Key Messages
How To Ditch The Farmer Mentality And Become A Hunter In Business
Getting ahead in today’s world means having the strength and courage to face whatever comes your way.
To do this, you must have the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in an uncertain market.
In Better and Faster: The Proven Path to Unstoppable Ideas, author Peter Diamandis explains how being a hunter instead of a farmer is the key.
He lays out strategies for developing the skill set needed – from embracing innovation and risk-taking to tapping into the power of creative thinking.
He also teaches readers how to identify opportunities in any industry, no matter how tedious it may seem at first glance.
For example, Red Bull’s branding strategy succeeds despite its taste; Volvo sells cars using their ugly look; and Blockbuster failed because they failed to keep up with changing times.
So take heed from those who have made it big by understanding the unchanging laws of game-changers: Adapt quickly or be left behind!
Get the knowledge and skills necessary for success with Better and Faster: The Proven Path to Unstoppable Ideas!
Avoid The Farmer Traps To Succeed In Business: The Lessons Of Smith Corona, Blockbuster, And Kodak
Business success is never guaranteed and it often eludes even the most savvy of leaders.
One of the main reasons for this is falling into any one (or all) of the three so-called ‘farmer traps’.
These traps come in the form of complacency, repetition and overprotectiveness.
When companies become complacent with their past successes, they fail to recognize that the marketplace is always changing.
As an example, Smith Corona, a leading typewriter manufacturer that assumed they were too strong to be threatened by market change failed to invest in semiconductor technology and eventually declared bankruptcy three years later due to intense competition from computer giants such as Acer.
Repetition can also be a huge downfall when it comes to business success.
Blockbuster Video was one such company– though they once boasted 9,000 locations and 60,000 employees, they lacked flexibility in adapting to the streaming market and went bankrupt just one year later because of their insistence on franchising physical media.
Awaken Your Hunter Instincts: How Complacency, Repetition, And Cautiousness Kill Your Dreams Of Success
If you want to succeed in business, it’s important to cultivate the hunter instincts: insatiability, curiosity, and willingness to destroy.
Take Capital One Bank for example – after the 2008 financial crisis, they poured their resources into innovation and experimentation that resulted in a billion-dollar portfolio of low-risk assets.
They embraced innovation which enabled them to survive while most other competitors suffered.
Ron Finley is another great example of this concept.
He was able to gain success with his Los Angeles neighborhood as an inspiration.
His entrepreneurial spirit drove him and made him successful in many fields such as fashion, urban gardening and social outreach.
Eric Ripert is also successful because he has maintained his three Michelin star rating for years by constantly throwing out old menus and embracing the new.
This is one way we can awaken our hunter instincts – by being insatiable readers of the horizon always searching for the next opportunity; by striving for knowledge and feeding our curious minds with new ideas; and lastly, by having the courage to take risks and destroy what no longer serves us so that we can embrace something new.
The Keys To Successful Business Models: Convergence And Divergence Strategies
If you want to stay ahead of the competition and create products and services that will resonate with customers, then it’s time to hone your hunter instincts: in Better and Faster, author Saras D.
Sarasvathy provides six patterns of opportunity that can help you identify new business models and products before anyone else does.
The first two of these patterns are Convergence and Divergence.
Convergence is about taking advantage of market chaos by combining trends – for instance, the iPhone fitness app ‘Zombies, Run!’ which merged GPS technology, fitness and the zombie trend.
Meanwhile, divergence requires a unique approach which stands out from mainstream offers – Red Bull being a classic example of this strategy by turning its less-than-palatable product into one of the most successful beverage brands on the planet through marketing creativity.
Whether you choose to pursue convergence or divergence (or both!), understanding these six patterns will give you invaluable insight into potential future business trends – so start studying today!
Achieving Success Through Cyclicality And Redirection: Harness The Power Of Momentum For Opportunity
Harnessing the power of momentum can give you a competitive advantage, and two ways to do this are by using cyclicality and redirection.
Cyclicality involves looking beyond the moment to anticipate future trends and knowledgeably taking advantage of these activities for things like retro appeal, nostalgia or economic cycles.
Instagram’s success is a great example; its vintage-like photos combined with social media photo-sharing allowed it to quickly become very popular.
Redirection, on the other hand, focuses on changing your product in order to match trends or behaviors, such as turning negatives into positives and inspiring more desire for it.
Volvo was able to successfully use their slogan of “They’re boxy but they’re good” to draw attention to their car’s safety features and ultimately increase sales.
So if you’re looking for an edge on your competition, consider harnessing the power of momentum through techniques like cyclicality and redirection!
Reduction And Acceleration: Two Proven Opportunity Patterns For Becoming A Better Innovator And Investor
The key to success in the market is to tap into two patterns of opportunity: reduction and acceleration.
Reduction involves targeting niche audiences with a simplified product or service that stands out due to its extreme simplicity.
By stripping away all the complex layers of existing products, you can create value and carve out success in small markets.
An example of this is GoPro, which used crowdsourcing and localization to become wildly popular due to its two-button design and wide-angle camera.
Acceleration relies on perfecting, exaggerating, reimagining or repositioning key product features as a way of differentiating yourself from the competition.
This can be done by identifying an important feature of an existing product or business concept and then enhancing it dramatically.
For instance, Dyson created the most powerful vacuum on the market when they refined their device with 5,127 prototypes.
Through these two strategies – reduction and acceleration – it’s possible to find a specific market niche so you can effectively become a better innovator, decision-maker, and investor.
Hunt For Your Big Business Idea By Combining The Six Patterns Of Opportunity And Forecasting Future Trends
Finding a successful business idea starts with identifying your “hunting ground” and focusing on narrowing down specific opportunities.
This means familiarizing yourself with the six patterns of opportunity, and then looking for a cluster of products, services or concepts that share a similar approach.
You should look beyond just similar products that are immediately available in your industry to uncover clever solutions to the same goal and create something truly unique.
For instance, when it comes to the fashion industry, looking further outside of simple pop-up stores can give you ideas like Karl Lagerfeld’s double business store combining art gallery and fashion merchandise.
Or firms like Zara and H&M have achieved success by providing consumers more choices and speeding up their production process to get newly-designed items into stores quickly.
By applying convergence to the fashion industry, we can even already predict what will trend in the future such as wearable technology and 3D printed clothing.
Tracking all these changes and capitalizing on them is key for creating a successful business idea in any given industry.
That’s why the important first step is picking out this “hunting ground” by isolating which market best fits what you’re offering, reframing it to make it special, forecasting trends before they actually happen, understanding how people react to different desires in that particular market as well as staying current while always looking ahead so you can be ahead of competition.
Wrap Up
The final takeaway from Better and Faster is that you have to embrace change in order to be successful in today’s chaotic and unpredictable marketplace.
To do this, you need to awaken your inner hunter and exploit patterns of opportunity so that you can adapt quickly and thrive.
One such pattern of opportunity is cyclicality, where you can take advantage of four simple takeaways: expect repetition, act quickly, anticipate the certainty of evolution, and look beyond what other already see.
By following these takeaways, you can unlock hidden opportunities and gain a competitive edge over those who aren’t paying attention.
