Dare to be different.

[Paul Norman]

As a business consultant I look at lots of businesses. And there is a worrying trend to be the same.

The same is ok. But only ok. It fills the grey middle ground of averageness that is, by and large the business world.

And I would never judge anyone for being here. Done well, you can get by nicely.

But the guys that are turning out the big, radical success stories are not grey. They are radical, innovative, and take risks by doing things in new ways.

I urge you to think about it. Seriously, there is an opportunity for you and I to sneak ahead of the pack.

[Alvin]

Quite Paul I suspect most business is show business.

Alvin

[Paul Norman]

Quite Paul I suspect most business is show business.

Alvin

It does sometimes seem like that!

[Indizine]

Paul, can you show us some examples of what you mean?

[Paul Norman]

A high profile example would be Ling Cars. On paper, she breaks just about every rule. Yet seems to be successful. I did an assignment for Sumitomo Corporation, who set out to be massively different in their approach too, and we turned a business from a big loss to a small profit - just enough to sell the business. Their principle was to raise the customer service bar very high indeed, so an extent that created a pleasant surprise for clients.

[Indizine]

But Ling appears only to break every website rule. I can't say that I notice she does anything different outside of the website.

[gecko]

Paul

I take your point and I also note that you also temper your advice a little that being the same is Ok as well.

Your thread makes me think about a BBC programme a few months ago. I think it was The Bottom Line with Evan Davis. It was about "clustering". Clustering is the way businesses tend to cluster together geographically. Like Maddison Avenue is where the advertising industry is based in the US East coast and the fashion/rag trade industry tends to cluster around Oxford Circus area in London. They pointed out that this is just not an old fashioned practice, but one which still goes on today and perhaps is more relevant these days. The programme pointed out that the headquarters of Microsoft and Google are not close to each other by mistake. They said that when companies cluster people start to measure their performance with rival companies. they can see that the equivalent person in a rival company has a BMW. They can see that the company is lunching a new product immediately as it happens by the buzz that it generates locally and this all motivates people within the company to perform.

This might not be terribly relevant to your thread, but perhaps it is worthwhile to note that daring to be different can only be done if you actually know your business and know what others in your industry are doing and know that what you are doing is actually different from what others are doing.

gecko

[Richardvc]

It does pay to be as different as possible, otherwise the only difference is price, and too the poorhouse you go.

We have looked to talk some alternative approaches in all of our businesses and it has paid off, can be a little scary at first but you soon get used to it

Look at where your competion is going and then go the other way, not a bad philosophy.

Richard

[WinningNames]

I agree with you, Paul. I think one of the causes of 'averageness' or 'sameness' is the belief in consensus decisions. I help start-ups find a good name for their business or brand and I find that many people put names to a panel or focus group and ask them to vote in order of preference. In that sort of situation the winner is invariably something bland that is half-way down everybody's list. This explains too why all beauty contest winners look the same.

Re Gecko's point on clustering. I think this is a sound business practice. The town of Hay-on-Wye was completely regenerated when lots of bookshops opened. Book lovers wouldn't bother to make the journey to a place that had just one bookshop, but having lots of them attracts people to the town.

[Fuzzy]

I'm loving different