B1 (BAU Better)
Every organisation has its “Business as Usual” (BAU)—the core operations that generate reliable revenue and maintain market position. B1 focuses on making these fundamental activities demonstrably better, targeting specific growth metrics (typically 20% or a predetermined percentage above the previous year’s performance, depending on business maturity). These improvements serve a dual purpose: driving immediate growth while generating the cash surpluses necessary for funding future initiatives.
Core Principles of BAU Better
- Focused Initiative Selection
- Limit to 2-3 key initiatives to maintain focus
- Choose projects with clear impact on core business metrics
- Ensure initiatives address specific growth bottlenecks
- Target improvements that enhance cash generation capability
- Maintain alignment with overall business strategy
- Performance Enhancement
- Address operational inefficiencies to improve margins
- Strengthen leadership where needed
- Tackle chronic issues like customer churn
- Improve existing product/service delivery
- Optimise working capital management
- Market Responsiveness
- Adapt to competitive pressures while maintaining profitability
- Embrace technological shifts (e.g., AI integration) that improve efficiency
- Respond to changing customer expectations
- Maintain market share in core segments
Practical Implementation Approach
Consider a B2B software company aiming for 20% growth. Their B1 initiatives might include:
- Customer Retention Programme
- Implement advanced churn prediction
- Enhance customer success processes
- Improve product onboarding
- Strengthen account management
- Result: Reduced churn means better cash flow predictability
- Sales Effectiveness
- Upgrade sales team capabilities
- Implement better sales tools
- Enhance proposal processes
- Improve pipeline management
- Result: More efficient sales process reduces cost of customer acquisition
- Product Enhancement
- Add AI capabilities to core features
- Improve user interface
- Enhance performance metrics
- Strengthen integration capabilities
- Result: Higher customer satisfaction leads to better retention and referrals
Red Ocean Strategies
Operating in competitive markets (“red oceans”) requires particular attention to:
- Competitive differentiation without margin erosion
- Strategic price positioning to maintain profitability
- Service quality improvements that scale efficiently
- Customer relationships that generate long-term value
- Market share protection while maintaining margins
- Operational efficiency that reduces costs
Key Success Factors
- Leadership Focus
- Clear ownership of initiatives
- Regular progress reviews
- Resource prioritisation
- Performance accountability
- Focus on both growth and profitability metrics
- Measurement and Tracking
- Specific growth targets
- Leading indicators
- Customer feedback metrics
- Competitive benchmarks
- Cash flow and profitability metrics
- Resource Allocation
- Dedicated teams
- Appropriate budgets
- Technology investments that improve efficiency
- Training and development
- Clear ROI expectations
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
- Initiative Overload
- Taking on too many improvements simultaneously
- Spreading resources too thin
- Losing focus on core metrics
- Compromising profitability for growth
- Resistance to Change
- Maintaining status quo mindset
- Insufficient buy-in from teams
- Inadequate change management
- Missing efficiency improvement opportunities
- Market Misalignment
- Ignoring competitive moves
- Missing technology shifts
- Overlooking customer needs
- Sacrificing margins for market share
B1 initiatives form the backbone of sustainable growth and financial stability. While not as exciting as breakthrough innovations, these focused improvements to core business operations often deliver the most reliable returns and generate the cash surpluses needed to fund future growth initiatives. Companies like Google and Microsoft have demonstrated how strong B1 execution in their core businesses provided the financial foundation for their successful cloud transformations.
Remember: BAU Better isn’t about incremental tweaks; it’s about meaningful improvements to core operations that can deliver substantial growth (and the cash surpluses for investments). In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, even “business as usual” requires constant reinvention and enhancement to remain competitive.
