“Do not just do what you are good at” – A suggestion that is not like everyone\’s thinking, but is a direction that few individuals or businesses think about to make a breakthrough. As Professor Michael Porter of the prestigious Harvard University has advised everyone: “Focusing only on resources or knowledge and ignoring competitive position risks turning into frogs at the bottom of wells.” So why not just do what you\’re good at?
Truth “Higher mountains have higher mountains”
This truth is intended to affirm that even though a person is very good in one area, there will be many more outstanding people in that field. Take Bill Gates as an example: He was very good at mathematics in high school and he decided to study mathematics at Harvard University, after a year, he discovered an important thing, that if he continued to study mathematics, he would could not be number 1 because Bill\’s classmate had some math geniuses. So Bill Gates decided to move to computer science in the hope that this was a new industry that could become number 1 in this field. Although he did not spend a lot of time in the lecture hall, but instead founded his own company, Bill Gates\’ direction to IT helped him achieve remarkable success by owning a powerful Microsoft empire. and made him one of the richest men in the world.
In fact, in Vietnam, there are also many successful people not by focusing on what they are best at, but instead on focusing on different jobs. For example, Bach Thai Buoi is a good French person and used to work as Secretary of the Bonnet Ambassador in Trang Tien Street, Hanoi. However, he later decided to switch to a business without his own knowledge and experience. With his will and aspirations, he later succeeded in many new and potential businesses at that time, typically maritime, coal mining and printing.
Instead of being the best, be different
This is a business philosophy that has been affirmed by Professor Michael Porter in strategic planning. “The market is like a battlefield”, the competition is always very fierce, so positioning a different path in the market will help businesses create a competitive advantage and excel. Businesses need to find themselves a “void” in the market where the needs of a group of customers have not been met. This will help reduce direct competition, bring advantages for businesses such as creating a loyal customer base, increasing profit margins, thus achieving long-term success.
Apple is the example demonstrating successfully implementing a differentiation strategy with the familiar slogan: Think different. Many Apple products have created new trends and trends such as iPod, iPhone, Airpod, helping the company to own a huge loyal fan base and making technology lovers look forward to when new products are released. eye.
To focus on building a distinct competitive advantage, Professor Michael Porter advised that it is necessary to give up some areas and industries to focus on investing in products that are differentiated and effective. fruit high. For example, Nokia Company used to do business in many different industries, including car manufacturing, bicycle tires, footwear (including rubber boots), communication cables, and computer television. personal, contact information. However, in the 1990s, the company abandoned the non-Telecom industries and focused on making Nokia phones the dominant market at that time.
As can be seen, the “Do not just do what you are good at” is a new approach, but in fact has been successfully applied many times. On a personal or corporate level, even nationally, it is necessary to do things that competitors cannot do or do not as well, rather than do what we are good at, to be able to reduce the compete and achieve outstanding success.
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Read more articles to learn more about different approaches to governance from the book “Decoding East-West Strategies”.
