Hey, happy Monday!
You’ll have a full e-mail and clogged feeds of the U.S. Election, of Apple’s new computers, of Farfetch and its mega alliance with Alibaba and Richemont, of Netflix launching a “traditional” television station in France–practically all things that will not have the slightest impact on either your career, your business, or your personal life.
If we are here, you and I, it is because this newsletter and our community help us zoning-out, to get back to being present about the things that matter, about what we can change to make things better and get out of “survival-mode.”
Where to start?
From the why. But not from yours.
Every innovation project is a change management project. Point.
It is a fact, however, that 70% of change management projects fail (see for yourself).
The idea I have is that they all start from the why wrong. Expensive consultations and endless meetings with Executives trying to put some post-it notes in those concentric circles of Simon Sinek. Start with Why.
If this happened to you, tell me honestly, did it help you?
Probably not. And this is simply because. People don’t care about your why, people only care about their own why.
We all buy products and services because we are trying to make progress in our lives. Here, in the No. 37, I identified 4 really basic and provocative aspects.
Think about the fact that when there is a need in the company to invent something new to improve the income statement it is because people have changed the way they approach the market to find answers to their needs. If you do not adapt your product or service to the new needs, your chances of becoming irrelevant will be very high.
It seems that people get bored quickly, have become refractory to messages, distracted by whoever shouts the loudest–none of that.
People are not stupid. They are just efficient.
What you are offering them, people, already know how to do. They are incredibly good at building their own workarounds by sequencing solutions that are already available. They know how to get to the best version of themselves. They do it with more or less effort, but they already do it without your help.
Your job, if you want to survive, is to offer a 10× cheaper, 10× faster, 10× safer solution.
There is one thing that, no matter what, will never change. The desire for self-improvement. What is called self-betterment. Even, and I would add especially, now that we are locked up in the house again.
In April, I wrote a series of notes that had as a common theme what I called the Bring-at-home Economy. A set of emerging behaviors that have changed and continue to shape the way people create value and consequently realign profits with operating models. Here are the most important ones. At the bottom of the newsletter instead is the collection of notes.
Work better
Deserted offices but teams constantly connected via video conferencing. Services that have rebuilt remote collaborative dynamics have exploded. From Zoom for video calls, to virtual whiteboards like Miro, to project management software like Trello or Basecamp. It’s easy to open an account, often free, harder to rebuild efficient work processes and ability to communicate asynchronously. Lunchtime bars no longer work and food stamps are left in your wallet.
Eating better
Staying at home forces people to cook more often out of necessity or to rediscover its psychotherapeutic power. Food-delivery shopping doubles. Experience-delivery wins. +20% more spirits for cocktails to drink at home.
Improving one’s home
Never before have we allowed customers and colleagues into our homes. Furniture, desks and accessories, have changed not only the aesthetic value but also the economic value of homes. +30% demand for homes in the country. A studio is worth more than a balcony. The 110% bonus.
Being better parents
The school has failed miserably in every expectation. No evolution beyond clumsy distance learning. And when the children are at home, it is the parents’ job to protect them from the distractions of the net and to rebuild social moments with the difficulty of colliding generations that classically met only at dinner.
You can finally play with the giants
The ones I just listed are just the most obvious jobs-to-be-done on which to realign value creation.
You’ve probably noticed that when you try to identify your competitors it becomes increasingly difficult to find any in your own industry. It happens when more accessible technologies allow so many to enter the market to solve the same problems, and then competition comes from all sides.
People, at home, leave few touchpoints of access with the world: the cell phone, the computer, the television, the radio. While the pressure of messaging on this handful of touchpoints becomes overwhelmingly strong, it also becomes democratic. You and a 1 billion company, wherever it is, can finally compete on a level playing field: when you invest in Facebook Ads, Google Ads or Spotify Ads you are both using the same tool, the same source code, the same version of algorithm to reach the same person.
For the first time you can win the auction against a giant as long as your message is relevant to that person. Never mind the technology that is the same for everyone, and important To know the why of the listener. And important is strategy.
Good work!
Make yourself heard.
