Follow the Celebrities

The book, Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne outlined a strategic planning methodology aimed at making the competition irrelevant. The methodology did not follow the traditional model of identifying how you compete within industry norms better than the competition, but rather, the aim was to disrupt the industry by thinking differently.

This model of strategy development conveniently plays to the entrepreneur’s inclination for creativity and harnesses the very skill which has seen the business launch and grow. Entrepreneurs; and this is a significant generalisation. In my experience, they get bored with the management and planning side of the business very easily unless you can make it appealing and interesting. Creating dynamic aspirations or what Jim Collins called “Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG’s) is a creative exercise, and like John F Kennedys “Moon-shot,” can make aspiration inspirational and somewhat tangible.

Whilst entrepreneurs have always existed in some form or another, the Brandz 2021 top 100 business by brand value shows that industry disrupters have never created more economic value than they have today. Business entrepreneurs and leaders have overtaken the corporate goliath and, curiously, have reached celebrity status beyond the boardroom. People like Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group, Elon Musk of Tesla and Space X, Geoff Bezos of Amazon and Larry Paige of Google have almost reached the popular culture status traditionally enjoyed by music and sporting celebrities.

The commonality of each of these entrepreneurs is they have executed a displacement strategy. A dramatic shift in creative thinking where industry norms have been shifted and new competitive spaces, like the birth of a star, have been formed. Often these organisations look like a faint glow in the sky as the person in the garage organises their creative thoughts, builds strategy and collects resources. At some point, the star emerges bright and dominant in the sky. “Where did that come from,” people say, yet it had been right above us the whole time. Agile and nimble, it has been beavering away until the day when it reaches enough mass and has coerced enough early adopters that it breaks through into the mainstream, and we notice.

Does your business strategy look to compete better in the industry that you know or like Bezos, Branson, Musk and Paige, are you creating a new industry and walking your own path?