Elective politics principles key in business operations

Last week, I had an interesting discussion with a parliamentary aspirant who lost miserably in the last General Election to what he referred to as less worthy competitors.

He emphatically told me that he has discovered that venturing into elective politics is similar to entering a new market. There are other factors, other than the person or product that determines the outcome.

Currently, he is trying to turn round his businesses using some of the principles which he learnt from his loss.

Although his business is cash strapped after neglect and heavy campaign expenses, he says that after learning from his mistakes, he is planning a comeback both in business and politics.

One thing that I admired most in this gentleman is, unlike most politicians, he did not blame rigging, electorates or other circumstances for his loss. He takes full responsibility.

While insisting that he was the best candidate for his constituency, he admits that he made a serous judgmental error by vying on an unknown political party ticket, in a region where people have a fanatic following of a certain major political party.

“You see in life people don’t always buy the best product in the market, the often buy the most popular. They go for known brands even when alternatives are of superior quality,” he said.

A deep look at this scenario reveals something quite remarkable. Most political parties all over the world have regional stronghold, not necessarily along tribal lines as in African countries. A new entrant into politics can only ignore this aspect at their own peril.

It is much easier to win in an election if you vie on a party that is popular in that region even if you are a weak and unknown.

You really need to be a heavy weight or be exceptionally good, a sort of a revolutionary to win a poll as an independent candidate or through a weak and unknown political party.

This principle applies to business as well. It is easier to penetrate a market if it has no dominant competitor. Most start-ups that ignore this aspect when starting a business end up closing shop or taking too long and spending a lot of money to break even and gain a substantial market share.

Fortunately, just as in political parties, mostly there is no single competitor who is strong in all regions, unless in a perfect monopoly market.

It is, therefore, very important when starting business or launching new products to first of all target areas where your rivals are weakest, unless if you have an innovative and unique product that has the capability of revolutionising the market.

The advantage of this strategy is low cost of marketing and high returns on investment. Changing customer loyalty sometimes can turn out to tricky and expensive length process that a start up may not have readily afford.

Finding a niche market or an area where your competitor is weak helps you establish a base or stronghold from which you can get fuel and motivation to venture out and sustain affront on your competitors if need be.

A simple research will help you to establish which areas are dominated by your competitors and which ones don’t hold allegiance to anyone.

If you need distributors to retail your products, check their level of commitment and support to you, including their relationship with your competitors.

In some cases the bond between your competitor and major distributors is so strong or has some legal restrictions that may force you to develop your own distributors, a cost you may not be ready to shoulder.

Mr Kiunga is the author of The Art of Entrepreneurship: Strategies to Succeed in a Competitive Market.