Provide Value to the Customer
The product or service that your business sells must add value to the customer or it will cease to exist. 
This value can be financial, emotional, and spiritual or anything the customer perceives to be important.
If you are not sure what I mean then just think about this for a second.
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How many companies are still making Wagon Wheels?
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How many companies are still making Buggy Whips?
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How many kids do you see walking around carrying AM Radios?
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How many Typewriters are being sold every year compared to in 1980?
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How many rolls of Film have you bought for your 35mm Camera since digital cameras have become the rage?
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How many record players are being sold this year?
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Are you old enough to remember when every community had a Montgomery Wards Store and a Woolworth’s store?
Value or Extinction
Businesses that don’t change usually die. They may have very short runs or very long runs but the same problem always does them in. They stopped providing value to their customers.
The reality is that no one reading this section (Or writing it) has the power to shape the destiny of the American Marketplace.
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If the market decides that the product you make is no longer necessary there is absolutely nothing you can do to change the market’s mind.
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Once you no longer add value to the customer your business will die.
But you can learn to adjust course, re-deploy assets, and re-invent your business model to capitalize on market trends. And you can learn to predict what will be of value and move to provide it.
Greg L. Alston is an Author, Educator, Pharmacist and Entrepreneur with a unique resume of management success, in the chain drug industry, as an independent pharmacy owner and as an academic administrator. During the last 35 years he has been a pharmacy manager, corporate training manager, marketing manager, category manager, regional pharmacy manager and owned and operated several successful businesses including Halloween shops, Drug stores, medical supply, medical billing and internet marketing operations. He has published in academic journals, authored textbooks and spoken at too many conferences to count. His latest book is, The Bosshole Effect. Follow him at Twitter or on Facebook or Linkedin
