What Business Are You Really In?
April 15th, 2010Every company has the thing they think they’re doing, and then the thing they’re actually doing. The most classic example are the train companies at the turn of 20th century who thought they were in the train business. Turns out they were in the transportation business. That new-fangled motor car nearly killed them!
Take magntize as another example. For the longest time we thought we were in the website business. We built personal websites for people. Over time we realized we were actually in the business of introducing people online. Websites were just the online medium (for now) that we used to do that. In the future that may or may not change depending on where technology and the broader culture goes.
What about your business or organization? Is there a difference between the perception and reality of your business offering?
Photo Credit: cindy47452
2 comments Click to reply »
October 30th, 2010
Brett,
When I started Control Yours with my business partner Chais Meyer, we got into business because we saw the need for small companies to have control over their own websites. After being in business for over a year, we realized control was indeed necessary, but even more than control over their own website, these people wanted someone who could educate them on how they should be using the internet to expand their business online. For us, this was a critical shift in our thinking and service offering.
The lesson I learned is this: sometimes we think we have an amazing idea and the perfect answer to a particular problem; in reality, we may have only scratched the surface. Keep digging, keep an open mind, and always listen to the people you’re serving. Keep the conversation going and never ever think you’ve “arrived”.
August 24th, 2011
good well i like it very much