Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Make Hay.

Talk of value added services, talk of competing on quality, and how a race to the bottom never benefits anyone, is great. It's what I surround myself with, it's how I make myself sleep at night whilst watching those bottom feeders grab up market share.
Today I realized that evolution is truly kind to the bottom feeders.
The problem with being a bottom feeder is that we get greedy - bottom feeders must be content to not be the rulers of the world, they must be content to be the sustainable second.
Rogers (to use a completely random example)does not play the bottom feeding game. They compete on value added - on saying 'don't come to us if you want the cheapest game in town.'
This is all fine, when the market is great. To be the 'classy cat' in a sea of dog fish is a nice card to play. In fact, arguably it is the only card to play in a time when life is good. Be the elite, be the value added, be the classy one. Don't run ads that even breathe the word price; show sexy men going down escalators with their phones working - claim reliablity, beautiful, rich and meaningful words.
Just make sure you keep a few staff who have the bottom feeding mentality around. Because you'll need it when the economy tanks (and it will) in a few short years. Until then, if your playing the classy game - play it for all it's worth. Make as much of it as you can but invest it so that you can transistion into a bottom feeding mentality that still has the class image. hmm easier talked about than typed.

This has applications far far far beyond business - personal debt payment, education, heck even spirituality. While you have time, while you have finances, while your life circumstances permit. I'm sounding like a tired motivational speaker as it can really be summed up in the cliched 'make hay while the sun shines'
wow. this is a lame post.

No comments: