Why your Business should be an Ugly Potato...

I remember Brian Cox as the keyboard player in the 1990s band D:Ream - never liked them and therefore never really took him seriously either...

Turns out he's a rather good Physicist, knows his stuff, and seems to be a decent chap so in spite of the awful anthem "Things can only get better..." for which I have forgiven him, I count myself as an admiring fan...

One of the interesting things he talks about is the "Potato Radius" - in other words, the radius of an asteroid, rock, or lump of stuff floating in space that dictates whether the object will be a sphere* or shaped like a potato...

*if anyone reading this believes the Earth is a flat disc, please leave immediately and seek professional help...

Basically, when a lump of rock has a mean radius in excess of 300km the gravity exerted will tend to pull the potato into a ball or sphere - the bits that stick out are dragged to the surface ...

So everything in space that is bigger than a 300km radius will be a ball and below that they will be shaped like a potato...

So what does this have to do with you running your business...?

More than you can imagine...

First, let's look at some of the big Corporates - nothing against corporates, every capital city should have one but there is a problem...

For example - and without wishing to cause any offence to any of the fine people of Luxembourg who work within any of these fabulous companies - the Big Four...

In Luxembourg, we have PwC, Deloitte, EY, and KPMG - arguably four of the most successful Accounting, Auditing, and Advisory companies in the world...

I have colleagues and clients among their ranks, we have worked with them directly and had the privilege of not only parking in the visitor parking bays, but toured the offices and tasted the coffee too...

But...

What is the difference between them...?

Now I'm sure there will be a Mission Statement, Culture Document, or other such poster pinned on the wall in reception that will define a uniqueness, competitive advantage, or point of differentiation, but it doesn't show up to the outside world.

On the Kirchberg the workers at these, and other large companies can be seen scurrying to the office, cappuccino and cigarette in hand, all dressed in the same uniform...

So many navy blue suits, white shirts, and brown shoes...

From the outside these companies look and feel the same - they have got to a point above critical mass - or potato radius - that they have all become smooth perfectly formed spheres.

If someone walked into reception in a kilt, with a purple Mohican, full sleeve tattoos, and Dr Marten boots - they would stick out a mile, or rather 1.6km...

They have lost their irregularities, and become uniform, similar and regular, they have brand and momentum rather than reputation and relationships...

In the SME sector, we do not have the luxury of Brand - we have a reputation, we have to be different unique, and special in order to achieve competitive advantage in a crowded space, we have to be unique potatoes not uniform smooth spheres...

We have to be ugly, strange, and special to be different...

How to keep the Potato...?

There's a point at which a company changes from being the entrepreneurial exciting, unique, dynamic potato-shaped entity it started out as and starts to become a bland, boring, tasteless, vanilla, me-too ball...

The Potato Radius in our SME may be when a level or revenue is achieved, when the team gets to a certain size, when Lean and ISO9000 take over, or when the accountants have a seat on the board - it's different for every company, but you'll know it when it happens...

Or may also know it already has...

Here's how to avoid your unique Potato becoming mashed...

Stay Weird - in Telford, there's an HMV shop. Every time we are in the UK I go there to buy 5 random CD's (yes my car has a CD player...) Behind the counter, there's a fabulous group of weird people - and I mean that in a good way. They are helpful funny, slightly strange, and knowledgeable and they make the experience engaging and fun. Keep hiring unusual people, don't hire blue suits and brown shoes...

Go Teal - in the book Reinventing Organisations, Frederic Laloux describes the different stages and leadership styles of companies and organisations. Read the book and aspire to Teal - here's a video of Morning Star tomato processors in California explaining how they went Teal.

Focus on Service - be the best at service, it is your only shield in a fierce market. Be so good they can't ignore you. How do you know when you are dealing with a ball-shaped corporate - they put you on hold and have music playing after they tell you your call is important to them...

Create and Innovate - have fun, play, create, get things wrong, allow the introverts to speak, don't take yourselves too seriously, and engage in relationships with clients that extend beyond sending an invoice...

Keep your business ugly and potato-shaped - at least it's unique and special, and that is all we have...

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Come and see David live at his next workshop in the UK or Luxembourg...

• UK - Friday 23rd September - LINK
• Luxembourg - Friday 30th September - LINK