The Only Marketplace That's Not Crowded

Seeking new markets to expand your firm or business?  Want to lead an innovative and successful organization?

There’s a ton to consider, which leads to all sorts of questions that need answers. How do we adopt and implement machine learning and AI in our business?  What products or services can we improve upon?  Are there new services or products that we need to develop?

Which direction you head and where you invest your time and resources matter. Where do you start?

“Be the Best.  It’s the Only Marketplace that’s Not Crowded.”  - Tom Peters

There’s a lot to unpack here.  The starting point may be a surprise.

Must you be innovative?  To continue to grow your business and to meet the needs of your customers and clients, innovation will be necessary.

Do you need to be first-to-market or ahead of the curve?  Not necessarily.  There’s nothing wrong with being a fast follower.  Let others lead the way and learn from their experiences and mistakes.

In “Good to Great,” Jim Collins gave us the “Hedgehog Concept” and the simplicity of three circles.  They are:

• “What you are deeply passionate about.”

• “What drives your economic engine?”

• “What you can you be the best in the world at?”

Best in the World?

I was leading a workshop with a group of CEOs recently, and when I shared Collins’ three circles, one of the participants exclaimed, “We can’t be the best in the world!”

The point is this.

Being the Best is a choice.  It starts with your mindset.  Ask yourself, what are you and your team deeply passionate about.  What in your work gives you the most joy and satisfaction?  What stirs within you and your team and gets you moving forward with excitement and anticipation?

In sports, being the best is easily identifiable.  You can actually visualize and witness what being the best looks like.  Do you want to be the world champions?  Do you want to be the MVP, the All-American, at the top of your game?

In business, it’s a little harder to visualize what "being the best" means to you and the rest of your firm.  But it can be done.  It may entail a little corporate soul-searching to begin to have clarity about the answers to the questions.

I recommend that you take a break from the daily routines of work.  Choose a place and a time off-site where you and your leadership team can be together and focus on the business, not in it.  Plan to take a day or two or three where clarity, focus, teamwork, trust building, and camaraderie will flourish.

Innovation?

As you start to peal back the layers of what is most important to you and our company, the direction that you are headed becomes more clear.  Done well, the process will help you identify the initiatives that are vital to achieving success, and it’s likely that this will include innovation that fits your culture and capabilities.

Innovation, again, is a choice.  Do you have a culture of innovation?  Is it a part of your firm’s DNA?  It can be learned.

According to McKinsey, innovation is more likely to happen when there is a “rigorous process.”  The best companies at innovation only enter markets where there are “clear opportunities for growth.” (McKinsey Quarterly, “The eight essentials of innovation” published April 1, 2015 and updated January 4, 2024).

Whether to innovate as a market leader, a fast follower, or not at all is a choice.  I think you will find that ever-changing market demands make it obvious to you and your team that some sort of innovation is necessary.  Certainly, you’ve had to innovate since 2019, at the very least.

More On Innovation

Innovation can take on many forms, and you only need to look close to home to find ways to innovate more.

Have you heard about Swedish Fika? In simple terms, it’s a coffee break with sweet treats.  But it’s much more than that.  To the Swedes, it’s more of a ritual with cultural significance.

It’s an innovative way to encourage more collaboration and a way to recharge for a short while with others.  It’s important to find ways for social interaction, and as an added bonus, taking a short break is actually good for you and your employees’ mental health.

There’s something about breaking bread (or pastries) with another human being that, well, makes us more human.  Human interaction is important.  Finding ways to amplify those interactions is a leadership challenge nowadays with flexible work schedules, hybrid work, and remote workers.

Some final thoughts

In this crazy, volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world of work, take comfort in the fact that you can lead your team with clarity, focus, and resilience.

Where to begin?  Begin at the beginning.  Self-awareness.  It all starts with you as the leader - your mindset, your beliefs, your vision, your actions.

Make time to work on the business, not in it.  Your vantage point will improve, and so will your decision-making.

Find time to collaborate with your leadership team on where the company or firm is headed, define the culture, define what success looks like, and the role of innovation in achieving success.

Seek out the only market that isn’t crowded and strive to be the best.  The best version of you, the best team, the best company.

Until next time!