During December i had the privilege of visiting a Private Game Lodge in Limpopo South Africa.

Included with the package was two game drives a day, with a very knowlegable guide, Stephen. Each day Stephen would give us a wealth of information about the bush, everything from flora to fauna and bugs and birds. Really good for trivial pursuit questions in future.

On one particular game drive we got discussing the ecological managment of this particular private game reserve. This was where things got intereseting, as in terms of the natural order of things the predators are at the top of the food chain and the prey at the bottom. In order to maintain the balance, it is important that the number of prey can sustain the number of predators and that there are not too many predators to wipe out the prey completely. According to Stephen the size of the reserve is capable of sustaining a certian number of prey and predators. Maintaining this balance is the job of the ecological management team at this reserve.

This got me thinking about business. If the size of the reserve is the economy, how many businesses can the economy sustain? If the economy shrinks, as it has done over the past few years, it stands to reason that the number of businesses would need to shrink too.

In order for your business to remain in the economy when it is shrinking, you will need a survival and growth strategy.

In the reserve there are a few prides of lion, or herds of buffalo etc. In your industry there are a number of competators that compete for the same slice of the pie. Much like each herd you will need to evolve to remain in the “reserve”. Some strategies may include:
Mergers and acquisitions, technological advancement, industrialization, specialization, diversification.

How do you choose the right strategy? We at Reach Business Advisory believe that there is no one size fits all strategy, but rather suggest that you explore a multitude of strategies in order to remain in the economy. With putting all your eggs in one basket you are limiting your survival and growth to that one strategy. What if it does not work? We beilieve that businesses should explore a multitude of options and play these out over time. Test the waters so to speak. If one strategy fails, there are three or more to fall back on.

We hope you find our blog relevent and food for thought. We value feeback and comments.