by Lionesses of Africa Operations Dept
Think what you like about him and his choice of design for his spaceship, or even his use of words on landing back on earth, but Jeff Bezos certainly had this right when he said:
“Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room.”
There is absolutely no doubt that in this he was totally correct. If you can get past the irony packed into that first sentence we should not forget that as far as ‘Brand Amazon’ is concerned, he and a few other titans of the business world have taken the word ‘brand’ to a whole new level. Is there anyone left in the western world who has not at some point in their lives bought something on Amazon, happily trusting the brand to deliver? And deliver they do, time and time again.
Of course a great product, fabulous and friendly staff, taking complaints seriously, and a massive potential market on your doorstep are the basics for a great business and to build a brand. But Trust, plus a bit of secret sauce that we shall come to later, is what drives your brand higher, turbo charging it to great heights. However, this takes time…
But what if you are a ‘newbie’ wanting to disrupt a comfy industry, is a Brand important? Surely being young, nimble, cheeky and cool is enough? The answer it seems depends on what industry you are trying to disrupt…
In the paper from INSEAD entitled: ‘Diseconomies of Time Compression’ by Karel Cool, Ingemar Dierickx and Luis Almeida Costa (see here), they look at this from the aspect of time vs energy in the form of investment in time, money and a load of other things that go into a business and most importantly, into disrupting or shoving off the top step a comfy incumbent.
They open this paper by stating that:
“Most resources are the cumulative result of a series of investments over a period of time. For example, a firm’s reputation for quality is the result of a consistent set of policies on production and quality control, a consistent investment in communication with customers, etc.”
Please note the highlighted parts -
“consistent”,
“consistent”
and
“over a period of time”
Ok, so no one said this was easy - but is that also not the basis of Trust? Consistency over a period of time.
The rest of the paper is highly technical with charts that should in our minds only appear in a deep scientific journal and should never have hit our desk. But the crux of what they had to say (and we can feel Cool, Dierickx and Costa squirming in fear as we switch into our over-simplification mode) is that no matter how much money you spend, no matter how much energy you put into overtaking the comfy incumbent, there is a huge advantage that this current occupier has. Huge. To such an extent that try as hard as you might, most disruptors will simply feel that all they are doing is pushing on a piece of string.
Sorry to all those out there who believe that simply by announcing they are going to disrupt an industry this makes it happen! Agreed we hear almost daily that “legacy companies are all doomed to fail unless they double down on the latest digital innovations, and disruptors are ordained to take over the world. Digital innovation is the answer to everything.” But as Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer, former big-company executive, and startup founder (so he’s serious in both the theory and the practical), Robert Siegel in his book, ‘The Brains and Brawn Company: How leading organizations blend the best of digital and physical’ (here), argues, "Incumbents are not doomed and disruptors are not ordained.” (listen to a great a16z podcast with him here)
Freek Vermeulen (professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at London Business School) in his article for the Harvard Business Review entitled ‘Stop Comparing Management to Sports’ (here) citing Dierickx and Cool, illustrates this as follows in a conversation between an English Lord and his American visitor:
“How come you got such a gorgeous lawn?” asks the American.
“Well, the quality of the soil, is, I dare say, of the utmost importance,” replies the lord.
“No problem.”
“Furthermore, one does need the finest quality seed and fertilizers.”
“Big deal.”
“Of course, daily watering and weekly mowing are jolly important.”
“No sweat, just leave it to me.”
“That’s it.”
“No kidding?! That’s it?!”
“Oh absolutely. There is nothing to it, old boy, just keep it up for five centuries.”
…and to think that we ever wondered why our parents read us the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare!
Of course that is not to say we can’t disrupt old industries - it is happening all the time. Indeed many of our inspirational Lionesses are doing just that, with one fabulous launch recently from our Legal Lionesses, the inspirational Claire and Sinal of pop.law who launched life.file. Alongside this they have been writing great articles opening wide the secret world of law and simplifying it for us mere mortals. Free information written with great humour in a simple style, draws us automatically to their business which in turn offers great value, legal assistance for all. Cutting out the ‘per hour’ costing, you get a straight up, clear as a bell, upfront stated fee. This for the legal industry is almost as shocking as a Magician revealing the tricks of his trade! We would strongly recommend all to have a look at the great articles they have written for their community of Lionesses (here), so you understand disruption if done well can work - but it ain’t easy, as the Magician will find out once he gets that call from the Magic Circle!
But how to work out if your disruption will work. Wake up one morning and decide to disrupt the construction industry by using Cardboard rather than globe-destroying-not-green-in-any-sense-of-the-word, Concrete, for bridge building? You may start to realize why the Ancient Romans insisted that the Chief Engineer of any huge archway would have to stand under it as the last stone was placed (possibly folklore - but makes a great deal of sense!) - this being the most important last wedged shaped stone (called ‘voussoirs’) from which all outward forces would hold the entire structure through an even distribution of weight. For example, the Roman built Alcántara bridge, still standing today, has huge voussoirs weighing up to eight tons each (see here) - so yes, you’d have to be pretty sure that this was going to work!
What Cool, Dierickx and Costa recognised was that if tasks within the industry have to be done in some form of sequence, then expect to invest far more in time and energy to disrupt or overtake the industry leader.
As they say: “This need to carry out activities in a particular order gives rise to time compression diseconomies: doubling the efforts over a particular period of time does not yield the same level of resources (success) as maintaining an effort of half the intensity over a period which is twice as long.” - as Freek Vermeulen explains - think of a child learning an instrument - 3 hours of practice on one day out of 6 is not nearly as productive as 30 minutes each day for 6 days. Given our own attention span, we would have to agree!
So if you have an industry with nothing in sequence, go for it!
Have an industry in sequence? You have to somehow beat that “early mover’s competitive advantage.” What is this secret sauce in addition to the extra money and effort you will have to put in? Because it is not just all about money and effort!
Turning once more to Freek Vermeulen in his HBR article ‘Stop Comparing Management to Sports’, (here), he points out that:
“At the end of the day, organizations are collections of people; this means that superior organizations need more effective ways for them to cooperate and work toward a common goal. As the famous management professor Henry Mintzberg noted: “Think of the organizations you most admire. I’ll bet that front and center is a powerful sense of community.”
Research backs this up. Several studies have examined the characteristics of resources that, over time (sorry, there it is again!), lead to superior performance. The conclusion of this stream of research is that these resources are usually intangible and community based, such as relationships, trust, culture, identity, or knowledge sharing. That is because, ultimately, competitive advantage comes from people, rather than products or patents.”
Just take a time to repeat those powerful words:
relationships,
trust,
culture,
identity,
knowledge sharing
- we believe these are all absolutely central to any community, but especially yours, The Lionesses of Africa.
This sense of community is important, indeed central to building a real brand, one that is instantly recognised and always respected. So start building your community now. Ask your employees and customers what they think of your company and what it stands for. Do not be afraid of the answers, bring them inside the tent with you, work with them to discover their thoughts, desires and needs. Show them your purpose in life, show them that you are true to yourself. Show them that you are consistent time and time again in what you do and what you say. This is how to build trust and this is how you build your community, which in turn builds your power to really build your brand.
Whether you are disrupting an industry that has nothing in sequence, or one that is always in sequence or even if you are just trundling along, not disrupting, but building a Brand — it is within your community, your community of employees, of customers, of shareholders, indeed, of your other 1.3 million Lionesses within this fabulous pan-African Community of yours that you will find your power to turbo charge your Brand and push aside all ahead of you. It is a super-power that all can grasp.
Please do not ignore this great opportunity.
Stay safe.