People Drive Cash, Profit, Assets and Growth… How do you Anticipate Their Needs?

In Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company, Kevin Cope, puts People at the center of his 5 Key Drivers:

“People make the decisions, supply the financial resources, buy the products, provide the labor and services, and otherwise create and contribute everything else about a business. They drive cash, profit, assets and growth.”

“Meeting, exceeding, or even better, anticipating the wants, needs, and expectations of your employees, customers and other important stakeholders is essential to your financial success. People are your business, and of all your stakeholders, employees and customers are the most important.”

So how do you meet, exceed, or even better, anticipate the wants, needs and expectations of your employees, customers and other important stakeholders? Follow the Design Thinking process:

EMPATHIZE – learn about your audience through observations and interviews

DEFINE – create personas to define their goals, needs, wants, and expectations

IDEATE – brainstorm solutions with a multidisciplinary team of experts

PROTOTYPEbuild prototypes of your best ideas and iterate

TEST – share your prototypes with your target audience, get feedback and iterate until you get it right