Your Idea Alone
has no Value
Contrary to popular belief, great companies are not borne from great
ideas alone. We'd all love to think that
if we could simply invent the next Post-It note, we could sit back and watch the cash tumble in.
But if great ideas don't spawn great companies, what does?
The short answer is: you. The
longer and far more complicated answer is how you specifically position
yourself and your company to execute on an idea. Anyone who overhears your idea, has the same
idea at the same time, or basically plans on doing anything similar, is already
on the same playing field as you are.
In order to differentiate yourself and
your idea, you don’t need a patent or some proprietary method. You need a focused plan that allows you to execute
above and beyond your competition every day of the week.
Think of your competition like your
favorite professional sports league.
There are dozens of teams which have talented players on them, but only
one team that is going to perform better than everyone else. Your goal is to build that team.
Focus
on Execution
There is a massive chasm between
having a great idea and executing flawlessly on a business model for a great
idea. Lots of people have great ideas,
but very few people ever execute well on them.
Execution isn’t just about showing up
for work every day and punching a clock.
For the team that wins, execution is about going above and beyond the
call of duty each and every day.
It’s about reaching out to your
customer when there are no problems just to see how they are doing. It’s about releasing a product feature faster
than your competitor even when you’re already ahead. It’s being the first car in the parking lot
in the morning and the last one to leave at night. It’s doing what the guy next to you isn’t
willing to do.
Service
the Heck out of your Customer
Even a product that’s a total
commodity, like food, can take on a whole new meaning when you compare the
service that comes with it. In your city
there may be a hundred places where you can order a filet mignon, but only a
handful that are considered top notch.
The difference is that the top
restaurants understand that in order to differentiate their product, they need
to rely on better service. They pay
attention to every detail of your experience, from the greeting you get at the
host stand to whether you’re given a white or black napkin based on your pant
color.
Exceptional service is by no means a
commodity. It’s a rare and unusual thing
that very few companies can deliver. Chances are your competition isn’t going
to go the extra mile to service the heck out of your customer, which creates an
incredibly powerful competitive advantage for you.
Find
the Weak Spot
It’s not uncommon for a startup
company to go toe-to-toe with a much larger company offering a very similar
product. On its face, it looks like the
startup is at a severe disadvantage.
Surely the behemoth megacorp can provide better execution and better
service with its vast resources than a scrappy little startup can.
If you were to try to compete against the
behemoth on their own terms you’d get crushed.
That’s why startups tend to look for the weak spots in larger companies
and exploit them. You can easily
differentiate your product from a larger company by focusing on stuff large
companies mess up all the time.
Unlike a large company, you can offer
the personal service and attention your customers love and probably are missing
from your bigger competitor. You can
leverage your speed by releasing new versions of your product faster and
responding to market conditions more quickly.
You can offer talented managers founder’s stock while a big company can
only offer another bonus plan.
Every weak spot that you can exploit
is another way to add value to your idea.
Once you’ve identified the points, the more pressure you put on those
weak spots, the more value you’ll build for your own product.
Tying
it Together
Outmaneuvering your competition isn’t
about doing any one of these things – it’s about doing all of them
consistently. If your idea is great and
novel, the only guarantee is that it will be copied. If it’s not, you have to wonder how great of
an idea it really is.
When your idea does get copied, the
only thing you’ll be able to rely on is your team and your execution. All of the points about going above and
beyond the call of duty, servicing your customer, and exploiting the weak spots
will soon be used against you.
The only defense against the next up
and comer and the only way to consistently create value around your idea is to
stick to fundamental execution. Nothing
else has value.