canada-stores

Watkins, M. D. (2017, March 21). Demystifying Strategy: The What, Who, How, and Why. Retrieved October 29, 2017, from https://hbr.org/2007/09/demystifying-strategy-the-what

Every now and then, the world is lucky enough to a see leader emerge, who’s ideas change humanity for good. The world looks up to them, and their actions impact people across the globe. With Elon Musk’s crusade to advance human civilization, he is one such visionary, who’s work will impact people across the globe and be remembered through time. With so many people in the world trying to make a mark, what makes Musk stand out?

An entrepreneur has a clear and compelling vision of his goal. But having the ability to execute that vision, and being surrounded by people who will work to make this vision a reality that affects actual lives, that’s when people start to notice an entrepreneur. So I’m just drawing on the strongest example I can think of, and trying to deduce what he’s doing right.

Musk is of daring character. And with the entire outside world skeptical of his projects, how does he manage to keep his team motivated?  Simply put, an entrepreneur needs to stop caring about what other people think of his ideas. As an entrepreneur, you should consider it your duty, to share your vision with your customer, and provide real value to your customer from making your vision into a reality. You need to know why it is necessary to provide your customers your product.

In his biography and his speeches, Musk talks about how much he loves his work.  An entrepreneur’s chances of failing are pretty high, so he must work twice as hard as he needs to and should love what he’s doing. If an entrepreneur doesn’t love and recognize the importance of what he’s doing, he won’t have the patience and the perseverance to see his vision through to the end.

At times in your career, it will seem like every door is shutting on you, and you come damn close to failing. Only with absolute self-certainty and passion can you push through these times, to see your company successful to the end. Tesla, Space X: they’ve both come close to failing, but Musk’s perseverance trumped shitty circumstances to propel both companies to where they are today.

Upon looking at musk’s life story, you can see why everyone working for him follows him so blindly. Because Musk does all these things at such a high level everyday, people trust him, people believe in him, and most importantly, they follow him because they want to be like him.

In summary, with every endeavour Musk takes on, he seems to achieve the impossible. With every move he makes, he shatters the arguments of all skeptics. I may just be an undergraduate student, but when I read about Elon Musk, I always think the same thing: “Now that’s a leader”.

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References:

Clifford, C. (2017, June 21). Elon Musk’s 3 best pieces of advice for how to be a great leader. Retrieved October 16, 2017, from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/20/elon-musk-how-to-be-a-great-leader.html

Vance, A. (2016). Elon Musk: how the billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is shaping our future. London: Virgin Books.

Why Tesla CEO Elon Musk Is Among the World’s Greatest Leaders. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2017, from http://fortune.com/2017/03/24/tesla-elon-musk-worlds-greatest-leaders/