Competers and Innovators
There is a commercial on television that shows a good looking, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy trying to do the right things in his life. He goes to work every day. Takes his wife out to dinner. Always uses the express tollbooth. What a guy, right?Well, yes, but this guy - let's call him Fred - has one problem: He is always at least a few seconds behind the rest of the world. When his wife says, "I love you" at dinner, his response is so late that she gets up and storms off. Oh, he loves her alright. And he says so. But sadly, not until his love interest is out of earshot.
And remember the tollbooth? Our protagonist always has exact change, and his aim is perfect. But the cops are still going to arrest him because he doesn't attempt his toll toss until after he crashes through the guard arm.
Poor Fred. He has a good heart and he means well. But it seems that everything he does is always late.
Small Business Freds
In his classic book, Technotrends, our friend, Daniel Burrus, identifies two groups of business people. The first group, Dan calls them "Competers," sounds like our Fred because they are always behind the curve. Just like Fred, competers always react to market forces.
Dan calls the second group "Innovators." These are the people who do what is necessary to make sure their actions are what competers are reacting to. Unlike competers - and Fred - innovators usually find themselves ahead of the curve.
Are You A Competer Or An Innovator?
What follows is a list of a few of Dan's examples of the differences between competers and innovators, each followed by my thoughts on what they might look like in Smallbusinessland.
Burrus: Competers copy others. Innovators are constantly looking for better ways of thinking and acting.
The road to bankruptcy is paved with the investment of small business owners who thought they could get rich replicating someone else's successful business model. There actually was a time when this strategy worked for some, but that era ended about 50 years ago, long before virtually EVERYTHING you could possibly want to sell became a commodity. In the 21st Century, small business owners who copy others are usually those who fail.
Like competers, small business innovators also watch what others are doing. But they use the evidence available from the activity of others as research and leverage to develop their own offerings to the marketplace. A hamburger is just a hamburger, until an innovator puts his own special sauce on it. A fuse is just a fuse, until an innovator delivers it closer to her customer's fuse box than anyone ever has before.
Burrus: Competers get locked into set patterns. Innovators constantly cultivate a creative mindset.
"We've always done it this way." That's the ignominious battle cry of the competer. I've actually heard someone say this as he was presiding obliviously over the slow and painful death of his business. Here's another variation on that theme, "This way was good enough for my father." That's what famous last words sound like in the 21st Century.
Small business innovators know that the marketplace is shifting at light speed, and you must either create or ride on a shift, or you will be run over by one.
It's good to have a track to run on, like a business strategy that has been successful. But what happens when you realize that the light coming at you is not sunlight at the end of the tunnel, it's another train? Innovators use tracks, too. But they also make sure they are operating the kind of business vehicle that allows them to get off that track and convert to a road - or a river - before others even see the train wreck coming.
Burrus: Competers control and direct their people. Innovators empower their people for positive action.
There are two kinds of managers: Dominators and leaders. Dominators don't trust their people on their own, and feel that they must intimidate and oppress their staff in order to make sure they do as they are told. Wherever you find competers you'll often find dominators.
In the old days, as I have written in this space before, dominators could be relatively effective, because the marketplace conformed to that brand of management. In the 21st Century, dominators are dinosaurs. If you see one, you're witnessing the marketplace equivalent of the last days of a latter-day Tyrannosaurus Rex. They often use words like, I, me, don't, can't and, when a mistake is made, dominators are often heard to say, "You're fired."
Small business innovators know that they don't own the franchise on entrepreneurialism, and empower their people to take initiative. They know that, properly hired, trained, motivated, equipped, and managed, employees can also be entrepreneurs. Innovators know entrepreneurial employees are easier to manage and fun to watch.
Innovators feed their egos - and their balance sheets - with the success of their people, rather than their own individual conquests. Innovators often use words like, we, us, you, well done and, when a mistake is made while taking initiative, innovators usually say, "What did we learn?"
Burrus: Competers see scientific and technological developments as threats to their status quo. Innovators focus on how they can apply new technologies to open up new opportunities.
I know it's hard to believe, but I have actually met a live Neanderthal man. He is a small business owner, and I was able to determine that he was a Neanderthal by what he said, "I hate email. I got so much email that I had to stop using it." Oh, there was one more grunt from this homo erectus, "I'm not going to hook my employees up to the Internet. We don't have time for surfing. We've got work to do."
No, his name wasn't Fred. But you can go ahead and stick a fork in this competer. He's done.
Small business innovators realize that technology is the best thing that ever happened to them; but only if they embrace technology, rather than rail against it. Because of technology, small businesses can actually compete, virtually head-up with the big guys. But that's not the exciting part. The best small business strategy isn't to compete with big companies - it's to partner with them.
I know a tiny small business that used the incremental availability and pricing of today's technology offerings - and the partnership approach - to sell technology to the largest technology company in the world. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my 35 years in the marketplace.
Write this on a rock... Competers are the also-rans that innovators beat to the finish line every time. In the 21st Century, small business innovators are not only benefiting from rapid change, they're actually creating it. It's a beautiful thing.
