Rod Menzel, CEO of GreatWay Roofing Inc. in Moorpark, Calif., believes better insight will lead to better decisions and greater success.
“Insight is a topic that is near and dear to me,” Menzel told roofing contractors at Best of Success. He noted that insight is typically defined as “the capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing.”
Tough decisions have to be made daily in an ever-changing complex world, Menzel said, and insight can be the key to making the right ones.
“Insight can make the difference between success and failure, profit and loss,” he said.
He compared tough decisions to forks in the road. “When there’s a fork in the road, and we don’t know which way to go, we need to look for insight,” he said.
Business leaders should position themselves to gain the insights they need, said Menzel. One key is reaching a “point if balance.” To describe the principle of balance, he quoted the Chinese philosopher Mencius: “If you know the point of balance, you can settle the details. If you can settle the details, you can stop running around. Your mind will become calm. If your mind becomes calm, you can think in front of a tiger. If you can think in front of a tiger, you will surely succeed.”
Menzel also talked about “roadblocks” to insight. “You get information overload,” he said. “You may forget where you are going. You may be blinded by your own ways. You may have forgotten your old ways. You are one e-mail ding away form losing focus.”
He noted it’s also important to see things from the customer’s point of view. “It’s not what you think, it’s what they experience,” he said.
“What is a brand?” Menzel asked. “It’s not a company’s logo or advertising - those things are controlled by the company. A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company. Branding is a company’s effort to build lasting value by delighting customers.”
To delight customers, the company must shine in “moments of truth” during the first contact with the customer, the sale, and the production process.
In a world of cutthroat competition, differentiating your company is essential. “We’re feeling the competition is tighter,” Menzel said. “We want to make it irrelevant by doing what they can’t.”
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