This is one of the most valuable questions to ask not only yourself but every staff member you have at your company. You will be surprised at the results and you will see how people curtail their roles into their answers like almost biased but inevitable responses. Generic responses may seem the clear answer but breaking down your initial thoughts to the very basis of what your company is trying to achieve on a daily basis will show how you should be aligning your strategy.

Key words will pop up such as profit, growing clientele base, customer satisfaction, employee happiness, market share, the list goes on forever and at the end of the day they primarily revolve around money. You have to look past the paper though and analyze what is it that actually will take your business to being a leader. My answer is learning. As a start up or a lifelong veteran business, the key to being an expert in any category is how quickly you can learn every aspect that drives your business. Acquiring new customers is great and pretty much a requirement but looking at a number increase or decrease is meaningless. You must learn why new customers wanted to use your product or service and why several did not. The answer to this question will be what truly drives your growth. Learning through feedback channels what is working well at your company and what needs to be changed is a triumph. Any company can experience these triumphs everyday if you are taking the time to figure out better processes and solutions. The firms that don’t take the time to learn from their mistakes and the changing environment are the ones that will not exist next year simple as that. With this I challenge you to examine what successes can be unveiled that will contribute to your goals. What will you analyze about your industry and product that will truly give you a clearer approach to your strategy? What do you still need to figure out to be the best at what you do?