Yet, what do most owners and CEOs (and their companies) focus their marketing (and strategy) on? Exactly! Being better than their competitors. “Our technology is 10% faster than theirs.” “We have the best pizza in town.” “Our bank has the best customer service in our city.” “Our music rocks more than your church’s music.” “Our paper towels are the better picker uppers.” Etc. Etc. Etc. And yawn, yawn, yawn.

I don’t know if you read “Blue Ocean Strategy” or not, but the metaphor that Kim and Mauborgne laid out in that book is perfect for this point. Their main idea was/is that most companies attempt to compete in a red ocean (an ocean filled with competitors where each is extracting blood from the other) which leads to commoditization and low margins/profits. Instead, they argue, you want to create a blue ocean where you’re the only one who does what you do–which also leads to uniqueness and higher margins/profits.

In essence, it’s the same point I’m making here about marketing (and strategy). Whenever you’re focusing your attention on being better than someone else, you’ve automatically defaulted to a red ocean marketing strategy. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that strategy. Being able to claim that your product or service is better by some quantifiable measure (Zyrtex works two hours faster than Claritin) is not a terrible marketing strategy. But it doesn’t get the same attraction and attention that something new does (a la Apple).

Several years ago, Al Ries and Jack Trout, in their book on the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing brought this to the forefront, when they said,

“Everyone is interested in what‘s new. Few people are interested in what‘s better.” — Al Ries and Jack Trout

I can’t say it any better. In fact, you may want to write that statement on a wall somewhere (like in your conference room). Most marketing campaigns and strategy sessions are focused on being “better,” which isn’t bad–it’s just not great. What you want to focus on is “new, because ”everyone“ pays attention to the ”new“ and ”different“ or ”unique“ thing. Better just gets lost.

So, as you take a look at your company’s products and services, what can you add or change to create something ”new“ and ”different“ this year? What can you do to set your company apart from all the others in your market space? What could possibly create a blue ocean moment for you?

Once you identify that, make sure you make that the focus of your marketing (and strategy). Why? Because, ”Everyone is interested in what’s new. Few people are interested in what’s better.“

To your accelerated success!

P.S. Twenty minutes after (originally) posting this, I received an email from Apple with the following image at the top. Notice the key word.

My first question to him was, “You’ve started this by defining a process/product. But, for a moment, let’s forget about that and go back to the beginning and ask, ‘What’s your objective for this process?’ In other words, what do you want to produce when people are finished going through their experience with you?”

After he told me his answer I said, “Well, if what you want to produce is [X], then it seems to me that you have the wrong model.” In other words, he did what most people do, he created a model of what he thought people needed–and then set out to try to convince those same people that what they needed was what he was offering (which, of course, is the wrong way to do this).

Moreover, the model that he was using, was counterproductive. Because of the way the process was designed, it made it virtually impossible for him to attract the very kinds of people he wanted to attract. So instead of being able to attract the very best possible pool of customers, the reality was he was left with less than his optimal target market.

But he’s not alone. I find this same kind of experience in business after business. We design what we think customers’ need vs. what they want (and passionately want). We try to push marketing out to them in order to convince them that they have a need they don’t know they have. And we create processes that make it difficult for our optimal customers to use us. In other words, his story is often our story.

So, when was the last time you took a good look at your business model? Is it the right model? Does it really produce the results you want? Does it really drive the kind of outcomes you desire? Is it scalable? Is it still the right model moving forward? Remember, the world is constantly changing. The model that worked last year or last decade, may not be the right model for today–and even more importantly–for tomorrow!

If you haven’t done this recently, may I encourage you to take some time this week and evaluate your business model. I don’t know what the end result of your review will be–but I do know that the conversation I mentioned above caused me to go back and look at my own model–and yes, you guessed right–I had to make some changes to my model. My guess is that most of us do. So, when will you sit down and ask yourself the questions in the paragraph above?

To your accelerated success!

I remember, shortly after my board coup several years ago, the movie “Rocky Balboa” came out and in the middle of the movie, Rocky made the following comment to his son,

“It ain’t about how hard you’re hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward–that’s how winning is done!”

I immediately put that quote up on my credenza and still look at it to this day. To me, that’s the power of a great quote. In just a few words, it can say so much.

In light of that, over the July 4th weekend, I decided to create my own favorite quote site. As a consultant and professional speaker, I’m regularly on the look out for great quotes. So, rather than horde them for myself, in the spirit of Tom Peters (when you go to the site, you’ll understand that comment), I’ve decided to make them available to everyone.

So, rather than bore you with more content, let me encourage you to go to the site and read some great inspirational business-oriented quotes. I think you’ll enjoy them! Oh, and the URL is pretty easy to remember

http://www.brucequotes.com

Note: I just created the site Saturday evening so some of the topics only have a few quotes, while others have quite a few. But over time, the approximately 400 quotes will grow. The site is still under 48 hours old. Just bookmark it and return to it whenever you either need some inspiration or you’re putting together a talk or training session and need the perfect quote to make the perfect point.

To your accelerated success!

http://www.brucequotes.com

• Would they be your core values (for ex. respect, responsibility, honesty and service)?
• Would they be a phrase (for ex. “Make it so, #1” in deference to Capt. Jean Luc Picard of Start Trek: The Next Generation fame)?
• Would they be actions (for ex. Farm, Call, Convert, Upsell)?
• Or would they be something else?

It’s an interesting question. If you were to narrow down your business philosophy to just four words, what would they be?

Well, last evening I was perusing Tom Peter’s website and downloaded one of his Power Point ® Presentations (which are free, by the way). As I was reading through a recent speech he gave for Inc. I came across this one slide that simply said,

The four most important words in any organization are, “What do you think?”

I love that!

Note: this was a line from a comment posted on his blog at www.tompeters.com from a guy named Dave Wheeler.

But the reason why I love this slide is because I love the simplicity and power contained in those four simple words, “What do you think?” Having observed and consulted with enough businesses and organizations, I would concur that those four words could/can literally change a company.

As leaders, we so often get stuck in the “It’s my job to have all the answers,” or “It’s my job to come up with solutions to problems,” etc. that we forget that our primary job as leaders is not to have all the answers or to tell everyone the answers, but to leverage the time, talent, resources and INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY of the people in our organization/business to achieve some kind of results.

Even more, when we ask, “What do you think?” what we’re doing is so much more than just asking a question. For example, when you ask your people, “What do you think?”

1. You’re giving your people respect (I value what you have to say, which is why I’ve asked you)
2. You’re training your people to be solutions creators (I want you to help solve this so you can do this in the future)
3. You’re bringing new ideas into the mix (not giving in to your own biases and prejudices)
4. You’re creating buy-in (since people tend to own what they help create)
5. And you’re creating relational capital.

At every juncture, you win as a leader just by remembering to ask, EVERY DAY, “What do you think?

I think Dave is right on. These could easily be the four most important words in any organization.

So … What do you think?

To your accelerated success,

P.S. Either today or tomorrow (depending on when you’re reading this), make it a goal to ask at least FIVE people, “What do you think?” Then do the same thing the next day, and the next day and the next day after that as well.

While watching Steve introduce the iPad last week in real-time on Gizmodo (hats off to B. Lam and Jason Chen at Gizmodo who were doing photo and text blogging during the presentation–I was majorly impressed), I thought that I’d share some of their images of Steve’s slides so you could see how a master does his “PowerPoint.” So, here we go.

Here’s one of Steve’s first slides. Notice the simplicity of the design. A short quote in large enough type to read, and a simple image to further drive home the point. Also notice the cool reflection of the image.

As Steve started to talk about mobile platforms he posed a question, “Is there space for a device between a cell phone and a lap top?” Here’s how he represented that.

I love this next slide for it’s simplicity and color popping. No fancy charts. Just one image and one number–that’s all that matters!

Changing gears, when Steve wanted to talk about environmental friendliness, he took and created a “report card” check list that didn’t just look like another table. You get the point. Nothing confusing here.

Here’s another slide where Steve’s team had to convey a list of features (in this case, iWork software for the iPad). Notice the simplicity of the image and six statements. Once again, you get the point.

When Steve started talking about price, he started with one slide with just one number on it. Unfortunately, slide images don’t do justice to the animation Steve and his team used. The number actually dropped from the top and kicked up some dust until it settled with the following clear slide. It really was one of those awe moments when you could hear people’s shock and awe.

Probably, the only somewhat confusing slide Steve used (which isn’t too confusing) was this one announcing the different price points based on memory and 3G (an extra $130 per model)

So, there you have it. A few lessons from Steve on doing a “PowerPoint” presentation.

1. Keep your slides uncluttered. Strive for simplicity.
2. Use large font sizes (anything less than 40 pts. should be a concern). The bigger the better.
3. Use one large graphic and minimal text to say a lot.
4. Strive to find a simple way to say something complex.
5. Get to the core of your point, and just illustrate that.
6. Look for creative ways to say the same things
7. Don’t spend time reading off your slides. Their job is to augment you, not drive the presentation (note: if you don’t put too much info on a slide, this becomes automatic).
8. Use lots of slides. It doesn’t cost any more to add an extra slide. You don’t need to cram a lot of info on one slide. Most of my presentations have 80 – 140 slides.
9. Practice, practice, practice. Steve and his team run through their presentations multiple times before going live.
10. Get a Mac and Keynote. You’ll be glad you did!!! :-)

P.S. Post writing the above, I found a YouTube video that takes a humorous look at the adjectives Steve and his team use. Even as a Mac Addict, I have to admit, this is fun (cool, awesome, unbelievable, remarkable, exciting, gorgeous, amazing, super …)

Note: If you didn’t answer the question from the last post, “What are the major constraints that are hindering me (and my business/organization) from achieving my (our) potential?”, then make sure you do so before proceeding any further.

Okay, so you’ve now identified your major constraints (and as I said last time, they could be external or internal, mental or physical, systemic of situational). They could be a person or a process, a self-limiting belief or a financial limitation (for example).

The next thing you want to do is order them. You want to take each constraint and ask the question, “Where does this constraint come in the priority list of which constraint needs to be solved first?” In other words, you want to play each constraint off the others as you seek to find the major constraint that needs to be solved first.

I liken this to a playoff system (brackets) you see in sports. For simplicity’s sake we’ll call constraints “C”. So you play C1 vs. C2. Let’s say C2 needs to be solved before C1. Then you play off C3 vs. C4. Let’s say C3 needs to be solved before C4. Then you playoff C2 vs. C3 and let’s say C3 needs to be solved before C2 (which means it has to come before C1). You now know what has to happen first. In other words, once you work through this process, you’ll quickly know what the major constraint is for you (or you and your business) this year.

Using the four constraints listed above, it would be understandable to think that you need to solve the financial problem first. But that might not be true. It may be because you don’t have a systematic and methodical process in place to acquire new capital. However, it may be that the reason you don’t have a systematic and methodical process in place is because Sally is in charge of that area and she’s not very competent. She’s been at your company for ten years, she’s loved by every one, but she’s incompetent. You know you ought to let her go, but you haven’t pulled the trigger yet. Why?

Ah, it’s that self-limiting thought that keeps you from changing her out. It may be a belief that letting Sally go will demoralize your team. Or the belief that, “If I just give her some more time and training, she’ll succeed” (which could be true, but hasn’t been for the past five years). Or it could be the belief that, “She’s a single mom and she needs our help.” Or it could be the belief that, “Maybe in a year another position in our company will open up and I can move her over there.” Etc. We all have them. And those self-limiting beliefs do get in the way of making good business decisions.

The beauty of working through this process is that once you play this game, you’ll often find out that what you thought was the major constraint (in this case, “We don’t have enough access to capital”) may, in fact, not be the most important constraint to solve first.

So, before I give you the next step, why don’t we stop here for today. Take out your list of constraints and order them. Play them off against one another and see if you can reduce your constraints down to a handful of the most important constraints to solve first. And most importantly, make sure you identify what the first constraint is that you need to solve before any others!

To your accelerated success!

How’s this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.

Not a bad story, is it? Furthermore, at the start of the decade, Apple had a market cap of “just” $5B. It now hovers around $170B (slightly larger than Google). What that means is that despite the market crashes of the dot.com boom and last year, if you had invested $1,000 in Apple in 2000, your investment would now be worth over $7500 (I think most of us would gladly accept that). And finally, Jobs has been instrumental in changing four completely different industries–computers, music, media and mobile phones—three of those in the past decade.

Any way you add it up, the past 33 years have been a pretty incredible run for Steve Jobs—and we’ve all benefitted—even if you’re a PC. But the question for you and me is, “What can we learn from him that can make a difference in our businesses?” Here are my top five lessons.

1. Improve on the next new thing. What’s fascinating about Jobs and Apple is that Apple has become the symbol for innovation. However, Apple rarely creates anything entirely new. In fact, one of Steve Jobs’ comments on this subject years ago was, “We look for the next new thing and then make it better.” In other words, Apple didn’t invent the mp3 player, they just made it better. They didn’t invent the cell phone, they just made it better. They look for trends they think are going to be big—and then figure out how to make that “new thing” infinitely better.

So, in your realm, what are the next new things or new trends you’re observing in your market space? How can you create a better product and/or service that can improve on the current offerings in that market space?

2. Change before you have to. As a long standing card carrying Mac Addict, one of my favorite sites is MacRumors. And one of my favorite parts of the site is the buyer’s guide which tracks the time between new iterations of a product (and let’s you know where they are in cycle). Even when Apple is making good money, they keep introducing new models or discontinuing old models so that none of their competitors can catch up (i.e. they change before they have to).

I’ll never forget the day Steve Jobs was talking about the iPod mini and how it was the most successful launch they had ever had up to that point in time. And then he said, “And that’s why today we’re killing the iPod mini … (dramatic pause) … and introducing the iPod nano!” Who else would have killed a cash cow right in the middle of a growth cycle? Only Steve and crew!

So, what products and/or services have you been riding for too long? Do you need to revamp or upgrade any of them? Do you need to discontinue any of them? And/or what new thing do you have in the pipeline?

3. Eliminate what ticks people off. The supposed story of the iPhone is that a bunch of Apple execs were at a meeting when they were all complaining, tangentially, about their cell phones. In the midst of that discussion someone said, “We’re all a bunch of bright people. We should be able to do this better.” Or if you had ever tried to download an app several years ago and load it on a Palm device, you know it was a major pain (it ticked people off). What Apple did with the App store was/is nothing short of remarkable. Or if you had ever tried to download music and put it on your mp3 player pre-iPod, you know it was a major pain. The iPod and iTunes store combo simply eliminated that piece of the puzzle that just ticked people off.

So, what are the issues that tick off the people in your market space? Find the key ones and design a simple solution to solve that problem.

4. Repurpose what you can. If you haven’t been in the Apple fold, you could easily miss this, but Apple is great about repurposing ideas and technology. For example, back in the 90’s, if you wanted to see a movie trailer on the internet, the best place was to go to the Apple site, which highlighted movie trailers and their product Quicktime. But that experience and built in infrastructure for movies made streaming music for the iTunes store infinitely easier. And the experience of the iTunes store made creating the App store for the iPhone infinitely easier. Or the Safari browser for the Mac, made it infinitely easier to create a great web experience on the iPhone (which was night and day ahead of Palm and Blackberry when it debuted). Or the experience with NeXT, led to Mac OS X. On and on you could go. The, “Apple Way,” is not just to create something new, but to repurpose what they already know into a different arena.

So what do you know or have or do that could be repurposed to create a new product or service for your market?

5. Think big and small at the same time. Some leaders are just big picture people. Others are just small picture people. However, what makes Steve so powerful is that he’s both. Steve gets it that executives need to make big picture, bold strategic moves (like canceling several product lines in ‘97 and focusing on just four products). However, he’s also famous for being nit picky and focused on the very intricate details of the business–especially when it comes to design issues and market messaging. As he said to Ken Segall (who used to be at Chiat/Day, the ad agency) on day, “The third word in the fourth paragraph isn’t right. You might like to think about that one.”

Looking back on your history, are you more of a big picture person? Or a small picture kind of person? Whichever one you are, how could you add the other to your wheelhouse and become more versatile ?

So, there you have it, “Five Lessons from Steve Jobs, CEO of the Decade.” The only question remaining is, “What are you going to do in the next few moments in response to it?”

To your accelerated success!

The ones I found most interesting and can probably help you the most were as follows.

1. Plan in Analog – In other words, before Steve and his team move to Keynote (the Mac version of Powerpoint) and other digital options, he starts by creating/writing a storyboard, similar to a movie. And just like any good story teller, he builds anticipation and plans for surprises. When was the last time you did that?
2. Focus on Benefits – Even though Steve is usually revealing updates to products, he doesn’t focus on the product. Instead, he focuses his comments on the benefits that come from using that product. Similar to the old adage, “No one needs a drill, everyone needs holes,” Steve keeps drilling down on benefits, as you can see in the following image for why developers should create Apps for the iPhone.
3. Create Twitter Friendly Headlines - I love this one. If you look at the number of words on a typical PPT slide, vs. a Jobs’ slide, it’s almost humorous. Steve is notorious for minimalism. So, for example, when he introduced the MacBook Air, the title slide simply said, “World’s thinnest notebook.” Can you position your products with just three to five words?
4. Create Visual Slides – I actually watched the webcast when Steve was introducing the MacBook Air and I can remember this slide. The image of a laptop inside an envelope was powerful. Not much more needed to be said. Note also how uncluttered the image is. Take a look at your last Powerpoint presentation. How many words were on your average slide?
5. Use Props – Another common feature of most of Jobs’ presentations is that he always does some kind of demonstration. Frequently he sits down at his Mac and then you watch the screen to see in real time something that he’s doing. It might be to demonstrate the ease of creating a movie in iMovie or retrieving a lost file in Time Machine or playing around with new cool app on the iPhone. What can you use besides your voice and PPT slides?
6. Practice a Lot – This is one of my favorites. I’m forever telling speakers they need to practice more before they get up to speak. While Steve’s presentations may come off very relaxed and unrehearsed, they’re anything but. He prepares for days for every moment of the presentation. Now, while you may not have days, you should at least run through your talk two or three times before presenting it.

Well, those were my favorite six. But you can see the whole presentation at BW by clicking here. However, don’t forget to print this list of six things out and use it the next time you have to give a presentation. Taking your cues from Steve Jobs isn’t a bad model to follow!

To your accelerated success!

The problem, of course, with an either/or world is that it rarely reflects reality because life is rarely that clean. Rather it’s full of contradictions and surprises. One of which is that originality and commonality go hand in hand together.

In an either/or world that doesn’t make sense. Either you’re original or your common. But, in the real world, being completely original isn’t an easy road to success. Just ask the creator of the first fax machine (Bain, 1843) or first cell phone or first anything. It’s not that easy to create an entirely new market.

When people read books like, “Blue Ocean Strategy,” they tend to think that the key to success is to come up with an entirely new idea (a new blue ocean). But if you take a look at the examples in the book you’ll notice they weren’t entirely new at all.

Cirque du Soleil wasn’t the first circus. Southwest wasn’t the first airplane company. Curves wasn’t the first health fitness facility. Etc.

All three of those examples are part of huge industries. The entertainment industry is huge. It’s common. But Cirque du Soleil’s genius was to do something original in a big market (i.e. a circus for adults with one ring vs. three and no live animals).

Southwest’s genius was to do point-to-point (i.e. non-hub), fun, no frills flights to tier two cities. Curves’ genius was to do a women’s only club with minimal equipment in a circle (a low-cost, quick, gender specific workout).

In other words, rather than look where there wasn’t a lot of competition, they looked for a very competitive market (the common part) and then looked for an uncommon way/original way to meet the needs of that market.

So, if you’re in a town full of pizza joints, that doesn’t mean you can’t start another pizza joint. Maybe you should start a gourmet one (if there isn’t one yet). Or maybe the people in you town just love fast food. If that’s the case, you might want to start a different kind of fast food restaurant (maybe BBQ wings). Or maybe your market simply loves Italian food. In that case, you could start a northern or southern Italian or even a sicilian restaurant. Etc.

Ultimately, it comes down to buyers. And what do they want? In general, they usually want something similar to what they already like/have–just a little different. This is not to downplay new and disruptive technologies. Just an observation about what fast growth companies do.

As a twenty-five year fan of Apple, I’ve drunk the kool-aid. But most of Apple’s successes haven’t come from being the first at something. The iPod wasn’t the first mp3 player. And the iPhone certainly wasn’t the first cell phone. But Apple, usually referred to as, “the most innovative company on the planet,” usually has winners when it looks at what people already want and then makes something original in that field.

So, if you want to build a wildly successful company, you might want to look where there’s a lot of competition (the common part) and then come up with a unique solution to that market’s wants and needs (the original part). It’s not an either/or, but rather a both/and that usually wins in the real world. So do your best to eliminate either/or thinking in your company. Both/and thinking is a much better route to go! Originality and commonality are a powerful one-two punch when used correctly.

To your accelerated success!

The way he got to me was by asking two simple questions. Showing a picture of a MacDonald’s hamburger, he asked,

1. How would you describe the quality of a MacDonald’s hamburger?
2. Who sells the most hamburgers in the world?

Point made. Point received.

I don’t know about you, but I often get stuck by trying to make something “perfect.” I have three books, several new talks, and a couple of projects all stuck in varying states of completion–not because I can’t get them done–but because I want to make them PERFECT!

In the literary world, it’s the equivalent of wanting to write, “The Next Great American Novel.” It’s the desire to want to write  something that “no one else has written.” Or to say something so compelling that newswires will want to pick it up, blogs will want to make it viral, TV reporters will want to call for interviews, and schools of business will want to make it required reading (of course, by this point, you’ve already figured out–this guy lacks reality–exactly!).

It’s this longing to do something perfect, to do something that causes people to take notice, that tends to hinder so many of us. When, in reality, we ought to set our sights a little lower. While I may want to write the “ultimate” guide to growing a business, there is no such ultimate book to be written.

In the mean time, while I’m waiting to create the perfect/ultimate book, others are publishing their books and making money–and the people I could be helping out are missing out.

Likewise, in your world, chances are (if you’ve been infected with the disease of perfectionism), you’re doing something similar. You have projects on hold, products that haven’t been launched, services that haven’t gone public, talks and letters that haven’t been written, and presentations that haven’t seen the light of day, etc. Not because you can’t get them done, but because you’re waiting until the thing you’re working on is … well, perfect.

But in a business environment, perfection is not the goal–it’s an impediment. In fact, when Ray was speaking I wrote in my notes, “Perfection > leads to procrastination > which leads to poverty.”

While you or I may want to create the perfect burger (metaphorically), the reality is that someone else (MacDonalds, in this case), is making a ton of money while we’re still in the design phase.

So, if your goal is making money, or influencing others, or meeting a critical need or want for your target market, then you’ll want to revisit this MacDonald’s hamburger metaphor again and again. Make sure you beat down the perfection monster. And whatever you do, make sure you get what you’re working on out in the world. As I’ve said for years,

“Excellence is not perfection. Excellence is doing the best you can with what you’ve got in the amount of time you’ve got to get it done.”

So what projects have you been holding off on or delaying because of perfectionism? And how much more money (or whatever metric your project works with) could you be making if you stopped waiting for perfection and just got that thing out in the marketplace?

To your accelerated success!