Whenever a new brand breaks out, I’m always curious about the strategy that made it happen.
But frankly, the truth is often disappointing.
Case in point, a few years back I was interested to learn more about the story of Beavertown Brewery, a phenomenally successful new beer brand in the UK.
I know a thing or two about that category, and sufficed to say it’s insanely competitive, and insanely undifferentiated. Billions of litres of liquid that drinkers wouldn’t be able to tell apart in a blind taste test, thousands of quirky “characterful” brands, and a handful of giant conglomerates paying good money to keep newcomers off the grocery store shelves.
So how did Beavertown crack the code?
Well, it took me about 15 seconds of Googling to discover this depressing fact: Beavertown Brewery was founded by the son of the Led Zeppelin frontman, Robert Plant.
Oh.
I see.
I closed my laptop.
Now look, this is probably a bit unfair. Just because your dad is a rock god, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re guaranteed success at any venture. It could well be there was a genius strategic move in the mix, and my prejudice stopped me from uncovering it.
But even so, come on, it couldn’t have hurt.
This is the sort of “unfair advantage” that props up so many great success stories when you scratch at their surface. The sort of thing we tend to think “invalidates” whatever that person goes on to achieve – and that makes our following them simply impossible.
What makes an advantage “unfair” is that it’s not replicable by other people. If you work 15 hour days, that’s a “fair” advantage because anyone could do it. But if your uncle is head of the movie studio that gives you your big break… well, they couldn’t.
This realisation – that unfair advantages are seemingly everywhere – radicalises many people.
It makes them think the game is rigged, and that without such advantages there’s no point in trying. Perhaps you’ve had this thought yourself.
Well my message to these people is this:
You’re absolutely right.
Almost all success does indeed hinge on unfair, non-replicable advantages. Beavertown was created by rock aristocracy, Bill Gates went to like the only school in the country with a computer, Shaq is like 7 feet tall – this is how it works.
But, you’re also wrong.
You’re wrong if you think that you too don’t have unfair advantages of your own.
We tend to be so unimaginative and narrow-minded when it comes to this subject – believing that the only type of unfair advantages are rich / famous parents.
Sure, those count, but so do all these:
- Intelligence
- Taste
- Particular life experiences
- Specific expertise in the family
- Industry relationship
- Having a good skill or talent
- Where you live
- Access to certain amenities
- Tax advantages
- Having no dependents / financial responsibilities
- Being in an underserved market
- The language(s) you speak
- High emotional intelligence
- Enjoying public speaking
- Being ridiculously good looking
- Etc.
The point is that there are many things about you (and about your business) which aren’t easy for competitors to replicate.
The reason we fail to appreciate these advantages is because unlike being rich, we have to exploit them in non-linear ways. In other words, we have to leverage them with strategy.
To give you an example, think of what I do for a living and how I run my business.
Was this the result of me looking at a blank sheet of paper and determining “this would be the best form of strategy consultancy”?
Not remotely. It was an example of finding my unfair advantages and leveraging them. For instance:
- I love writing, and find it very easy and fast. I once wrote an (unpublished) book just for fun – so I’m very weird in that way.
- I also love public speaking, and have zero fear about it at all.
- My old boss was very flexible, allowing me to gradually lower my hours with my old job, and increase them with my company, so I operated with very little risk.
- I own an apartment in London.
- I have (if I do say so myself) good taste, meaning it’s easy for me to create high quality media assets very quickly and cheaply.
- I bury the needle on the “intuiting” end of the spectrum in the Myers-Briggs test, essentially meaning that this type of work “suits” me more than it would most people.
These are all unfair advantages, and they have all been instrumental in devising the strategy for my life and business.
What you need to do is identify the same for you. Stop seeing yourself as “unfortunate” (if you do), and start seeing yourself as incredibly lucky. Find 2 or 3 things that make you lucky. They do not have to be obviously amazing. They just have to be obviously different from your competitors.
Then you can ask: how can I leverage these? How can my business model, or my career, be shaped to take advantage of these?
If you’re struggling jog your brain with this quick list I made.
It’s one of many thought experiments I’m putting into the Strategy Shortcut System to help you discover your strategic path.
