You’ll look back in way in which you can’t grasp how much opportunity lay before you.
You’ll consider the freedom of choice you really had which made anything possible.
You’ll see your business ideas, predictions and philosophies transformed into an abundant economic reality.
10 years from now you’ll be able to look back on your choices today.
In 10 years….
…don’t be the shoulda, coulda, woulda guy*.
*guy means person at startupblog in a 2008 kind of way!
Another business class only airline has bit the dust – Maxjet. You may remember our view on why Ozjet failed.
And on this occasion we have a similar theme, but not quite as extreme. Maxjet had some of their act together and survied 4 years. Like the right routes, nice inflight service and an airline lounge. But it still had a few key flaws which still leaves the question unanswered:
Is a business class only airline a viable business model?
Start up blog says: We won’t know until someone ticks all the following boxes:
Maybe the business class only model could only work as a sub brand of a larger network (which Lufthansa is doing). It will be interesting to see how the remaining players net out (Silver jet & Eos)
Insight?: Maybe people who regularly fly business class enjoy looking down on those in coach too much to leave their multi class carrier!
I’d strongly advice against starting an airline. But if you must, show your VC’s this blog entry first.
If anyone ever needs proof that the market leader can be given lesson, Nintendo provides this.
From a brand which dominated the 1980’s with handheld games and fell into relative console obscurity during the 1990’s it’s comeback has been astounding as has the performance of the Wii.
And it’s all based on simple consumer insight:
“Games everyone can play”
A direct quote from their current advertising. Enough said.
They are clear console market leader now in Australia. Overtaking the previously thought ‘unbeatable’ Sony Playstation franchise. No incumbent is ever safe. This maxim will only increase in relevance over time.
Often we build complexity into things because the technology allows it. We are better off focusing on what makes sense for the end user, not what’s possible.
Chris Anderson of Long Tail fame has been espousing for a long time that the future of gaming is not in the console, but the controls. He’s obviously ahead of his time.
Start up lesson: The offer with the best user experience, always beats the offer with the best technology.
As a courtesy if I ever blog about anyone (good or bad) I let them know it’s there. I did this recently about Neighborhoodies.
The founder Michael sent me an email back saying – “I already know… Google Alerts baby! Thanks”.
I’ve since set up on things which are of interest to me. It saves me a great deal of time, which at present is my most scarce resource.
The really cool thing is it’s better than an RSS feed, because it’s the google bot doing all the hard work crawling the entire web for you. Every nook and cranny.
All start ups should set some up on topics of interest; themselves, their startup, their industry, their competitors, their whatever….
Click on the image above and go straight there…
Do it. Go now. Bye.
There is no such thing as a big idea.
All ideas are the same size.
Because ideas only exist metaphysically.
An idea that really works, becomes a big idea (after we proved it).To find a big idea, first we need lots of ideas (of which all are the same size). The ideas that worked didn’t have an advantage over the other ideas. They we’re all equal, but maybe other stuff happened to that idea.
Maybe we nurtured it,
maybe we believed in it,
maybe we developed it better,
maybe we tried a bit harder,
maybe kept pushing it,
maybe we modified it slightly,
maybe we resisted the temptation to modify it…
….maybe that idea had an advantage because of the way we treated it?
Ever the showman, Steve Jobs showed us how it’s done – again.
He didin’t need large flat screens
He didn’t need to buy the rights to a Beatles or Rolling Stones song
He didn’t need a montage of extreme sports
With the launch of the new Macbook Air. Jobs did something so simple, yet so powerfull
His prop: the humble manila evenlope.
At the Macworld conference in San Francisco jobs wondered on stage unwound the string on a standard manila envelope and slid from it the new ultra thin MacBook Air. The crowed oohed and aahed in disbelief, some even laughing incredulously.
It could have been any of us. The prop probably cost less than $1.00. This is great news for start ups because we’re only limited to the effort we put into thinking about it.
So the next time we present something to a customer, VC or employee, let’s think like Jobs and make it memorable.
If we had just one customer how would we treat her?
If we had just one customer what would our business relationship be?
If we had just one customer at what lengths would we help her?
If we had just one customer we’d hope she told others good things about us.
If we had 1 million customers it would be different. We’d be too busy to do any of that stuff. We’d have projects and financials and meetings and someone answering our phone and daily issues to resolve….right?
As far as she is concerned, we only have one customer.
So it must be true, we only have one customer. We ought treat her that way.