Is perfection enough?
A few days ago I wrote about the risk of being trapped by perfection in product development, Now marketing writer Seth Godin has written about the problem with perfection in execution. Once you reach a certain point of perfection, it ceases to be distinctive. Either your perfection becomes taken for granted (like water from a tap) or your competitors catch up.
I’ve often said that, in the long run, an average idea well executed nearly always beats a great idea averagely executed. But I also fervently believe that every company need to ask itself the big question - just what is it that you offer the market that is genuinely distinctive, and how will you develop and maintain that distinctiveness?
As a strategy consultant, I have been involved in dozens of businesses where the board and executive team’s sole idea for their future direction is to improve execution. Let’s improve quality, let’s hire better sales people, let’s eliminate waste, let’s improve customer service, let’s improve the way we manage our people. Now these may all be good things to do, but while they may be necessary, they are not sufficient for long term success.
If you blank out your name and product from your business plan, can you tell it isn’t from any of your competitors, or from say a cardboard box manufacturer? (That’s not to denigrate box makers by the way). You need a distinctive market offer, which essentially defines what is is you offer (tangibly and intangibly), to whom, how you will fulfill that offer, and why your customer will buy it.
Perfect execution may be part of your market offer, but is it enough?
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