Excellence Isn’t Enough

A car is a car, but a BMW is a driving machine. There is the iPad, and then there are products generically called ‘tablets’. And why the premium on bags with the easily recognisable Gucci logo? Sameness we forget. Distinctiveness we remember, pay more for and tell others about. Success isn’t about being excellent, good or even great. It’s about being distinctive.

Excellence used to be the goal of every successful business. Today it isn’t enough and here’s why:

Excellence is relatively easy to accomplish – A good copycat watches what the industry leader is doing and then does the same things. If you’re only excellent, you’re vulnerable.

Excellence is a moving target – Today’s ‘excellent’ can be next month’s ‘mediocre’. In a competitive market, the trend is always towards better, so excellence can never be something you attain with finality.

The more excellent you become, the more demanding your customers become – A customer’s expectations increase over time based on previous experience. Getting better drives customer expectations up.

In essence, the biggest problem with excellence is that it isn’t distinctive. The killer marketplace strategy is to be distinctive: to go beyond excellent to offer something distinct and unique to your company. That way if customers ever go someplace different, they’ll miss the distinction you represent and return.

So what are the marks of distinction?

There are several things common to all companies who achieve distinction. They are: engaged people, involved customers, perpetual innovation and strategic execution.

Engaged people

Engagement is about focus, passion, attention and intention. Engaged employees are involved with their work and are compelled to do it with panache. The challenge is to get people as engaged about their work as they are about their outside interests and hobbies. Engaged people work smarter, serve better and come up with new ideas.

To have fans, you need involved customers. Involvement creates ownership and passion.

Involved customers give feedback – And you listen

They make suggestions – And you take note

They ask questions – And you answer

They tell others – And you enter into the conversation

Today, the old adage might no longer be true: no news may not be good news. No news from those who buy and use your products probably means they aren’t involved.

Perpetual innovation

This includes both incremental and revolutionary improvements. The status quo is a myth. You’re either getting better or you’re getting worse. Innovation must be applied to everything: operations, products and even how we think and lead.

Strategic execution

Business dominance isn’t about how much you know, but how well you apply and execute what you know. It’s a matter of IQ. That doesn’t stand for ‘intelligence quotient’ but rather ‘implementation quotient’, and that is the difference between common knowledge and consistent application.

The future will be anything but boring. As business leaders, you will have plenty of challenges. Just make sure you get serious about pursuing and developing distinction.

By Mark Sanborn
Published with permission from the International Institute of Directors and Managers (IIDM) – www.iidmglobal.com

Proteus Leadership is one of Australia’s premier leadership training and development companies. Proteus Leadership provides leadership courses and management training to a range of industries and assists organisations to build positive workplace cultures, implement change and Create Great Leaders. Proteus also facilitates a range of world-class management courses, workshops, conferences and events across Australia and beyond with the sole purpose of bringing leaders together to connect and grow.

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