Indispensable: How to Become the Company That Your Customers Can't Live Without

Chapter 4. Back to the Six New Basics

Radical Today—Basic Tomorrow

What is considered a radically innovative idea today will be tomorrow's baseline expectation. I happen to think that there really aren't very many truly radical ideas or innovations out there. What we might call outside-the-box thinking in one industry is what's been done for years in another. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm a wholehearted believer in the cross-pollenization of ideas across industry lines. I also think that most of what is considered wildly innovative thinking is usually just a new interpretation of concepts that have been around for ages.

There will be those who read this book or almost any other business book and feel frustrated that there's nothing they consider brand new in it. I feel your pain. What interests me is how real-world businesses capture market share and create loyalty with their customers. We don't get hurt by what we don't know. We get hurt by what we know but don't do. It may not be new, but it may need to be newly applied by you in your particular business.

So let's take a look at some very basic ideas. The twist here is that, for many, the ideas may be presented in a way they haven't thought of before. If it makes you think, "I've never looked at it that way before. Hmmmm....Maybe in our company we could...," and it leads you to a new and more effective way of doing things, then we've accomplished a great deal. That's the whole purpose of this book—to take a new look at what ...