A shortcut to good strategy
It has been said that the true competitor of a Harley Davidson is not a Yamaha, or a Honda, but in fact a conservatory. Within this quip lies the most fundamental of strategic truths; one which vanishingly few businesses acknowledge or understand: Your true category is probably not defined by products similar to yours. Naturally, […]
NEW PUBLICATION: Make companies without competitors
Following the success of the previous Basic Arts publication Make interesting companies, not interesting advertising, I’m delighted to announce the follow-up Make companies without competitors. This “mini-book” features 50 pages of brand new material, focusing on the theory and practice of designing a business that has no direct competitors in its market – even if […]
Why “big brand thinking” is poison for independents
In spite of everything you read – including here – there isn’t really one right way to run a business. Businesses can become successful via all sorts of weird strategies, including ones that are diametrically opposed to one another. The single greatest fissure of this type is that between independent companies, and group companies. By […]
In praise of cannibalisation
Hindsight, as we know, is a wonderful thing. Looking back on the great business failures of our time, the likes of Blockbuster and Kodak, and none of us believe that we would have made the same fatal errors of judgement. How could we? Their mistakes were so glaring that surely they would have been obvious […]
The limits of expertise
This piece first appeared in Quillette. “People are sick of experts.” These infamous and much-derided words uttered by UK Conservative parliamentarian Michael Gove express a sentiment with which we are now probably all familiar. It has come to represent a sign of the times—either an indictment or a celebration (depending on one’s political point of […]
Do you know your company’s true nature?
If you are like almost every other business out there, you will be familiar with the process of reactive experimentation. Basically you have ideas, you activate them, some work, some don’t, and naturally you keep the former and discard the latter. The challenge with this process of course, is that you don’t know which ideas […]
Have love for your competitors
Rock music is only remarkable as a counterpoint to classical music. Modernist design only seems refreshing next to baroque. A jacket and tie only have a place in a world of t-shirts and flip-flops. In short everything that is a “kind” of something is defined relative to other kinds of the same thing. With these […]
Let your company find its own way
A question I’m often asked by founders is this: “Do I need to have a clear vision for my company from day one?” Typically this question comes from people with fairly successful businesses, but who are aware that so far they’ve been operating them reactively, just making stuff up as they go along without any […]
It’s Not The “Why” That Matters, It’s The “How”
The Problem With “Find Your Why” By now most of you are probably familiar with Simon Sinek’s iconic “Start With Why” TED talk. Even if you’ve not seen the talk, you’ve most likely encountered one of the army of why-merchants that have sprung up in his wake. Asking you “why” it is you do what […]
Is it ever OK to just accept declining sales?
OK, this is a weird one I know. However it seems pertinent in light of recent news that Coke are making “massive changes” to their Diet Coke range following a 1.9% sales drop in 2016. On the face of it taking action makes complete sense. In the world of Coke, 1.9% of annual sales is […]