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Do we look for Outliers

Do we look for Outliers

Only the Paranoid Survive. RIP, Andy Grove.

Do companies look at outliers? Do they look at others who are trying to do things differently? Most often not. They shut them out with one of the following reasons :
 

  • These guys are so small that they will never have substantial impact on the industry. Their methods work only when they are small. They can never scale up
  • These guys are not who we want to benchmark with. They are mavericks and their life span is limited. They will die
  • We believe in a certain history or tenure of performance. They have been around for a very short time
  • Our radar picks up only companies which are “direct competition”

 
Think about the disruptors of our times: Uber, Amazon, Apple, Google and others. Did their competitors consider them on their radar when they started? Most likely not.

I believe companies should have what is called “Peripheral vision”. The ability to understand and assimilate developments happening in the ecosystem around you. It means being curious and asking these questions:
 

  • What trends are shaping the marketplace? How is the customer evolving?
  • What is the future looking like? How will my industry look like 5-10-15 years from now?
  • What are interesting things people around are doing outside my industry? Can I adopt it
  • How will this affect me?

 

Understanding something like this requires constant curiosity, an ability to let go of dogmatic beliefs about business and humility to learn. On the 21 March 2016, Andy Grove, the former Chairman of Intel corporation died. A quote (and a book) of his summarizes what he believed in – Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive. This quote best exemplifies and implores people to look at Outliers and learn from them.

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