Kaihan Krippendorff shares his thoughts on how to outthink the competition and answers the question, “How is it that some companies are able to continually pivot their strategy, transform and pursue new growth ideas?” The answer is they have a repeatable process and common language that can be learned and taught. Krippendorff has worked with and studied thousands of companies and the different approaches they take to drive growth, foster innovation and set themselves apart from the competition.

Q. What are some often overlooked steps you’ve noticed when it comes to owners developing and building their businesses?

The most commonly overlooked step I see business owners take when deciding on how to build their businesses is to disconnect goals with priorities. We often spend a lot of time thinking about and defining what we want our businesses to achieve (to build something we can sell, create something our children can take over, create something that generates near-term cash flow, etc.). But then when we decide what strategic priorities to focus on, we default to choosing priorities based only on revenue or profit. This is why so many strategies are not actually strategic.

It is not that near-term revenue and profit growth are not important, but rather that they are not necessarily enough. You also want to invest time and resources in efforts that will position you for the future, even if they do not generate immediate returns. For example, had Garmin, the maker of the GPS, not started over a decade ago investing in building a device putting GPS on a wrist, long before Apple and Fitbit made “wearables” a hot segment, they would not have emerged as one of the leading wearable device companies. As Garmin’s automotive business declined, with people replacing their car GPS systems with smartphones, the lost revenue was more than replaced with revenue from wearable devices.

When you only focus on near-term revenue and forget to set your priorities based on your true long-term strategic goals, you win in the near term but hinder your long-term success.

Q. Are there steps car wash businesses can take to help ensure they are more insulated from technology trends?

History teaches us that trying to insulate ourselves from technology trends may bring near-term benefits but, over the longer-term, is a losing strategy. Times of significant technological change, like the era we are facing today, separate “thinkers” from “outthinkers.” Thinkers try to insulate themselves from change. They seek to prolong the technologies and approaches of the past. Outthinkers, by contrast, embrace the new reality. If you want to be the disruptor rather than the disrupted, if you want to define the future rather than become a victim of it, do your best to be an outthinker.

Here are three steps a car wash business can take to take advantage of technology trends.

1. Think from your customers’ perspective:

For a moment, pretend that you do not own a car wash business and instead you are simply someone with a car, like any of your customers. Ask yourself, “What is the job I am trying to get done?” You are not simply getting your car cleaned. What is the deeper psychological outcome you are after (e.g., does cleaning your car make you feel good about yourself, does it make you feel calm because you’re driving in a less cluttered car, does it give you social credit because your friends see you in a clean car)? And what are my choices to get that job done? This could reveal some concrete, tangible ideas for innovating.

2. Imagine the future:

Still holding on to your customers’ perspective, imagine it is 10 years from now, and think about what the future will be like for your customer. Will they be driving an autonomous car? Will they own a car? What new technologies will be available to help customers achieve the job they are trying to get done? Then ask, “What can I do now to position myself in that future?”

3. Look beyond your product/service:

Often when we seek to innovate, we pay exclusive attention to the service. But you have many more dimensions available with which to wow your customers and differentiate your car wash, such as the physical experience you deliver (from pulling up to checking in to hitting the road again), positioning (what customers associate your brand name with), pricing schemes, and people (the kinds of people you hire and the culture you build). The options are endless.

Q. What upcoming trends do you anticipate will affect car wash business owners the most in the next Five years?

Over the next five years, I think we will see two significant movements facing all industries tied to the automotive industry.

• A change in how people relate to their cars:

We can expect shared ownership and “mobility as a service” to grow in popularity. All major automotive companies including BMW and Mercedes are working on “mobility as a service” business models. It will be interesting to see how this will change how customers think about car washes. For example, who brings the car to the car wash if the vehicles are shared? Should a car wash use its infrastructure to manage fleets of shared cars?

• Digital transformation:

In only five years, we have seen homeowners install smart devices and start managing their home through digital interfaces (phones and tablets). Domino’s Pizza has proven the power of digitizing the customer experience. Without making significant changes to their core product, and simply digitizing the experience of ordering pizza, the company’s stock price has outperformed Amazon and Google!

We are seeing gas stations and convenience stores launching efforts to similarly digitize the customer experience. I have to imagine the opportunities for the car wash business in similarly digitizing their customer experience are multifold.

Q. What is your greatest source of inspiration? Motivation?

My greatest motivation is a personal mission I became very clear on about 15 years ago: helping people love what they do. This is what drives my work. This is what wakes me up in the morning. I believe that growing a business can be a fun, creative game, and that people who approach it this way outperform their more traditional and serious competitors.