If we were to ask a room of 100 local citizens how to describe their business outlook in 2024, my bet is that the word used most would be "uncertain." Whether it's the gloomy nature of our toxic politics, tough-to-read financial markets, nagging inflation, or still challenging labor pools the charge to leaders is to somehow chart a successful course through the unknown.
That's where business positioning comes in--as leaders, we can work to position our teams and firms to be well-positioned no matter the environment. Let's define positioning as this--if the market is up, we win. If the market is the same, we win. And if the market goes down, we win. Think of it as intentional differentiation.
Smart leaders in the moment are working hard to think about how they are positioning the talent and resources around them to be well-positioned in what is clearly a new market cycle...and, like so many things with leadership, it's easy to say and remarkably hard to do.
Clark Twiddy, President of Twiddy & Company, is the author of our Leadership Corner, published on our blog the third Tuesday of each month. He can be reached at ctwiddy@twiddy.com.
