The Power of Smart Bets: A Guide to Sustainable Business Growth

“Unprecedented times”

How many times have you heard that term in the last three years?

Yes, things have been turbulent. Yes, there have certainly been a lot of twists and turns. But an uncertain market shouldn’t be seen as a difficulty – it should be an opportunity.

Upsets in markets present gaps. These gaps are always filled: it’s the nature of our modern world. But what companies fill these gaps? It’s not necessarily the bravest or the most daring (they’re usually the first to go under), it’s the ones who have created an antifragile business framework that allows them to make rational, informed and educated decisions with a clear outlook.

In short, it’s the smart bets that will get you across the line.

Taking a smart bet is a lot more than just looking at the odds and throwing your chip in, hoping it will end up on black. Instead, it’s built on a solid framework of Data, Insights, Belief and Bets, also known as the DIBB Framework.

Data: This initial step is focused on the stuff you know. Every business should have the hard numbers they can track and, hopefully, the revenue attached to them. How did that ad redesign work with our target audience? How far do our sales channels reach? What is the total cost of your advertising budget, and how is it divided? Gathering the hard numbers will help inform your approach.

Once you have a clear, concise understanding of how your marketing campaigns are performing, then you can start seeing the gaps: the opportunities.

Insights: Numbers are all well and good, but you need to be able to read them like tea leaves to see the full picture. Consider the insights you can draw: is there a specific sector you’ve overlooked? What future market is the competition missing? How can I replicate the success of that campaign? Can you use predictive analytics to make (gasp) a smart bet?

Belief: The first step is always the hardest: now’s the time for a little faith. The past can certainly show a vague path toward the future, but it can only be so illuminating. Once you have your insights ready, once you realize where the opportunity lies, then is the time to take action before someone else does.

Bet: Time to go all in. Throw all your resources at this campaign and make sure it’s the most sure-fire success of your company’s history. Right?

Wrong.

Start off small, use test cases, make small insights first. Then, when the data shows you exactly what is in store for you when you leap, you soar.

As Kyle mentions in our video above, there are a lot of real-world examples of Smart Bets out there for you to learn from. But one which we discussed in a recent community event is a little more nuanced.

SMART BET: REDUCE LAYOFFS, SAVE MONEY

Tech layoffs have been all over the news lately, with thousands of individuals being sliced from the corporate tree.

But what’s interesting in this period of layoffs is that it’s often not the less experienced, junior staff that’s getting the cut, it’s a large proportion of highly experienced, industry-leading professionals.

Although cutting more senior roles can mean bigger savings, it’s a very short-term play that can lead to chaos and even more uncertainty down the line.

Patrizia Bertini is an industry leader in the world of DesignOps. She has assisted a number of companies in navigating the turmoil of the pandemic and boosted their company output, efficiency, and employee satisfaction.

During the recent layoff period, she noticed a trend happening across the industry, and it’s key proof of short-term gain for long-term failure.

Many companies are laying off key operations specialists, particularly within the design world. These are often highly experienced industry experts who get the cut because they are seen as unnecessary, especially to companies that have returned to the office after the pandemic. Patrizia is already seeing the repercussions of these layoffs.

Now, designers have nobody to shield them from constant requests and brief changes, while project managers have no idea why tasks are taking so long or even why they’re being performed in the first place.

Having an effective DesignOps role within your company can boost production by up to 30%. When design-focused companies are able to produce more, they succeed more.

Research from McKinsey shows that design-driven companies grow revenues at nearly twice the rate of their competitors. Furthermore, nearly 75% of campaign performance is linked to the quality of the creative.

Having someone at the core of that creative process is key to a company’s success, yet many companies jettisoned that key player in the latest round of layoffs.

In short, the smart bet would be to hold on to that key employee and know that they can bring in revenue that no other team member can. After all, it costs up to $15,000 to hire a new manager once the market turns around, not to mention the hundreds of hours lost in sourcing, interviewing, and training them back in.

But there’s another aspect of placing a Smart Bet that goes past the DIBB framework: being able to take the blow even if you fail.

SMART BET: CREATE AN ANTIFRAGILE BUSINESS MODEL

Many businesses today are built to be temporary. They capitalize on market trends, take in a hefty profit, then fold when the market turns. Once the market takes a turn again, another one will take its place.

From a financial, ethical, and logical point of view, this makes very little sense. It’s also a highly western practice. Businesses in Asia, particularly in Japan, focus on longevity, sustainability, and a safe growth model, which is why over 40 percent of the world’s oldest companies are Japanese.

We discussed this in-depth in a recent article, but becoming an antifragile company is one of the smartest bets you can make.

HOW TO BECOME ANTIFRAGILE

1. FOCUS ON YOUR BRAND - THE REST WILL FOLLOW

It is almost impossible to develop a successful business without a clear, consistent brand. This goes beyond the logo: every customer (or potential customer) should recognize your company’s product or service almost subconsciously. Think about the big players: Apple, Starbucks, McDonald’s - all of these businesses spend a large portion of their budgets on marketing, making sure that their target audience knows exactly who they are and where to purchase their goods.

However, no major brand came out the gate with a world-dominating logo or marketing pitch, they all spent years (if not decades) experimenting, which is what you’ll need to do too.

2. LEARN TO EXPERIMENT NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

Experimentation should be at the core of all of your marketing endeavors. Markets and audience behaviors change constantly: if you’re not built to move with the times, then you will be left behind.

In your marketing campaigns, you need to leave space for experimentation. Give your creative team the freedom to make suggestions, take calculated risks, and go to new markets with your product.

In uncertain markets, it’s the companies that can adjust the fastest that thrive, and this is something that needs to be built into your process. But how do you do this?

3. OUTSOURCE THE MENIAL

You have spent years sourcing your creative and marketing team. You have some of the best in the business working for you: so why would you have them fine-tuning ad banners or tweaking product images?

The more time your creative and marketing team spends stuck in the weeds of menial tasks, the less time they have to strategize and focus on smart bets.

We’re a Creative-as-a-Service company, so you can say we’re biased, but it’s something we’re hearing from industry leaders over and over again. In our last major summit, we heard senior executives from Jasper, LEGO, Hubspot, Zapier, and countless others all expound on the benefits of outsourcing low-level tasks to give your talent the freedom to be creative.

It gives your company the chance to step back and see the bigger picture, creating new opportunities and experiments that could mean your business survives the next market downturn.

4. OPERATIONALIZE SUCCESS

Sometimes, companies get lucky. They’re in the right place at the right time and their company reaps the benefits. But for other businesses, it’s not about being in the right place at the right time, it’s about creating that situation in the first place.

Design-first businesses like Apple or Nike focus on creating a product that doesn’t just appeal to the current time but can create market trends just from the sheer quality of the product.

These businesses create an operating structure that focuses on design first, using the product and the consumer’s relationship with the product as their core motivator for success. As an antifragile business, you need to do the same.

As a marketer, you need to work hand in hand with your design and creative team so that when an opportunity arises, you can work seamlessly together to develop the next industry-leading product.

Creating an operational structure that ensures communication between marketers and designers isn’t easy. But luckily for you, we’ve written an extensive guide that can explain exactly how you can become an antifragile, design-focused business that can take those smart bets when they arise.

DON’T LOOK FOR THE SMART BET, GUARANTEE IT

Adam Morgan, Senior Director of Brand & Creative at Splunk (previously Executive Creative Director at Adobe), is a strong believer in creating systems that guarantee a successful outcome. In creating a structure where every member of the team knows exactly what they are doing and exactly how to reach the company’s end goal, you will create a successful marketing model.

Successful marketing, at its core, is about having a full understanding of your audience and how your business solves a problem for your customer. By creating a structure that allows your top talent to look to the horizon and predict what’s coming, you can create a strong, stable business that can weather the storm.

Outsource the menial when possible, focus on the DIBB system for future planning, and create a solid, lucid operational and communication structure. With those building blocks, it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, you will see success.

Written by Amrita Mathur, VP Marketing at Superside.com