We dare because we care – human-centric business development

The business environment these days is complex and that causes companies many kinds of challenges. The mass-market era is over and competition is global. Categories and sales channels are blurring with each other. End-users’ behavior seems unpredictable.

A company that wants to succeed in this fast-paced world needs a forward-looking understanding from many perspectives and multiple stakeholders: the direct customer, the consumer, the market, and the future – not to mention the company’s internal perspective.

Why is human-centric business development the key to success?

Human-centric business development connects human understanding to strategic business goals. It ensures that your business or brand is and stays relevant and meets the evolving customer needs.

Human-centric business development turns the company’s gaze outwards, towards direct customers, consumers, competition, innovation, the future. This is how we can anticipate evolving needs or even create them and can prepare ourselves for the new and the next.

It gives answers to the why questions through in-depth understanding of your direct customers’, consumers’ and other stakeholders´ (e.g. retailers) values, worldview, and lifestyle, in addition to needs and drivers in your commercial context. Why would a person buy your product? Why would the retailers introduce it to their clients? Or why your employees advocate your business?

Only so can we produce relevant and spot-on solutions (the “what”), but also to communicate about them appealingly (the “how”). For instance, a cosmetics company needs to understand the rapidly changing portrayal of women at a cultural level, (how the target consumer wants to be seen as a woman today), to be able to present women in advertisements in a way that the target consumer can identify with.

How to make human-centric business development a real strategic competitive advantage?

Customer-centricity is mentioned in many companies’ strategies. Instead of being an organization’s shared approach to business,  in reality, it yet sometimes manifests itself at the beginning of development projects as a routine-like research phase or consumer test in the end.

So, how to ensure that the human aspect is present at all encounters and decision making?

1. Embed human-centric business development in company strategy, decision-making as well with the organizational structure and processes.
2. Ensure gaining top management genuine enthusiasm and full support. Ensure internal pioneers´ competence to contribute to C-level strategic business questions.
3. Invest in common frameworks that create structure and systematics in human-centric business development, e.g. customer segmentation or continuous monitoring of trends.
4. Ensure knowledge sharing and common learning, so that interesting and relevant information can be turned first into insights and finally into conclusions for business development.

We at Marketing Clinic help companies both embed human-centric business development into their organizations and utilize it.

Why is Marketing Clinic the ideal partner in human-centric business development?

• We bring human perspective to strategic business questions.
• Our approach is holistic. In creating a positive impact of growth we combine multiple competencies: human and business understanding as well as creative skills and technological expertise.
• We want to make business, not just to understand. We are to support commercial success.
• We turn insights into decisions and actions. We support strategic decision-making and are not afraid of questioning the status quo. We dare because we care.

How to develop human-centricity and improve your human centric business development in your organization? Please connect with us – we are happy to help you take the first steps or build on your existing expertise and assets!