This is called ‘outside-in’ thinking. It enables us to make sense of change, and seize the best insights and ideas to drive innovation and profitable growth.
 
Here are the 10 ‘outside-in’ principles that will help you survive and thrive in the new business world.

1. Find the best markets for growth. Growth is about finding the markets with most potential. Look across continents and sectors. Don’t be limited by what is comfortable or close.
 
2. Explore the new business landscape. Business can no longer be parochial. Power has shifted from West to East, from big to small, from business to customer.
 
3. Live in the customer’s world.Take off your business blinkers and see what matters to customers. Talk to them about their dreams and priorities, rather than products and prices.
 
4. Treat customers as individuals not averages. We often seek to create average solutions for average customers. Think about your customer as a real person. Learn about what drives him or her deeply.
 
5. Don’t sell products, deliver experiences! We see the sales transaction as the culmination of our efforts; for the customer it’s just the beginning. Go beyond that little bit of after-sales support to deliver experiences that will endure over time.
 
6. Do business on their terms, not yours. Why should I want to read a random piece of irrelevant mail from you? Why should I come to you? Learn to engage and interact on customers’ terms.
 
7. Enable customers to achieve their dreams. Customers have ambitions, or at least problems to solve. Your products and even your services are just a means to address these. Enable them to do things faster, better and bigger than they ever thought possible.
 
8. Embrace networks and partners.Physical and virtual networks are prime opportunities to connect with customers, embrace and build communities, connect with partners who have difference capabilities and relationships, and reach new places.
 
9. Be more emotional and energising. Business is about people engaging with others. People are inspired by those who have a vision, those who can make sense of complexity and those who understand them best.
 
10. Don’t be the biggest — be the best. In a changing business world, the emphasis has shifted from scale and volume to relevance and difference. The profits are to be found in niches. Loyalty lies in personalisation.
 
Steve Gilroy is chief executive of Vistage International (UK), a leading chief executive organisation