Be Different or be dead

November 20, 2023

How Do CoNTRaRIAN Entrepreneurs Become Insanely Successful?

How Do CoNTRaRIAN Entrepreneurs Become Insanely Successful?

What’s a CoNTRaRIAN Entrepreneur?

Check this iconic quote is from Apple’s 1997 advertising campaign that encapsulates the essence of contrarian entrepreneurship…
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels…because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

There are many faces to a CoNTRaRIAN…

CoNTRaRIANs…
- Look for ways to DISRUPT current business models.
- Are driven to CREATE something new.
- BUCK trends and common conventions.
- Don’t ‘pivot’, they BREAK AWAY from what the herd is doing.
- JUMP not stagger away from the ‘norm’.
- Have DISTAIN for the status quo .
- Offend some; amaze others.
- Make people nervous.
- Apply their mindset to every challenge regardless of how big or how small.

Being CoNTRaRIAN is an effective business strategy…

- It works because it’s unique. Few do it.
- Most businesses do the same thing, which results in all having similar strategies.
- “Undifferentiation” is happening. Too much copying going on.
- Businesses refer to the same books and case studies.
- COPYING, CLAPTRAP, ASPIRATIONS, NARCISSISM are overused; words like “Better”, “Best”, “#1”, “Save the World” pervade, stultifying creativity and innovation.

We need an intervention to get off this track.

Success today requires businesses to stand out and be different from their competition in a way people CARE about.

A CoNTRaRIAN mindset is an excellent tactic to look for ways to be THE ONLY ONE that does what you do.

Most businesses go with the flow…

- They follow common methods prescribed by textbooks.
- They copy what their competitors are doing.
- Benchmarking seems to be an acceptable tool to feed strategy.
- CoNTRaRIANism is perceived to be a high risk approach even though there’s nothing more risky than being the same as everyone else.
- The heavy inertia of past methodologies prevents business from reframing their strategy to be the ONLY ones that do what they do.

Examples of businesses that have practiced CoNTRaRIANism…

The Grateful Dead — build stands to allow their fans to record and share their music. Gave special deals to their existing fans rather than using special offers to attract NEW fans.

The Heart Attack Grill — Las Vegas, where obesity and unhealthy eating is the theme.
✔️Famous for their Bypass Burgers from a Single to a $24 Octuple Bypass at 20,000 calories.
✔️Offered Flatliner Fries, which are deep-fried in pure lard. 
✔️Wine is served in an IV drip bag.
✔️Guests are referred to as “patients”.
✔️Diners wear hospital gowns when entering.
✔️Servers dressed as nurses and doctors.
✔️Anyone over 350 Ibs. eats free.
✔️Rated ⅘ by Tripadvisor, and ranked #155 out of 1,170 restaurants in Vegas.

Uber — Disrupted the traditional taxi model and ventured into the untrodden realm of ride-sharing.

Netflix — Rather than conforming to the rental store model, they introduced a subscription-based streaming service.

How does a business leader cultivate a CoNTRARIAN culture?

The end game is to have a culture that encourages CREATIVITY not COPYING; INNOVATION not IMITATION.

Some specific behaviors than need to be developed and rewarded:

1. Question the status quo and established norms.
2. Try. Try. Try.
3. Create, don’t imitate the crowd.
4. Think independently.
5. Ask yourself “How can I do this differently?”
6. Empower people to take risks and innovate.
7. Use customer complaints as a way to disrupt how the organization does business.
8. Connect and engage with other disruptors.
9. Celebrate incremental CoNTRaRY successes.
10. Look for long term sustainability in CoNTRaRY ideas.
11. Emphasize value creation over competition. Make it about being unique in delivering value that people CARE about as opposed to battling with competitors.
12. Ask “How can we take at least a right angle turn away from the traditional approach?”.
13. Establish ‘The Office of the Contrarian’ in your organization - leaders can take on the role of CCO

3 CoNTRARIAN Moves I made taking a startup internet company to A BILLION IN ANNUAL SALES…

The startup was in its early stages, so I had to look for innovative ways to stimulate performance and growth.

1. Business Planning - My Strategic Game Plan process emphasizes EXECUTION over precise direction-setting and disrupts the traditional planning approach.

2. Differentiation - My ONLY Statement process revolutionizes the standard Unique Value Proposition approaches that rely on meaningless CLAPTRAP & ASPIRATIONS to create competitive differentiation.

3. Customer Loyalty - Building and executing a Recovery Strategy to turn a service OOPS! into a WOW! is instrumental in building strong customer loyalty with retention rates at astronomical levels.
Recovery strategies are virtually nonexistent in organizations today!
The addition of a Recovery Strategy to ‘Do it Right the First Time” successfully exploits the power of ’FIX & SURPRISE’.

CoNTRARIANism isn’t a ‘bad word’. It’s the new way to get the creative juices flowing in an organization to stand out from the competition and deliver benefits that people CARE about.

Cheers,
Roy
My 75+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION.

My BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

‘Audacious’ is my latest.

• Posted 11.20.23 at 05:21 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink

November 13, 2023

How Devoted Customer ‘Heroes’ Make Unparalleled Winners

How Devoted Customer ‘Heroes’ Make Unparalleled Winners.

Looking for a simple Move that will transform your organization into an unmatched high performing machine?

As I’ve said many times before, it’s not the technology, products and services that make teams standout in the marketplace.
Virtually all competitors have access to equivalent technologies and their product features are all basically the same, give or take.

Customer experiences, on the other hand, is the playing field where winners are created. Organizations that deliver dazzling, ‘gasp-worthy’ and emotionally drenched experiences for their customers always come out on top of the competitor heap.

These organizations understand that it’s the customer-infused culture that consistently delivers WOW! customer moments, and often in ways that create a great deal of discomfort for the leadership hierarchy.

My ‘Customer Hero’ Move is an incredibly powerful loyalty building tool that essentially dispels the ‘formality’ of an organization—hierarchical structure, internal rules & policies—in order to take care of a customer and their immediate needs.

Now a definition.

The Customer Hero is someone who advocates for a customer on the inside of an organization. This is the person who ‘does battle’ with all the rules, policies and red tape that is preventing the customer from getting what they want.

This is the ‘warrior on the inside’ who fights for the rights of the customer in the sea of restrictions that exercise the needs of the organization and not the customer.

And this is the zealot who is prepared to put themselves at risk and fight against the organizational ‘injustices’ that sometimes unfairly disable customer rights at the expense of horrific experiences and body blows to customer loyalty.

We need cultures that honor Customer Heroes.

We need Customer Advocacy to be something organizations WANT to do to themselves because they understand how important it is to long term growth and performance.

We need organizations that exist to serve the customer even though at times we have to ‘suck it up’, admit that one of our rules or policies is DUMB and break it for the greater good of long term customer loyalty.

We need leaders to get over themselves, lose their ego and practice what they preach. All too many espouse the Holy Grail of creating memorable customer experiences, yet don’t ‘eat their own dog food’.

They force policy down the customer’s throat and punish the employee who fights against it in order to actually deliver what the customer experience demands.

It’s time.

Time to declare the Customer Hero philosophy in our organizations and espouse advocating against disempowering processes that destroy customer loyalty.

Time to make customer advocacy inside our organizations a priority plank of our Values platform.

”We will be the customer’s Hero in our organization, fighting for their rights at all cost.

Time to honor and reward those Heroes who, against inertia and resistance, push forward unrelentingly to advocate for their customer.

And it’s time to assume the customers’ pain when they are forced to fight for their rights on their own.

It’s time to do the audacious thing.

Cheers,
Roy
My 75+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION.

My BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

‘Audacious’ is my latest.

• Posted 11.13.23 at 06:25 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink

October 30, 2023

Why Dumb Rules must be destroyed if you are to be successful

Source: Unsplash

Why Dumb Rules must be destroyed if you are to be successful.

What’s a ‘Dumb Rule’?

A ‘Dumb Rule’ is an internal rule, policy or procedure that simply doesn’t make any sense to a customer. It annoys them!

They are so passionate about the alleged stupidity of the rule that they refuse to do business with an organization because of it.

They run from the organization screaming to their friends how terrible their service is.

A ‘Dumb Rule’ is conceived generally as a customer engagement control mechanism.

Dealing with Dumb Rules is rarely viewed by an organization as an important part of strategy development, but attacking Dumb Rules was one of many tactics I used to improve the execution of our strategic game plan as we marched to A BILLION IN SALES.

The Dumb Rules initiative was part of my ‘Say YES!’ strategy which had the objective of removing the roadblocks that prevented people from delivering superlative experiences for customers.

I made eliminating Dumb Rules an integral part of our Strategic Game Plan.

Why are Dumb Rules so important to a business?

▪️They control customer engagement and get in the way of making it easy for customers to engage with an organization.
▪️They get in the way of building customer loyalty.
▪️They result in customers telling others how ‘bad’ and uncaring an organization is.
▪️They obstruct the provision of delightful customer experiences.
▪️They introduce unproductive ‘friction’ in a business that prevents seamless delivery of products and services to customers.
▪️Employee engagement suffers when frontline people have to engage Rules that customers hate.

What if the Dumb Rule can’t be eliminated because it’s a legal or regulatory requirement?

Yes, certain rules are required by law or regulatory governance.

First of all do your due diligence to make sure that the claim is real and not the posturing of a champion who doesn’t want their rule or policy removed.

If the rule is necessary, however, then at least look for ways to make it customer friendly.

And reconsider how the rule is enforced with a customer; what communications strategy is used. Is it friendly and helpful or is it demanding and intimidating?
Take the time to design the customer communications content to minimize an adverse reaction; it’s not always possible but it is worth considering doing nevertheless.

If you are able to expunge even 20% of the dumb rules you have in your organization, your customers will reward you with their loyalty and your reputation will soon attract new customers as well.

What is an example of a of Dumb Rule?

One of my favorite dumb rule stories took place at The Mirage Hotel Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. There is a wonderful deli in the casino that serves the best reuben sandwiches ever but the customer friendliness of their policies sucks.

My wife and I showed up late one night and asked the hostess for a booth and were told flatly that our request was not possible since it was their policy to offer booths only for parties of 6 or more.

I get that management wanted to maximize the check value from these specific seats, but in this case the store was empty save my wife and me! Maximizing revenue beyond the two of us was an impossibility!

How does a business go about killing Dumb Rules?

✔️Make it a strategic imperative in the organization’s strategic game plan. Leadership issue to make it matter.

✔️Establish Dumb Rule Committees. Ask frontline people what dumb rules they are constantly having to deal with.

Frontline people know the rules and policies that annoy customers but do you have the courage to listen?

I created Dumb Rules Committees in the operations areas of my organization and appointed a leader for each committee.
Their responsibility was to seek out and destroy (or otherwise modify) rules that made no sense to customers and drove them crazy.

Fun was had by all over this concept.

Everyone, particularly the frontline, welcomed this initiative; they all were passionate about the purpose; we made real progress.

We had contests among the committees to see who could come up with the most dumb rules to kill, and we celebrated the winners.

The committees were expected to not only identify rules, policies and procedures that annoyed customers, they were also charged with the responsibility of eradicating them by taking whatever action was necessary to get it done.

My role and that of my senior leaders was to remove any roadblocks preventing the committees from getting a rule dealt with.

✔️Embed customers in the Rule design process. Design your Rule system with the customer in mind.
They will be the best ‘cleansing agents’ you could ever ask for. And they will love you asking for their help in your business.

✔️Get customer input through service quality surveys. ASK THEM about your rules and policies, and be guided by what they have to say.

✔️Hold leaders accountable to eliminate Dumb Rules. Include the task in their annual performance plan.

Dumb Rules prevent effective execution of your strategic game plan.

Irradiate them and watch the magic!

Cheers,
Roy
My 75+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION.

My BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

‘Audacious’ is my latest.

• Posted 10.30.23 at 05:53 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink

October 23, 2023

5 easy ways to grow your business fast and furious

5 easy ways to grow your business fast and furious

I was fortunate to lead an amazing startup team to build an internet business to A BILLION IN ANNUAL SALES.

I am often asked on podcasts, what are the secrets to growth? What are the top priorities a leader should pay attention to to drive unbelievable performance?

Make these 5 Moves.

They worked for me.

They’ll work for you.

#1. Have a simple plan — Simplicity Rules! It’s critical to have a business plan  that can be easily communicated to people if you want them to support your chosen direction.

Critical elements of your plan:
▪️Growth targets for the next 24 months.
▪️Customer groups you intend to target to achieve your growth goals.
▪️Competitive strategy - how you intend to differentiate your organization from your competitors.

#2. Be the ONLY ones who do what you do — Having clarity on why people should do business with you and not your competitors is vital to cut through the clutter of competitive claims out there.
And it’s THE prerequisite to business growth.

If you’re not The ONLY One at something your target customers CARE about, your growth goals will be almost impossible to achieve.

#3. Focus on execution — It’s all very well to have a strategy that sounds awesome on paper, but the true rest of an audacious plan is whether or not it can be flawlessly executed day in and day out.

Roy’s Rule if EXECUTE!: for every hour spent on setting direction, spend two hours on how you’re going to execute it.

#4. Ensure every employee has a direct line of sight to your strategy — One of the main reasons growth objectives aren’t met is because employees aren’t clear on what they specifically need to do to execute the strategy.

Some people will get the role that they now have to play but others won’t. This leads to dysfunction and the inability to achieve the growth goals set for everyone.

The solution is quite simple. Leaders need to declare what each employee needs to do to effectively execute on the strategy. The new things they need to take on and the old things they need to give up must be defined in granular fashion.

Effective plan execution—and achieving planned growth—happens when there is a direct Line of Sight  between every employee and the strategy of the organization.

#5. Follow your frontline — Who REALLY knows what’s going on in any organization?

The growth journey requires leaders who ‘stick’ to their frontline, the ‘coal face’ of the organization where customers and competitors intersect with the organization and produce successful transactions or failures.

Spending time with the frontline is often uncomfortable for leaders, because they learn about PROBLEMS! Most leaders would prefer hearing only about what is going well; it makes them feel good. But the reality is that problems—barriers frontline people face in trying to execute the organization’s strategy—that are successfully resolved are extremely powerful in improving performance.

Audacious Leaders dedicate at least 1 day per week to the frontline where their objective is to discover—and REPAIR—what is preventing the strategy of the organization from being pristinely executed.

Fast and furious growth doesn’t happen by doing one thing.

It’s the result of consistently making many small Moves.

These five Moves are critical—and they’ve been proven to work—if you’re searching for a growth formula.

Cheers,
Roy
My 75+ Podcast Shows that will change your life.

My Podcast Show Audacious Moves to A BILLION.

My BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series.

‘Audacious’ is my latest.

• Posted 10.23.23 at 05:21 am by Roy Osing
• Permalink