As business builders,
we have to predict
where we want the business to go.
A big part of that
is figuring out where the industry
is going.
Our industry is made up of
our competition,
our customers,
our suppliers,
and our partners.
The competition is unlikely to talk to us
but the other players will.
Knowing what they plan to do
will help us decide what we should do.
Jeff Hoffman,
a member of
Priceline.com’s founding team,
shares
“We went out to our customers,
suppliers, and partners,
and asked them what they thought
their future would look like.
We asked them how their needs would change,
how their company would change,
how their jobs would change,
how their buying habits would change.
We asked them which factors
in the world around them
worried them most about their future,
and which ones they were most excited about.”
This information will not only
help us predict the future
but it also helps us understand our partners.