THIS ARTICLE BY MARK DI SOMMA IS TITLED:
Inspiration for brands:
If You Want To Be Competitive, Look Out!

Business books and conference presentations don't buy you difference. In fact, the place to find the X factor of real competitive advantage may well be as far away from business as possible.

I love ideas. They captivate and stimulate me. And I'm a voracious reader - time, clients and family permitting. But I am increasingly perturbed by the cult of the literary lemming which so many business people these days seem in danger of joining - the unquestioning determination to adopt an idea because others are talking about it and therefore it must be right.

That seems to be what more and more business people are looking for. Blanket answers. Shortcuts. Complete remedies that have worked for others and therefore must work for them - without them having to invest too much of their own time. The results are all around us. Companies carving off chunks of their labour force because they've decided to adopt an "outsourcing" model. Rationale? Pending. Organizations spending millions to introduce CRM technology that still doesn't answer people's problems. Rationale? Their competitors have done so. Managers sending people off to courses because they read about it somewhere and it really worked for them. Results? Unknown - but the budget was allocated and everyone had a nice time.

For so many decision makers today, multiple magazine subscriptions, total article addiction and the latest business books are their guide. They are swallowing what they see and hear whole, instead of using it as a starting point to think through inspiring, original and relevant solutions.

Global shifts in thought are just that …

This is not in any way to decry the work of the business authors and others in shaping current business thought and practice. Far from it. Much of their work has literally changed how organizations and enterprises work forever. The business environment we find ourselves in today and much of the thinking behind modern day management is the direct result of the inputs and ideas created by Handy, Peters, Covey, Porter et al. - and I for one am a huge fan and admirer of all these people. These luminaries have changed the thinking of many. I read their blogs and other writings religiously.

But a business book alone is not the answer, and it never will be - because it was never intended to be. When Tom Peters for example talks about the competitive advantage of design in his book Re-imagine, that does not deliver a specific business competitive difference for you. It gives the business community a concept to consider and apply. But, if everyone agrees, then what it actually delivers long term is a raised level of parity. If your competitors read it, agree and do what Peters suggests, then no-one has directly gained an advantage over those who have moved, they have simply left behind those that didn't or wouldn't move.

Same with hearing a great speaker. What you are being told is being heard by all those around you. When Martin Lindstrom talks about the need for sensory branding, for example, he is delivering an idea for consideration. If everyone were to do what he says, then there would be no advantage. Lindstrom's ideas are powerful and hugely applicable to all businesses, and his books are well deserving of the huge praise they have garnered. But reading the book is not the answer in itself. Sensory branding per se will not make you more competitive. It will only work for your organization if you can find a way to apply it that is different from what others are doing, relevant to what your customers need, aligned to where your culture is heading and your specific business strategies. Books, even great books, and the ideas they contain are not formulae. They are thought starters. Fascinating, intriguing and inspiring … but a long way from the ultimate answer.

Beyond the book and the speech

The ideas in my favourite books have formed the bedrock for sound working and new directions for business generally. In the hands of some, they will literally shake the business world and become the new best practice. But it's critical to remember that even best practice and world-class don't make you more competitive. They change the standards. They may make you as good as everyone else wants to be. They bring you up to date. That's vital. But it's not competitive - in the sense that, by itself, it does not break you from the pack in an ever changing and dynamic global business environment.

The challenge every reader and member of the audience faces is not just absorbing and understanding the business case for change, but then finding a way to bring it alive that is unique. Business people have to be prepared to go beyond what they see and read. Speeches and business books are not gospel. They are a springboard for thinking to arrive at a solution that is yours. And that is the only way to extrapolate an advantage from the thoughts presented to the many. Articles and books, like great quotes or speeches at conferences, are interesting and insightful. They may change your overall outlook forever. They will inspire you. But they seldom if ever touch just you.

The hunt for disruption

True competitive advantage requires much more initiative and creativity than that. Those looking for advantage from books and presentations need to be able to tease out the implication threads not just the instructional thinking. And they need to blend those insights with other sources of inspiration that enable them to arrive at answers that are truly disruptive - in the sense that they completely cut across convention in order to redefine what's singularly possible.

One of the most interesting places to find those inspirations is in areas far removed from the "business" category.

I look for disruptive sources to solve business problems that are way down the other end of the bookstore - in the sections on anthropology, history, military strategy, voyages of discovery, sculpture, the history of art … Why? Because what I'm looking for is not the facts, but the ideas that drove those facts. And the reason I want those ideas is so I can harvest the thinking for principles that can be applied elsewhere.

I once helped solve one of the most complex and difficult branding projects I have ever worked on accidentally when I picked up a National Geographic magazine and read an article on pygmies. The more I learned about the way their society was structured and how they interacted, the more intrigued I became by the idea of applying that model to a corporate. Books, thinking and experience in internal structuring and culture provided the base theory and knowledge I needed. But it was blending that knowledge with a new and very lateral set of concepts that brought about breakthrough.

On another occasion, I was trying to find a refreshing market position for a financial player. That night, I was reading a book on negotiation by a man whose team bargains oil contracts around the world, when it occurred to me that what the people I was reading about were doing and what my client was capable of doing were actually remarkably similar - at an abstract level.

Scouring the parallels for new terms of reference

There was a model in there for the problems I was confronting. A parallel world of concepts - from which to draw actions, thinking and behaviours that would shake the sector and deliver a completely different train of thought with which to pursue the business.

Here's another example, quoted (ironically) in an inspiring book called "The Medici Effect" - which deals with this same issue of finding new terms of reference to solve current problems. An architect was looking for a way to control the temperature in a building. His challenge was that air conditioning was out of the question. Seeking inspiration, he found himself studying the dynamics of the world of termites. These creatures live in communities that need to be strictly temperature controlled. Termites achieve this through the use they make of air into and out of their structures. By learning of, and then applying, these principles to the building project, the architect was able to resolve a new answer to a problem that demanded more than just a technical response.

It seems to me that the burgeoning business publishing sector has encouraged business people to reach for a book and look up answers, instead of quite literally discovering what they could be doing for themselves - and in that sense, business is increasingly dancing to the whimsical tune of fashion. Organizations seem so often to be conforming with what they're being told rather than taking them as the cue to pioneer ways to be different. Everyone moans about the level of competition even as they're doing their level best to be the same as the next guy.

There's some interesting out-takes from all this.

Too much knowledge, not enough awareness

New business thinking is great, but in itself it's not enough. Truly competitive organizations must commit to finding new ways of thinking to address the business issues they're facing. The work of business authors and speakers is part of that - but only part.

I believe we are suffering from a worldwide shortage of scholarship in the business community. Too many people charged with solving business problems have terms of reference for their resolution that are far too narrow. They only look for answers within their field because that is where they have been encouraged to extend their thinking. They do not look beyond that because everything in their training and outlook encourages them not to do so. Lateral is still a dirty word. Unrelated is a taboo. Implication, take-outs and application of diametrically different concepts across sectors are lost arts. To me, the big challenge facing business schools and the education sector generally is to encourage people to think creatively not just learn vocationally. I would change the definition of MBA overnight to Master of Business and Arts - and rewrite the curriculum accordingly.

Equally, I don't believe organizations are using universities and other tertiary institutions to anything like their potential. Cross-disciplinary problem solving is an idea whose time must come. In addition to asking academics to solve the technical issues, perhaps more organizations should be heading for areas of campuses they've never dreamt of liaising with, in the quest to find new ways of considering and challenging principles. What perspective would a person with a background as a zoologist bring to human resources? How would a psychologist deal with supply chain demands?

Yes, it's a jump to the left - but it's remarkable how people can draw the parallels once they become aware of them, and how it leads to answers that no-one might have got to otherwise.

The business of design needs to become the design of business

Secondly, I really believe design is destined to become increasingly important for businesses in fast turnaround industries - not just in terms of drawing what they will look like, but re-concepting what is possible. For this reason the common-held definition of ‘design' needs to shift significantly, from pictures to new ways of arriving at answers to problems. It's started already, with companies like Ideo, but it can go a lot further. To my mind, design is the next phase of business development consulting, and if design companies are to make the most of this, and contribute to their potential, then they need to shift from graphically-driven skill sets to approaches built around creative business solving. Design companies have a huge contribution to make if they are prepared to step up to the plate. In the face of this emergence, management consultants, with their emphasis on operations and methodologies, are looking at the very real possibility of extinction.

Talk to me, and me, and me …

And if you're a speaker or an author, then this affects you too. In the world of branding, we have seen increasing recognition of the power of story-telling as a learning and understanding tool. Being a subject matter expert will always be a pre-requisite for a writer and speaker, but other abilities are going to emerge as differentiators. Increasingly, the onus for speakers and authors will be to step beyond the motivational or the instructional, and to link experience, background and insight with true sector knowledge and creative storytelling in ways that prompt readers and listeners to take what they have learnt, blend it with other sources and arrive at exciting new answers drawn from the implications.

That's going to require many more speakers and authors to become more rounded and multi-disciplinary in their scope if they are going to continue to add value. With so many books and speakers now available, those who will thrive in the longer term are the ones with the talent and drive to deliver not just ideas, theories or anecdotes - but presentations and books of spellbinding relevance that light the path to individualism.

Right … well, make of all that what you will!