I was in a session with the ‘School of thinking’ founder Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson on Friday. (he co-founded this organization with guru Edward De Bono)
The session was amazing. I wrote down a particular quote which resonated with me:
“The perfect pitch being worked on at your desk can send you out of business. The imperfect pitch being presented to a customer can keep you in business.”
Get out there.
Circa 1992 on MTV across 4 big, no 4 massive TV screens U2 lead singer Bono was asked what ‘Zoo TV’ was all about. His reply:
“It’s about the chaos of choice.” Poignant.
Start ups ought listen to Bono – and avoid the chaos.
Here’s an example of an organization who’ve embraced the new world to absolute advantage.
Rock band the Barenaked Ladies, achieved a reasonable level of commercial success in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. A song of theirs you may know is ‘One week’ – you can click here to watch it and jig your memory.
Their success enabled them to do what most bands can’t – secure a record deal with the large record label Warner. But in 2003 they sacked them. They thought they could a better job – and they have. They just cut out the middle man and began to have a direct relationship with their passionate fans.
Here’s some of the cool stuff they’ve done:
They have a ‘dynamic’ websites & myspace– not static pages
They blog ‘daily’
They include fans in ‘every’ film clip
They built a permission database
They provide ‘free’ downloads of their music
Allow ‘free’ sharing of their music (Youtube / File sharing)
They sell their records direct and collect all revenue
They have ‘band days’ and ‘invite only concerts’
They provide photos of the days events
They run cruiseship holidays for fans
(Yep, 300 of their fans socializing, eating, relaxing with them for a week or so, where they provide the entertainment for them every night)
The net result is this. Their fans feel like they have a real connection, which they do. Their revenue per album sold is now approx $6.00 to the Barenaked Ladies, versus the previous $1.00 while with Warner. They have pure creative control of their work and don’t have to worry about being dropped by their record label.
Their site link is here: http://www.bnlmusic.com/default2.asp
Kudos BNL.
Sometimes we convince ourselves in the early days of our start up that the fun stuff is most important. Yes it’s seriously important, and it’s partly why we decided to leave the cubicle.
But the biggest reason we left cubiclesville was because we wanted to win. We wanted to do something, change something, prove something and achieve success which other corporate plankton couldn’t claim on our behalf.
That said, we ought ask ourselves this:
Is what we are doing Game Changing?
Will what we are spending investing our time on today be the thing that ensures we win the game in our web domain, category or industry?
Fact: When Youtube launched there was over 450 other video sharing websites. Youtube won video sharing for these reasons:
1. They had the simplest user experience
2. They had the most videos uploaded
That’s it.
So – are we investing our day on Game Changing activities, or just passing time?
Here’s a list of things which actually do matter:
Our diction and vernacular
Our personal presentation & dress code (Doesn’t mean a suit, but to wear what we wear well, have a sense of style)
The way we engage people and treat them
Our smile and attitude
How neat and organized our workspace is
Being on time
Our posture
Knowing our next steps every day
Making sure our technology is in working order
All these things and others, matter all the time. Not just the day you have to do it right, have the big VC presentation or the day you’re meeting your biggest customer.
And here’s why – they’ll become habit. Good habits. And when things are habit, they’re performed much the same way – time and time again.
If we do them well when it doesn’t matter, we’ll do them well when it does.
I love lots of stuff from the old school, including but not limited to:
Old school break dancing
Old school pinball machines & arcade games (think Galaga)
Old school computers (think Commodore 64)
Old school rap music (think Grand Master Mel)
Old school Airline service & the general airport experience
Old school hamburgers from the local greasy Joe’s
Old school cartoons
Old school slow food & home cooking
Old school architecture and buildings
The truth is the new versions of these are often better, more advanced, cheaper and more useful. (some not)
The reason we love old school stuff more than the new versions is this:
The original version was ground breaking. And ground breaking is exciting. So it builds an emotional connection.
Startups out there – become the old school 20 years from now, by being ground breaking today.
Often a certain product market or category has a definite paradigm. Take eco friendly or hybrid electric vehicles. They always look like quirky space mobiles.
(Toyota Pruis)
Elon Musk, one of the entrepreneurs of our time – has decided to be game changing instead. His new all electric Tesla Roadtster is anything but quirky and weird.
(Tesla Roadster)
Surely this design will get the blood pumping in any car enthusiast.
If you want your start up to be a game changer – ignore existing category expectations.
