What's the easiest way to find new ideas to beat your competitors?
By borrowing them from non-competitors -- businesses in completely different industries.
Like McDonald's, which borrowed the idea of a drive-through window from ... banking.
According to Rupert Hart, author of "Recession Storming," ideas are all around you, waiting to be borrowed.
He offers these two examples:
- How could you become the McDonald's of your industry, by offering a simple, limited menu of unparalleled consistency?
- How could you emulate H&R Block, by providing seasonal, personalized service at a reasonable price?
Or how could you become the Zappos of your industry, by borrowing from their customer service? (Hint: pick up the phone and call your customers. Zappos builds relationships, one customer at a time, often when their employees answer customer questions by phone.)
(Kevin M. Donlin is author of the Special Report, Guaranteed Marketing for Small Business Professionals.)
That's so true. I actually used to work in a personal development "publishing" (read: ecommerce) company which had awards like being the most democratic company by WorldBlu, wanted to be a Zappos of the industry, etc. However, the total was a total mess of autocratic leadership (we used to call the boss "Chairman ___" behind his back - as in Chairman Mao), didn't follow a thing that Zappos really did except for maybe call things a bit more fancy.
ReplyDeleteSo I don't think it's exactly that it's the idea we are 'borrowing' from other companies - it's more so about how we implement the changes and follow it through to create a more dynamic business.