Smart Business Magazine, Mar 2013

4 Smart Business Philadelphia March 2013 FROM THE CEO FRED KOURY Catching lightning CLICK OR SCAN to read more columns from Fred Koury or go to bit ly SBN_ Koury CONTACT President and CEO Fred Koury at fkoury@ sbnonline com Identifying trends is the key to long term success Steve Jobs was the master of spotting trends and the opportunities that go with them He was so good at it that he could see trends when they were still in their infancy This allowed him to create products that kept his company at the front of the waves of change and ultimately drove massive profits and stock growth for Apple While not many people possess the uncanny sixth sense that Jobs had its important to spend time studying your industry and whats happening at various levels from customers to suppliers to competitors You need to recognize when the trend is pushing positive growth and when its not The additional challenge is to know the difference between a trend and a fad A trend is more long lived and drives a lot of long term opportunity while a fad tends to burn out quickly This isnt to say that trends last forever because they dont An important part of studying trends is to know when to jump off the wagon and find the next opportunity because if you ride a trend too far you may find yourself in a rapidly declining industry or an area of waning interest For example Y2K was a fad For those who dont remember the Y2K boom was caused by old computers that only saw years as two digits instead of four and widespread computer issues were predicted if systems werent upgraded A giant boom in computer consulting and sales resulted from this issue but it was short lived The moment 2000 rolled around the need for Y2K upgrades dried up The dot com boom which was partly fueled by Y2K was a trend For a number of years a ridiculous amount of money was being thrown at any project that contained the word Internet regardless of its business model or competitive factors While it was active there were plenty of online growth opportunities for businesses to take advantage of Those who recognized the trend were able to capitalize on it and more importantly those who recognized the end of the trend were able to cash out before it went bust Not every trend will be as big as the dot com boom and depending on your industry they may not be so obvious Finding and recognizing trends starts with studying your industry You need to stay in tune with whats happening with competitors and constantly read about not only your industry but related ones as well Talk to suppliers and vendors to get their opinions as to what direction your markets may be headed But the most important thing may be to have an open mind Dont assume that because something hasnt changed for 20 years that it isnt ever going to change With an open mind you are more likely to recognize an emerging trend before everyone else has rushed to capitalize on it putting you ahead of the curve Once you are exploiting a trend you have to be equally diligent to know when its going to end and thats done in a similar fashion to identifying it in the first place Stay plugged in to your industry These are exciting times and change is all around us Look for the hidden clues that can lead you to the next big opportunity and never stop challenging your own beliefs The CEOs who do the best over time are the ones who dont accept the status quo Smart Business Magazine is a management journal providing insight and advice for top decision makers Each edition includes feature articles on management strategies of CEOs of leading local companies In addition we partner with leading service providers to deliver expert advice to our senior management audience Smart Business Philadelphia 835 Sharon Drive Suite 200 Cleveland OH 44145 Phone 8884490120 PUBLISHER VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS Dustin S Klein VICE PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Jennifer Sadlowe SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR Erik Cassano INSIGHTS MANAGING EDITOR Adam Burroughs DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT John Lotenero Smart Business Magazine is a division of Smart Business Network Inc PRESIDENT CEO Fred Koury PRESIDENT CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER SMART BUSINESS MAGAZINES EVENTS Lee Koury PRESIDENT CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER CONTENT MARKETING Michael Marzec VICE PRESIDENT OF DIGITAL MARKETING David Fazekas CONTROLLER Kathy Deutsch DESIGN DIRECTOR Jim Mericsko PRODUCTION MANAGER Mary Kay Bukowski CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER Colleen Fichter COPY EDITOR Melanie Klag VICE PRESIDENT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Katie Janoch NATIONAL ACCOUNTS MANAGER Janet Valore GRAPHIC DESIGNERS Lori Smith Kaelyn Hrabak INSIGHTS ASSOCIATE EDITORS Jayne Gest Roger Vozar AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Somer Karim AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANT Tammy Frank EVENT MARKETING COORDINATOR Danielle Catteau EVENT SALES EXECUTIVES Anne Hydock Meredith Baldy OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR Jill Brown BILLING COORDINATOR Barb Ingrassia Smart Business magazine is also published in Akron Canton Atlanta Chicago Cincinnati 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