Edges are often fuzzy, but are where the action happens, in nature and in business.
At the edge, there is less homogeneity, more opportunity for the different and interesting to be seen, trialled, and if successful take hold. By contrast, in the ‘middle’ there is little but homogeneity. It is why large businesses have trouble with innovation, their model is to do the same thing repeatedly, optimising it continuously, removing the opportunity for the unusual and unexpected to influence the way things are done.
If you think about where the ‘edges’ are in your business, they seem to fall into three categories:
The technology edge: where the existing technical status quo bumps up against development happening elsewhere. These days this is remarkably common. I once found a simple Bill of Materials program based on MS Access for a client. It successfully managed his inventory, costs, and associated information in the form of a program designed to manage the recipes and inventory in a restaurant. It worked perfectly well in an entirely different environment; the names just needed some changing.
The customer edge. The point at which you initially interact with your new customers and engage with potential customers is an edge. The interpretation of your value proposition changes depending on the context, and the challenges faced by people inhabiting a niche you may not have seen or considered relevant.
The core/non-core edge. This is an ‘internal’ edge. What is seen by the leaders as core and what is non-core to a business. The debate about what is core, and what is non-core capabilities, and competitive advantage started by the outsourcing movement 30 years ago remains. Enterprises seek operational excellence and differentiation by innovation at the same time. Often these are mutually exclusive objectives. I have seen businesses move one way and then another, as the competitive environment around them evolves. It can be argued that we are on a significant inflection point in the core/non-core debate currently. Supply chains are being disrupted by climate change, Covid, increasing complexity and the resulting reduction of item invoice price as the determining factor, and the growing awareness of the value of sovereignty.
To find an ‘edge’ opportunity, ask yourself four simple questions, continuously, during the strategy development and review processes:
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- What are the challenges our different types of customers face?
- What could or should our solution include?
- Which of our capabilities may be useful elsewhere, and by who?
- Which of our assets would others value, and why?
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You might uncover something surprising that delivers a new lease on life.
