Solar Marketing Transformation

To many business owners, a goal of building a $25 million company appears to be too small. Venture capitalists look for a company that can grow to at least $100 million, and go public. Yet the facts argue that achieving just a $25 million level of business is a major achievement. For perspective, the average sales per business firm in the United States in 2006 was $338,000.

Only six in every 1,000 businesses achieve revenues of $25 million. The other 994 either fail, or peak at less than $25 million. Lack of focus on marketing transformation is at the root of much of the failure.

Marketing transformation is not rocket science but it's difficult for most CEOs to step away from daily operations to understand what it really means. Marketing transformation requires the continual redirection and renewal of your company that occurs from strategic adaptation to the environment. Since the solar marketplace is in constant flux, adaptation must continue without end.

The changing environment is a constant source of clues. Interpreting environmental clues requires judgment, analytical skill and creativity. For many solar suppliers, seeing the clues requires a perspective that is inconsistent with the need to focus on daily operations. Developing perspective is difficult for those whose consuming (and necessary) daily activities are concentrating on the latest order. So perspective is one of the most important qualities an observer can contribute to a company serving the solar/pv marketplace.

There remains the matter of will. For many managers, acting on fuzzy clues requires a leap of faith that is difficult to make, or that is resisted until change becomes inevitable. A continual, gradual transformation is less traumatic to the organization, provides higher returns and lower costs, and is preferable to the organizational disruption that affect some companies. The will to make continuing change occur is a prerequisite to breaking the $25 million barrier.