Yogi Berra once quipped, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

These are very appropriate words in today's business climate. History shows that high-growth market innovators are great at adapting to market disruption. They're like combat leaders, building bridges as they cross rivers.

They plan through action and evolve their strategies as they hit obstacles or achieve success. While strong leadership involves setting strategies, assigning priorities and assessing results, it is also keeping the troops moving.

In a challenging marketplace like today's, many of the traditional marketing tactics like advertising are not as productive as they were. It's time to resort to guerrilla marketing tactics. Jay Levinson's "Guerrilla Marketing" books offer 11 Golden Rules of Guerrilla Marketing and some ways to engage and succeed in business:

1. Do what you do best. An old business axiom says never give up the cash cow. Trying to enter too many niche markets or those where a company has limited expertise can be disastrous. Know the sweet spot and exploit it. If a person is great at baking pies and cakes for upscale buyers, opening a shoe boutique probably wouldn't boost the dessert business. Use the consistent revenue from the cash cow to experiment in closely related, growing markets.
   
   
2. Win at the game of 'coopetition.' Ray Noorda, the founder of Novell, coined the term coopetition (blending cooperation and competition) when referring to competitors becoming partners. Every business needs these relationships to expand and succeed. Whether a business competes or cooperates, its managers need to learn about the marketplace and the various businesses that drive it.
   
   
3. Tell employees the game plan. It's amazing what employees can do to help if they understand the business strategies and how they can help. Everyone in the company is in sales, so educate employees to be knowledgeable ambassadors of the company's products and services. Armed with sales messages about the company, an expanded sales force is ready for customer contact on soccer fields, while watching band practice or on the golf course when a threesome picks up a fourth who could be a prospect.
   
   
4. Get leadership on the same page. In Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat says that "if you don't know where you're going, it doesn't much matter which way you go." Imagine how a baseball team would fare if every player took the field with his own game plan. The same holds true for a business team that tries to execute on objectives that are misaligned.
   
   
5. Keep ALL promises. It doesn't take much to remember how it felt the first time someone broke a promise. Unmet expectations are the root cause of most lost business. Regardless of how minor, do what is said and do it when it is said it would be done.
   
   
6. Be the best. Quality should weave through every function in a company, top to bottom, inside and out. In today's competitive and customer-savvy marketplace, no one gets two chances to please.
   
   
7. Know the customer well. Focus on customer needs and fulfill those needs with extra value service, exceeding expectations. Of course, Southwest Airline's Herb Kelleher believes that his employees are his customers. If they're happy, then passengers are happy. Looked at their profits lately?
   
   
8. Plan the work and work the plan. The Japanese learned this lesson long before Honda and Toyota turned American automobile companies on their ear. Engage in long-term planning in all aspects of the business and just be ready to adapt to changes. Who would have thought that soft drink lovers would be paying for bottled water?
   
   
9. Stay on the competitive edge. Don't shortchange investments in marketing, research and technology. Even when business is tight, these three initiatives will give a critical edge and often help to leapfrog more cautious competitors.
   
   
10. Expect a return on investments. Whether a marketing program costs $100 or $1 million, measurement must be planned into it to determine the return. How many leads came in? Were they qualified buyers? Did response come from phone calls, Web traffic or e-mail? If the return can't be measured, it may not be worth the investment.
    
    
11. Lean and mean is good for business health. Jim MacInvale built Gallery Furniture from a road-side tent with a single-minded focus on saving money and not making customers wait for what they bought. Early deliveries were made in unmarked trucks, some say, because certain customers didn't want their neighbors to know where they shopped. More likely, it was because he hired trucks and drivers only as he needed them. Work productively by understanding the crucial difference between efficiency and effectiveness.

Follow these 11 principles and be ready for anything. Don't ever fear the forks in the road, because any one of them could lead to the next super highway for the business!

© 2003 American City Business Journals