Are You Looking Outside The Box?

It is incredible how many companies have avoided many costly learning curves plus accelerated progress and success by looking outside the box.

These companies are well aware the majority of companies competing within the same industry are operating very similar (if not, the same) as their direct competition.

These successful companies look outside of their own standard practices and look outside of what their industry typically does in order to borrow success practices from other industries.

Many people you meet and work with have spent years, even decades in one basic business or industry. And, whilst this is not wrong, such a person typically knows only the success practices of just their industry. For example, how marketing, advertising, promotions and selling are conducted within one company or industry.

Industrial manufacturers typically use a field sales force.

Retailers typically place ads in local newspapers and the Yellow Pages etc.

Stockbrokers do virtually all their business by telephone and email.

Doctors, dentists, vets and lawyers rely almost exclusively on referrals.

And so on…

When any business is limited to doing things the same way as industry competition, progress is typically incremental and modest at best. Or worst, the company can lose ground and market share.

By looking outside the box to learn the most effective and powerful breakthrough approaches, you are able to pick and choose approaches that, which might be as common as dirt in one industry, yet can have the power and impact of an atomic bomb in your unrelated industry.

Since, you'll probably be one of the few, if not the only competitor using new breakthrough approaches, your business results can benefit and positively multiply quickly.

Here are some examples of strategies successfully copied from other industries:

Federal Express applied the banking industries method of clearing cheques overnight to the overnight delivery of packages. Banks would send all cheques to a central processing point, and then out to the appropriate branch. FedEx adopted this hub-and-spoke concept, where every package went to a central location (Memphis, Tennessee) before package was flown to its final destination.

A man named George Thomas was searching for an effective way for people to apply liquid based deodorant. He was highly frustrated whilst researching for a solution until he realised the solution was in his own hand... The Ball Point Pen.

Dave Liniger, the founder of RE/MAX Real Estate, grew his company to a billion dollars in sales by using the '100% Solution'. This meant David allowed his salespeople to keep 100% of their commission while charging his salespeople a fee for office facilities and equipment. David's salespeople made so much money, they hardly left RE/MAX.

The story is told that one day David went into his regular three chair Barber Shop. The owner was complaining how hard it was to keep good barbers as they would typically leave to set up business of their own (competition!!!). David explained how his real estate business retained talent using the 100% solution. The barber nodded politely.

At a later date David revisited the barber when upon reaching in his wallet to pay, the barber said, "This one is on me... I took your advice and now we are a 100% solution barber business.”

Depending on any long term or industry standard approach can be a disaster waiting to happen.

A simple analogy: If you are fishing using one pole or the same bait on your hook as other people fishing near you, you will only catch limited fish. But if you use more poles with different baits at the same time, your fishing potential will significantly increase!

All the best with your business.